Planning migration steps from Server to Cloud

[vthomas9]

Hi  - 

I am planning the steps to execute our migration from Server to Cloud. I read through the docs and have drafted this step-by-step migration plan.   

Is this the correct order to do these steps? Am I missing any? 

What have other people done?

Thanks,

Virginia T.

Migration workflow

1. Do the pre-migration checklist items, as needed.

   1. JCMA pre-migration checklist

   2. CCMA pre-migration checklist

2. Schedule the migration day and request Atlassian support to be available.
3. Migrate users to the Cloud. 
   1. Atlassian recommends migrating users and groups before data using JCMA and CCMA.
   2. Assess users any time before migration.  Every user must have both a valid and unique email address.
   3. Verify domain.
4. Setup user groups, as needed.
5. Setup email.  Can this be done ahead of time?  How to do it
6. If using Atlass Access, set this up before migrating data.
7. Configure Jira cloud:
   1. Assign icons to issue types.
8.  Migrate JIra attachments ahead of time.  
   1. How long will this take? 
   2. Should it be done after hours?
9. Migrate Confluence attachments ahead of time.
   1. How long will this take? 
   2. Should it be done after hours?
10. Migrate Jira using JCMA
    1. How long will this take?
    2. Should it be done after hours?
11. Migrate Confluence using CCMA
    1. How long will this take?
    2. Should it be done after hours?
12. Post-migration. Fix broken links w/ help from Atlassian Support.
13. Invite users to the Cloud.
    1. Send verification email to users.
14. Done! Relax!

[Dwight Holman]

From a 'big picture' perspective, your checklist seems ok. But you don't mention if you have:

• Checked what is migrated - and what is NOT - notably:
  • Some workflow features are not migrated
  • Project avatars
  • Issue type icons
  • Global Permissions
  • Some App Data
  • Filter subscriptions
  • Dashboards
  • ...
• Done a test migration to:
  • Verify your data is migrated ok. And understand what is missing.
  • Check your 3rd party apps on Server are available in Cloud.
  • Identify post migration setup required for Cloud to meet your needs.
  • Identify how long the process will take.
  • Prepare a detailed (step-by-step) run-plan. My checklist is about 20 pages.
• Explored the Cloud products to understand the differences. They Confluence and Jira Cloud are different products with the same names. I recommend doing this after a test migration - using production data.
• Engaged your users or leadership so they understand the change and the increased operating cost.
• Training or briefings for your users - the Cloud products are similar but different.

Atlassian and others in the community with migration experience would all say you MUST run test migrations, as part of your preparation. Do not assume that this will 'just work'.

Any estimations of the time you might take to prepare and execute a Cloud migration is just a guess.

For anyone that has not started the process yet - your starting assumption should be that the migration process will fail (or not be perfect), and that you have some problems to solve.

It is very likely you will need to reach-out to Atlassian or your app vendors for assistance.

[vthomas9]

@Dwight Holman 

Thanks for the wealth  of info.  And yes, we have done many of the steps you mention, e.g., reviewed what is and isn't migrated and have started a test phase. 

We are planning to test migrating everything to the Sandbox to gauge how long it takes, and other gaps and to identify the post-migration fixes, e,g., links! 

We have already run small test migrations, small projects and spaces. We whittled down to one 3rd party add-on, Easy Agile by TeamRhythms. Need to test this migration.  

Have you completed your migration to Cloud? Did you have Atlassian support on the day/night of your migration?

A 20 page runbook is quite large. You must have a large and complex migration with many  users and apps? 

Virginia T

[Dwight Holman]

@vthomas9 

Good to hear you're testing :-)

No we have not migrated to Cloud yet. Based on our tests I do not expect weekend support from Atlassian would be required, but YMMV.

We have been waiting for Atlassian fixes to ensure our data is migrated correctly. We also want a custom domain, and given this is coming soon we have decided to wait.

The length of our migration run-plan is mostly due to the level of detail - covering each step, and because we have two apps that require manual data migration.

D

[vthomas9]

@Dwight Holman 

Did you  setup Cloud sandboxes for Jira and Confluence for testing? If so, how? I have created a Jira sandbox but cannot create a Confluence sandbox in the cloud. 

[Dwight Holman]

The Sandbox feature is only available for Premium and Enterprise subscriptions tiers - which we are not using. Disappointing that Atlassian don't offer this free to all customers trying to migrate to Cloud.

If available to you; mange sandboxes via Cloud Admin > Products > Sandbox.

Instead of using sandboxes, our migration testing has been done from Server to the Production environment we plan to use post-migration. We decided early-on that we would migrate everything in one go - and our instance is small enough to execute this in under 24h (over a weekend).

After a few failed attempts we concluded it is important full delete/wipe the Cloud instance after each migration - to ensure the process is repeatable.

D

[Rodney Hughes]

My answer ... 

step 1 .. don't do it unless your users understand a lot of Confluence features, functions and tools they used in Server won't be available in Cloud or not as usable as they were in Server.