Migration using Jira Cloud Migration Assistant (JCMA)

With the Atlassian JCMA tool, you can migrate selected projects or divide the migration process into a few stages. It is possible to:

Migrate Jira On-premise and the BigPicture plugin to Jira Cloud.

IMPORTANT! After migration, BigPicture from Jira On-premise will overwrite data in BigPicture on Jira Cloud.
Migrate only Jira On-premise without the BigPicture plugin to Jira Cloud.

Make sure you have JCMA installed on your Jira. If you do not have JCMA installed, navigate to Jira Administration → Find new Apps → Search 'Jira Cloud Migration Assistant' and install it. To find out more about JCMA, navigate here.

Let's analyze the following example.

You use BigPicture installed on Jira Cloud. When you want to migrate Jira On-premise to Jira Cloud, there are two possible migration scenarios:

You can migrate Jira On-premise + BigPicture. After migration, BigPicture from Jira On-premise will overwrite data in BigPicture on Jira Cloud. The state of BigPicture on Jira Cloud before the migration will be replaced with the state of migrated BigPicture from Jira On-premise.
You can migrate only Jira On-premise without BigPicture. After migration, BigPicture on Jira Cloud will remain unchanged.

In case of any doubts, contact our Support.

What is not migrated

What If Scenario is not migrated.
JQL can be incomplete and may require manual changes. JQL is used in Scope definition → Additional Filtering and Quick Filters.

How to prepare BigPicture for migration

The steps below are necessary to migrate the BigPicture plugin to Jira Cloud. Make sure you have BigPicture installed on your Jira Cloud before you begin.

Prepare a JCMA snapshot in BigPicture on Jira On-premise.
Navigate to BigPicture App Configuration → Advanced → Database dumps → New dump → JCMA dump.

Enter a unique Migration name, as you will later need to identify this snapshot in JCMA and complete the Description field.
The provided Migration name can be edited later. Read more here.

Creating a JCMA snapshot will restart the App and may take a significant amount of time and resources, so the process is recommended during non-business hours. Do not interrupt the process or disable the App until the JCMA snapshot is complete.
For BigPicture on Jira Cloud, enable the Allow JCMA migration option in Apps → BigPicture App Configuration → Advanced → Technical info → Others → Data migration section.
On Jira On-premise, go to the Jira Administration → System → Import and Export → Migrate to cloud → Assess your apps section.
Assign the Needed in cloud status for each App and click Done.

Migration process

Initiate a migration process in JCMA. Navigate to Jira Administration → System → Import and Export → Migrate to cloud and click the Create a migration button.
Get familiar with information about the migration process.
Provide your migration name, the one you used for creating the JCMA snapshot in BigPicture, and choose your destination Jira Cloud.
Select 'All' to migrate all the apps with an automated path that are marked as 'Needed in cloud' in your app assessment. If you select 'None', no apps will be migrated.
Next, you can define your migration options, such as Projects, User and groups, Apps. When ready, click the Check for errors button.
Proceed by clicking Review migration.
You can run your migration now or save it and come back later. You will not be able to add or remove projects after you have saved so if you would like to make any changes, perform them now.
After running the migration, you can track its progress from the Migrations dashboard.

During migration, your BigPicture on Jira Cloud will restart to reflect the state of the migrated BigPicture from Jira On-premise.
Once the migration is complete, the status will be updated accordingly.
(BigPicture Jira Cloud) You will see the 'Migration completed successfully' message once you enter Apps → BigPicture App Configuration → Advanced → Technical info.
The message will disappear after the next BigPicture update.

(Jira On-premise) The Progress column in the Migration dashboard (Jira Administration → System → Import and Export → Migrate to cloud) informs about the migration status.
You can also expand the Actions menu and click View details.

You will find detailed information on the migration.

How to repeat migration

It is not recommended to reset Jira Cloud to solve migration problems. However, if there is no other way and you decide to reset Jira Cloud, you have to uninstall BigPicture first. Once BigPicture is uninstalled, you can reset Jira Cloud.

In case of any mistakes during the migration process in JCMA (for example, forgetting to provide the correct Migration name of your JCMA snapshot), you can run the migration process again.

Prepare a JCMA snapshot in BigPicture on Jira On-premise.
You can either:
- Edit the Migration name and use the same JCMA snapshot (if you entered the wrong Migration name for your JCMA snapshot).
  Go to BigPicture App Configuration → Advanced → Database dumps and edit the JCMA snapshot you created before.
  
  or
- Create a new JCMA snapshot as described here.
Enable the Allow JCMA migration option in Apps → BigPicture App Configuration → Advanced → Technical info → Others → Data migration section on Jira Cloud.
This option needs to be enabled each time before migration.
Go to the Jira Administration → System → Import and Export → Migrate to cloud → Assess your apps section.
Assign the Needed in cloud status for each App and click Done.
Initiate the migration process as described here.

After migration

Once the migration process is finished, it is recommended to check the following:

In Jira:

Review imported groups
You will see a message that imported groups need your review. Click on the banner to start reviewing or navigate to Directory → Groups.

You can select a group to review their pending product roles.

You can approve or deny a group.

When ready, the status Reviewed will appear next to a group.
Verify permissions
Check migrated custom fields. They can be recognized by the (migrated) additional note.
More about duplicates can be read here.