Outdated Jira Server to Cloud migration

[Evgeniy Makarov]

Hello.

Hello. I would like to migrate our Jira installation to Jira cloud. Installation is not too big, here some information

Attachments	16081
Comments	48646
Components	158
Custom Fields	31
Groups	38
Issue Security Levels	2
Issue Types	12
Issues	23670
Priorities	4
Projects	20
Resolutions	9
Screen Schemes	63
Screens	87
Statuses	24
Users	179
Versions	1228
Workflows	9

Active users actually about 25, and i want to migrate only active users.

What would be the best approach to make this reality considering that version of Jira Software is outdated: JIRA Software 7.1.4 ?

Thank you

[Taiwo Ojo - Alluvium · Accepted solution]

@Evgeniy Makarov you already have two good answers;

1. If you wish to do the migration, you will need to upgrade your Jira version to v7.6 and above, that way you can install Atlassian's plugin for migration - Jira Cloud Migration Assistant (JCMA).
   • Note that, once you have JCMA, you still need to decide if you should migrate project by project or all at once If you are going to a brand new cloud site while you must go a project at a time if your site already has data that you wish to keep. 
2. Migration can be challenging if you have never done it before, it doesn't mean you cannot do it however, sometimes, you can get better value by either having an expert do it, or do it with their support. This is where Atlassian's Solution Partners come in.
   • You are sure to find the right partner for your location, project size/budget, and long term support.

Ultimately you need to consider how to migrate Users and Group, Jira data (everything on your table above + filters and dashboards), Attachments, Plugins and any integrations. Not forgetting that you also need to plan and implement an upgrade before the migration.

All that said, Let me answer your question about the approach for migrating only active users; 

Users - you have 179 users, 25 are active and you wish to only migrate your active users and wish to know how to do this. 

1. If you only migrate active users? Users carry with them the ownership of their Jira objects and history of their Jira activities like issues they created, comments they made of issues. Even when a colleague has left a team or company, there are reasons why you may want to preserve their history within Jira, not least for audit trail. To migrate only active users may mean migrating to cloud without reference the former users which may make it harder to quickly tell who did what when?
2. Do you need to migrate only your active users? Some customers seek to only migrate active users because they are worried about security and license, let me touch on these;
   1. Security - when you migrate from self hosted to Cloud, inactive user should migrate without access. You should see their name or email address with (deactivated) after it. These accounts should not have product access with means the cannot get in to nor see what is in your cloud site (unless publicly available - that's another topic)
   2. License count - While it is good news that no product access mean the 'inactive' user accounts cannot enter your new Cloud site, it also means you do not pay a license for these accounts.
   3. Change in corporate user policy - another reason some customers do not like to bring inactive accounts is because they inactivated those accounts to duplicate these accounts into a new domain or want to have only one domain or only their AD UPN attributes come in etc. In this case, you may be better off doing a consolidation of the active accounts so you don't have double work to retrieve the old account history or lose it
   4. There are a number of other reasons but these three are most common in my experience
3. How to migrate only your active users?;
   1. Consolidate the inactive user accounts into one generic account.
   2. Delete inactive users from your self hosted environment if using a local or delegated directory or remove upstream if using an active directory. I do not advice that you do this unless you must and you know what you are doing.
   3. Migrate all users then delete in/from Cloud site (or from AD if SCIM provisioning). Again, I do not advice this unless you know what you are doing and you must do it.
4. Important:
   1. The uniques user identifier and key attribute of a user account in cloud is the email address. All accounts must have a unique email address to migrate to Cloud. 
   2. Plan your migration and draft your plan and runbook
   3. Communicate your plan and the coming change widely and often
   4. Do at lease one test migration (do as many as you need)
   5. Update your runbook (including issues and resolutions/workarounds)
   6. Do a UAT migration (where you allow power users and other stakeholder to validate your migration). Encourage feedback and incorporate feedback into your runbook
   7. If you can, do one more migration - the aim is to have a near perfect migration end to end based on everything you now know and UAT feedback
   8. Then, Do it for real

Welcome to the group and Good luck

PS: If any of the above raised further questions please feel free to ask. And also feel free to ask about any other aspect of the migration that you may be unsure about.
If you would like a call to discuss this real time, I will be happy to help too.

[Evgeniy Makarov]

Thank you for this comprehensive answer.

I guess deleting inactive users from the Cloud may be good solution, because as i can see in objects information about these users still remains even after deleting particular user from our organization.

[Vijay Shanmugam]

Hi,

Upgrade Jira to 7.6 and above so that you can install JCMA to migrate the Jira data to cloud instance.

[Evgeniy Makarov]

Since upgrade is only possible with active maintenance license, how can we do it? Trial Datacenter license is applicable to our installation and will allow us to upgrade to at least Jira 7.6 ? Thank you

[Vijay Shanmugam]

Hi,

Yes you can apply trial DC license. Let me know if you need any further help!

Here is my linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-shanmugam-30b705147

[Hans Polder _Devoteam_]

@Evgeniy Makarov ,

As every setup is different, for most migrations it's recommended to use the help of one of the Solution Partners (find them here: https://partnerdirectory.atlassian.com/).

[Sjaa]

Hi Evgeniy,

I agree with Vijay. Other than custom fields it all seems pretty bread and butter. If you upgrade to utilise the migration assistant, this will be very straight forward. I suggest you familiarise yourself with the migration process and then run a few tests into your new instance. 

The last time I check all these links were active.

Server to Cloud migration guide | Atlassian 

Cloud Adoption Toolkit | Atlassian  

access strategic, technical, and domain experts

Migration Resources 

is a jump off point for migration tools, educational resources, and migration training.

Cheers mate and happy migrating,

Sjaa.

[OpsHub - Enterprise class Integration and Migration Solutions for Jira]

Hi @Evgeniy Makarov

I believe by Jira Server; you mean Jira Data Center. If yes, then there are multiple ways to migrate or copy the Jira Server to the Cloud with the help of JCMA or Atlassian partner. You may refer to an article on the Atlassian community that walks through the key considerations before migrating to Jira Data Jira Cloud, the benefits of migration, getting started and choosing the right migration approach for a successful migration in detail:

• Benefits: Improved ROI, compliance, scalability, and access to the latest features.
• Getting Started: Assess your readiness by considering downtime, security, user training, and integration with other systems.
• Preparing to Move: Back up your data, review user permissions, clean up unnecessary data, and assess the compatibility of your current tools.
• Choosing a Migration Approach: Jira Cloud Migration Assistant (JCMA) for simple migrations, manual migration for small instances with experienced teams, or third-party migration tools for complex projects.
• Post-Migration Analysis: Monitor performance, optimize workflows, maintain security, and seek feedback for improvement.

However, your current Jira version is somewhere old 7.1.4, If you want to go with JCMA, then an upgrade to your instance is needed to version 7.6 or later.

But yes, it is possible to migrate from version 7.1.4 to the cloud with OpsHub, an Atlassian Silver Partner that supports Data Center version from 5.x to 10.x and Jira Cloud. Our tool supports All System & Custom Issue Types, Sub-Task Types, Versions and Work-log. Our key functionalities are we offer zero downtime that will ease your migration process with support of throttling and optimal API Calls to maintain performance with robust recovery support.

The only prerequisite for the migration is to have one user (dedicated migration user) in the Jira server to read data. As we are already in the Integration and Migration industry for a very long time, we can also help you to migrate Projects, fields, Users and some other areas.

Take a look at Atlassian Partner Directory where OpsHub successfully executed Jira migrations.
Feel free to get in touch.

Hope this helps!