Test your migration to cloud

When you're planning a migration from Server or Data Center to Cloud, we strongly recommend performing a trial run before migrating. Testing your migration will help you:

1. Establish a clearer timeline for your live migration, including any expected downtime.

2. Validate the data and run User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

3. Prepare for your launch and develop onboarding communications.

4. Identify possible bugs and the steps needed to resolve them before the actual migration.

In this guide, we'll outline how to conduct a test migration for Jira or Confluence, including best practices and what to test for.

Before you begin

Check this information before you start.

Review the planning guide

A well-planned migration is a successful migration. Before starting your testing, take the time to review our migration guide. It will walk you through the key phases and considerations for each step. Learn more about the Cloud migration guide

Choose your migration method

There are a number of migration methods. Before testing, you’ll need to compare these and choose the one that’s best for you. Learn more about Cloud migration methods

Check your Cloud organization

We’ve been rolling out changes that may affect your migration experience. From your organization at admin.atlassian.com, if the Users list and Groups list are under the Directory tab, you have the improved user management experience. This means that the users and groups across sites will be merged under the organization.

How testing works

If you've completed your pre-migration checks, you're ready to go.

Here's an overview of the basic steps we recommend to test your migration and prepare for your production migration:

1. Clean up your data

2. Sign up for your Cloud site

3. (Optional) Set up Atlassian Guard Standard

4. Perform the test migration

5. Review your data and conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

6. (Optional) Reset your test site

7. Create your migration runbook

8. Develop your change-boarding and launch plan

Step 1: Clean up your data

The more data you migrate, the longer and more complex your migration is likely to be. Because of this, we recommend taking the time to clean house, so to speak, before running your test migration. This can result in a smoother migration, fewer performance issues, and even productivity gains once in Cloud. Learn more about cleaning up your instance.

Step 2: Sign up for your Cloud site

If you haven’t already, now’s the time to sign up for a Cloud site. You'll need to decide if you want to perform your test to a trial site or to your production site. 

If you decide to use a trial site you can:

• activate your free Cloud migration trial

• set up a standard 7 day trial (this will revert to a Free plan after the trial) 

If you’re using a Cloud migration trial, we recommend choosing or upgrading to an Atlassian Cloud Premium or Enterprise plan so you can test your migration in a sandbox environment. Keep in mind that you may see additional features in this testing environment as both Premium and Enterprise plans have more features than a Standard plan.

Learn more about sandbox testing environments

Step 3 (optional): Set up Atlassian Guard Standard

Atlassian Guard Standard offers Cloud security and user management features including SAML SSO, user provisioning (SCIM), enforced two-factor authentication and audit logs. It works across all your Atlassian Cloud products and domains so you can manage users and security policies in one simple place. 

If you're planning to use Atlassian Guard Standard in Cloud, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial before beginning your test migration to get SSO set up for all users and test out user provisioning and audit logging. If you need more than 30 days, contact our support team.

Learn more about Atlassian Guard

Step 4: Complete the pre-migration checklist

Run through the pre-migration checklists before starting your test migration to ensure you and your data are ready to go:

• Jira pre-migration checklist

• Confluence pre-migration checklist 

Step 5: Perform the test migration

Now you're ready to test your migration.

For Jira and Confluence Cloud Migration Assistants

Migrating data

Follow the instructions outlined on the following pages:

• Migrate data with the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant

• Migrate data with the Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant

Deleting data when re-migrating

If you need to test your migration multiple times, you'll need to manually delete any data you're planning to re-import. This is because the migration assistant does not currently overwrite data that already exists in your Cloud site. There are two ways to delete your data:

1. Delete all data from your Cloud site

2. Delete an individual space or delete an individual project

After deleting the data, you can re-run your test migration.

Step 6: Review your data and conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

After migrating, review your Cloud site to validate that everything is working as expected. 

General data review

In general:

• check your links to other content are working, for example, Confluence pages linked to Jira issues

• check if application links to other Server or Data Center products may need to be reconfigured. If they do, after re-configuring them, re-test the functionality to ensure the integration works as expected. Learn more about application links

• check that any apps or app data you've migrated is working as expected

• test integrations with other products, like Jira, Confluence, or Bitbucket

• take screenshots and document changes between your Server/Data Center and Cloud sites for any training or communications you plan to deliver during the migration and post-launch

Data review for Jira

When reviewing Jira data:

• check your workflows are working as expected. You may, for example, have post functions that rely on third-party apps that aren't migrated. You may find they aren't working in Cloud but continue to work on your Server or Data Center site. 

• use the product and create test data - test things like creating a new project, creating and editing issues, and uploading attachments

• run the Jira macro repair and verify whether it fixed any broken macros

Data review for Confluence

When reviewing Confluence data:

• check your attachments have imported correctly

• check that any apps or app data you've migrated is working as expected. Any macros that rely on third-party apps may be broken, for example, Gliffy Diagrams. If this is the case, check with the app vendor if it's possible to fix them.

UAT and change management best practices

We also advise conducting UAT, or having some end users replicate common day to day tasks using the test site. This will not only help you catch any unexpected issues but can help your organization prepare for change.

Who needs to be involved

This varies for every organization, but a few options to consider include testing with:

• members of a specific team

• a combination of power-users and less frequent users

• an appointed member of each team that will be moving to your Cloud site

Consider as well who has the bandwidth and ability to provide clear and constructive feedback. Generally speaking, you want to ensure that every major user type or role that will be using your Cloud site is invited to provide input.

What to test for

Take note of any issues users have as they get used to the things that may change as a result of your migration, including:

• new features

• a new user interface

• different apps

• new URLs and changing bookmarks

• differences in user administration

Product-specific recommendations:

For Jira: 

• test things like creating sprints, adding issues to backlogs, and viewing boards

For Jira Service Management (formerly Jira Service Desk): 

• ask agents to view queues, check their portal view, and any other common activities

For Confluence: 

• have users try creating a new space, creating and editing pages, and uploading attachments

Record any areas of confusion or changes to functionality, since you may want to include these in any pre-launch or onboarding communications and training you provide. 

Step 7 (optional): Reset your test site

In some cases, you may need to delete the data from your Cloud site and start again – for example, if you used your production instance to test, or need to re-run your tests.

Learn how to reset and delete data from your Cloud site

Step 8: Create your migration runbook

Migration runbooks are a step-by-step procedural guide for what you need to do to complete your migration. Creating one can help your production migration run smoothly and according to plan.

Your runbook should include things like each step in the process, any instructions needed for those steps, who will complete them, and how long they’re expected to take.

Step 9: Develop your change-boarding and launch plan

After testing, you should have a good idea of what major changes your users can expect as a result of your move. Now's the time to prepare any training, documentation or communications your users will need to get back to work quickly. 

Keep in mind as you put this together you'll want to highlight not only what's changing, but why – as well as how your users will benefit from the move.

Some common benefits for users include:

• access to free Cloud mobile apps

• the ability to take work anywhere, and access it quickly and securely - no more VPN required

• better integrations with other SaaS tools and cloud apps

Learn how to get your users started in Cloud

More information and support

We have a number of channels available to help you with your migration.

• for more migration planning information, visit the Atlassian Migration Program website

• for technical issues or support with strategy and best practices, contact our support team

• for peer advice, ask the Atlassian Community

• for expert guidance, work with an Atlassian Partner