JIRA Server to Cloud Migration

Tim Gerdin April 6, 2016

We are have an on prem server with a couple hundred projects.  We also have JIRA cloud with 20-30 newer projects.  We would like to migrate a number of the on prem JIRA projects to cloud.  I have read through the migration documentation (https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiracloud/importing-issues-from-jira-server-applications-776636788.html) and have some questions.
1) The documentation states “This import procedure overwrites all the existing data and configuration in JIRA cloud applications and cross-application settings”.  Does this mean that if we import the on prem projects that the existing 20-30 projects in cloud will be lost?
2) Is there anyway to migrate a single project to cloud or is this a all or nothing migrations per the documentation?
3) What would happen if we migrated the issues, but did not migrate attachments/avitars/logos?  Would the projects and issues be available, but the avitars/logos would not appear and the attachment links would not work?
Thanks,
Tim 

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Maren
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 25, 2019

Hi all,

Maren here from Atlassian. I wanted to give a quick update to help point people in a similar situation towards the right resources.

To answer some of the questions asked: 

1) The documentation states “This import procedure overwrites all the existing data and configuration in JIRA cloud applications and cross-application settings”.  Does this mean that if we import the on-prem projects that the existing 20-30 projects in the cloud will be lost?

Answer: Yes, the current site import functionality overwrites the existing data on your cloud site. A possible workaround is to migrate to a new, clean cloud site, delete any data you don't want, and then merge the two cloud sites together

2) Is there any way to migrate a single project to cloud or is this an all or nothing migrations per the documentation?

Answer: As Boris mentioned, Jira Cloud doesn't currently support project-by-project migration, only full site import - although we are working on resolving that. You can find the documentation for that hereHowever, since this is a popular request, we do have an article outlining a potential workaround, however, it's important to note this is not officially supported by Atlassian.

3) What would happen if we migrated the issues, but did not migrate attachments/avatars/logos? Would the projects and issues be available, but the avatars/logos would not appear and the attachment links would not work?

Answer: Yes, you would still have the projects and issues but anything not imported will not be available in your new site. 

4) Our client has a server app, how does this affect migration?

Answer: App data is not typically included in the backup when migrating from Jira Server to Jira Cloud. Some apps do have the capability to export and import their data but you'll need to check with the app developers or their documentation to confirm if this is possible.

Zephyr is available as both a cloud and server app, however, you will need to work with the app developer to plan your migration strategy or understand what options are available. 

Keep in mind that while Atlassian’s cloud and server products provide the same benefits – planning, tracking, collaboration, code repository management, and more – they can differ in features and functionality. In some cases, you may discover that the cloud version of a product includes functionality that is fulfilled through an app on server. Learn more about Atlassian cloud and server apps.

More resources

For more info to help you decide if moving from server to cloud is a good option for you, check out our Atlassian Cloud Migration Center. For Jira-specific advice, check out:

Hope this helps, and please don't hesitate to reach out with questions. 

2 votes
Boris Georgiev _Appfire_
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April 6, 2016

Hi Tim,

JIRA Cloud supports only full system import and does not support single project import.

So in short what you need to do is:

  1. Backup you current cloud instance 
  2. Download the backup and restore it to a temporary on-prem instance
  3. Use the JIRA Project Import to import the projects you want to the temporary instance
  4. Take a full backup of the temporary instance and upload it to the cloud server
  5. Restore the cloud instance from the uploaded backup which contains the merged data

There are more things to consider like (but not limitted to)

  • Are your on-prem instance projects using add-ons not available for cloud
  • Do you need to migrate JIRA Agile configuration/data
  • Do you need to migrate Service Desk configuration/data
  • Are all the users/groups from the on-prem instance actually using the projects available on the cloud instance and if the user/group names are the same

 

 

mlassau_atlassian
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April 14, 2016

What Boris said.

One other thing is that during this process, you don't want users coming in to the Cloud system and changing data, because they will lose edits after you import back at step 5.

If you have a small team, maybe you can just communicate this, but with a bigger team I would do something else ... eg Lock down all the project permissions to give no-one any editing permission (read-only) or even give them no permission at all.

Bojana Vasic September 21, 2017

Hi,

Our client has JIRA + JIRA Agile and Zephyr for JIRA – test management for JIRA (Server) 100 users, and their licenses expired two years ago.

They want to migrate from their server to the cloud solution and before they can do that they need to upgrade to the latest version of Jira Software first, before they can migrate to the cloud solution.

I’m wondering how this impacts the Zephyr for JIRA add-on? Do they need to upgrade the add-on first before migration or?

Many thanks!

BR,

Bojana
 

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Muhammad Akram Sharifi May 15, 2021

Posting the Answer for this post I know its too late to reply but maybe it will be useful for someone

1-download Cloud Migration assistant on your Jira server.

2- make a migration from server.

3- chose your migration name, cloud destination

4- chose the list of the projects you want to migrate them to cloud

5- chose users and groups related to the projects, and check the migrate users and groups saperately.

6- continue to error check, if any user or project key or email show in error list remove them from your server.

7-continue to migrate

this process will take approximately 4-5 hours. nothing will be override.  

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