How to Migrate Jira Server to Jira Cloud?

Cloud hosting is not something extra new to our world and its popularity constantly increases. Many users think that the Cloud is our future and name numerous advantages. Jira also provides Cloud hosting which in recent years has grown to become the most popular hosting platform for Jira. Every year, more companies decide to move away from the legacy server version to the cloud and it comes really handy that Jira has a built-in migration functionality. Jira gives a possibility for users to migrate data from Jira Server to Jira Cloud. The migration process is really easy and straightforward and we want to share with you a short Jira migration guide.

Pre – Migration Stage

Before the start, you need to determine a few key factors:

Choose a Migration Method :

The Jira Cloud Migration Assistant
Jira Cloud site import

The first option is very comfortable as Atlassian provides its own native app – assistant which helps to move Jira projects and users to the Cloud. But, it can be used if you migrate only Jira Core or Jira Software.

The next method is suitable for Jira Service Desk and instances with lots of custom data. This method we will describe below. But, before we start, users need to check a few more things:

You need to have a Jira Cloud instance where data will be migrated
Check if your Jira Server is upgraded and doesn’t have failed upgrade tasks

Server to Cloud Migration with the Help of the Jira Site Import

After the abovementioned steps, we may proceed with the migration itself. First of all, the administrator needs to Back up Jira Server Database. This action will back up the database in a portable XML format. If you have Jira Core, Software and Service Desk in one site, the backup will save all of the project types.

The user needs to have a Jira System Administrators permission
Choose the Settings menu > System
Go to Import & Export > Backup System. Type a File name for your back up file
Click the Backup button and wait until your data is processed. The backup will be saved as a zipped XML archive file which can be found in the Jira application home directory
You will receive a confirmation letter when the backup is complete.

Import Server Database back up into Jira Cloud.

Move to your Cloud instance and log in. User should have site-admin permission.
Choose the Settings menu > System
Go to Import & Export >Select Restore system, choose between 2 options concerning users
Click Import data. Select ZIP file you downloaded and wait until import is complete on the progress page.

After the successful import, grant and review your Users group access, because imported data won’t automatically apply the default application access settings or grant access to new users due to security measures.

Choose the Settings menu > User Management
Go to Site settings section > Product access
Select Review imported groups and confirm the groups’ access. Do not forget to add yourself to Jira groups, as due to security measures, the person who conducted the migration itself also needs to be added back to their previous groups in Groups or Users sections.

That’s it! The Migration process is complete and you may proceed to work with your new Jira Cloud instance.

How it Will Affect Your Apps?

Users are also hugely interested whether they can also export their add-ons with the server instances. The answer is: add – ons cannot be migrated. But If the app stores the information within Jira instance and add-on is available for both Jira Server & Jira Cloud, there is a high probability, you’ll be able to get your apps up & running them relatively easy.

For example, let’s take a look at ActivityTimeline. You can be sure that the data will be saved and moved into your new Cloud instance accordingly. As we can see, this app is using Jira Custom Fields, meaning all the information is preserved within Jira instance itself and users will be able to restore this information easily.

Here is how you can do it: after you imported your data to a new instance, just find ActivityTimeline in your “Find new apps” filed in Jira and set it up into your new instance.

ActivityTimeline uses Jira custom fields, that’s why after a little configuration main data will be restored. Just go to Configuration Menu > Jira Integration > Advanced Configuration. Choose your Jira custom fields from the drop-down menu and all issues with these custom fields will be migrated.