Azure DevOps Migration Tools

v15.2.0

Azure DevOps Migration Tools allow you to migrate Teams, Backlogs, Tasks, Test Cases, and Plans & Suits from one Project to another in Azure DevOps / TFS both within the same Organisation, and between Organisations.

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Overview

Reference Overview

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2024-09-06 09:35:04 +0100

This documentation is for a preview version of the Azure DevOps Migration Tools. If you are not using the preview version then please head over to the main documentation.

Overview > Reference

There are two version of the documentation that corrospnd to tools that focus on the new REST API and the main body of the tools that use the Object Model.

  • API v1 - Go here for WorkItemMigration as well as Test Plans and Suits.
  • API v2 - Go here for Queries, Pipelines, and Team Settings

Configuration

Azure DevOps Migration Tools are mainly powered by configuration which allows you to control most aspects of the execution flow.

Configuration tool

If you run migrator.exe init you will be launched into a configuration tool that will generate a default file. Using the init command will create a configuration.yml file in the working directory. At run time you can specify the configuration file to use.

  • migrator.exe init - This will create a shortened getting started config with just what you need to migrate Work Items.
  • migrator.exe init --options Full - The output of this is a full template with all of the options. You will not need it all.

Note: Azure DevOps Migration Tools do not ship with internal default configuration and will not function without one.

To create your config file just type vstssyncmigrator init in the directory that you unzipped the tools and a minimal configuration.json configuration file will be created. Modify this as you need.

Note that the generated file show all the possible options, you configuration file will probably only need a subset of those shown.

Global configuration

The global configuration created by the init command look like this:

{
  "ChangeSetMappingFile": null,
  "Source": {
    "$type": "TfsTeamProjectConfig",
    "Collection": "https://dev.azure.com/nkdagility-preview/",
    "Project": "myProjectName",
    "ReflectedWorkItemIDFieldName": "Custom.ReflectedWorkItemId",
    "AllowCrossProjectLinking": false,
    "PersonalAccessToken": "",
    "LanguageMaps": {
      "AreaPath": "Area",
      "IterationPath": "Iteration"
    }
  },
  "Target": {
    "$type": "TfsTeamProjectConfig",
    "Collection": "https://dev.azure.com/nkdagility-preview/",
    "Project": "myProjectName",
    "ReflectedWorkItemIDFieldName": "Custom.ReflectedWorkItemId",
    "AllowCrossProjectLinking": false,
    "PersonalAccessToken": "",
    "LanguageMaps": {
      "AreaPath": "Area",
      "IterationPath": "Iteration"
    }
  },
  "FieldMaps": [
    {
      "$type": "MultiValueConditionalMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceFieldsAndValues": {
        "Field1": "Value1",
        "Field2": "Value2"
      },
      "targetFieldsAndValues": {
        "Field1": "Value1",
        "Field2": "Value2"
      }
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldBlankMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "targetField": "TfsMigrationTool.ReflectedWorkItemId"
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldValueMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "System.State",
      "targetField": "System.State",
      "defaultValue": "New",
      "valueMapping": {
        "Approved": "New",
        "New": "New",
        "Committed": "Active",
        "In Progress": "Active",
        "To Do": "New",
        "Done": "Closed",
        "Removed": "Removed"
      }
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldtoFieldMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "Microsoft.VSTS.Common.BacklogPriority",
      "targetField": "Microsoft.VSTS.Common.StackRank",
      "defaultValue": null
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldtoFieldMultiMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "SourceToTargetMappings": {
        "SourceField1": "TargetField1",
        "SourceField2": "TargetField2"
      }
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldtoTagMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "System.State",
      "formatExpression": "ScrumState:{0}"
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldMergeMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField1": "System.Description",
      "sourceField2": "Microsoft.VSTS.Common.AcceptanceCriteria",
      "targetField": "System.Description",
      "formatExpression": "{0} <br/><br/><h3>Acceptance Criteria</h3>{1}",
    },
    {
      "$type": "RegexFieldMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "COMPANY.PRODUCT.Release",
      "targetField": "COMPANY.DEVISION.MinorReleaseVersion",
      "pattern": "PRODUCT \\d{4}.(\\d{1})",
      "replacement": "$1"
    },
    {
      "$type": "FieldValuetoTagMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Blocked",
      "pattern": "Yes",
      "formatExpression": "{0}"
    },
    {
      "$type": "TreeToTagMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "toSkip": 3,
      "timeTravel": 1
    }
  ],
  "CommonEnrichersConfig": [
    {
      "$type": "TfsNodeStructureOptions",
      "Enabled": false,
      "PrefixProjectToNodes": false,
      "NodeBasePaths": [
        "Product\\Area\\Path1",
        "Product\\Area\\Path2"
      ],
      "IterationMaps": {
        "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2022)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\NewTeam",
        "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2020)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\Archives\\Sprints 2020",
        "^OriginalProject\\\\Path2": "TargetProject\\YetAnotherPath\\Path2"
      },
      "AreaMaps": {
        "^OriginalProject\\\\(DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\Archive\\Descoped\\",
        "^OriginalProject\\\\(?!DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\NewArea\\"
      },
    }
  ],
  "GitRepoMapping": null,
  "LogLevel": "Information",
  "Processors": [
    {
      "$type": "WorkItemMigrationConfig",
      "Enabled": false,
      "UpdateCreatedDate": true,
      "UpdateCreatedBy": true,
      "WIQLQuery": "SELECT [System.Id] FROM WorkItems WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @TeamProject AND [System.WorkItemType] NOT IN ('Test Suite', 'Test Plan','Shared Steps','Shared Parameter','Feedback Request') ORDER BY [System.ChangedDate] desc",
      "FixHtmlAttachmentLinks": false,
      "WorkItemCreateRetryLimit": 5,
      "FilterWorkItemsThatAlreadyExistInTarget": false,
      "PauseAfterEachWorkItem": false,
      "AttachRevisionHistory": false,
      "GenerateMigrationComment": true,
      "WorkItemIDs": null,
      "MaxGracefulFailures": 0,
      "SkipRevisionWithInvalidIterationPath": false,
      "SkipRevisionWithInvalidAreaPath": false
    },
    {
      "$type": "TestConfigurationsMigrationConfig",
      "Enabled": false
    },
    {
        "$type": "TestPlansAndSuitesMigrationConfig",
        "Enabled": false,
        "RemoveInvalidTestSuiteLinks": true,
        "TestPlanQueryBit": "AreaPath UNDER 'Project1' AND PlanName CONTAINS 'Title' AND TestState NOT IN ('Inactive')",
        "UseCommonNodeStructureEnricherConfig": false,
        "NodeBasePaths": [
          "Product\\Area\\Path1",
          "Product\\Area\\Path2"
        ],
        "IterationMaps": {
          "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2022)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\NewTeam",
          "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2020)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\Archives\\Sprints 2020",
          "^OriginalProject\\\\Path2": "TargetProject\\YetAnotherPath\\Path2"
        },
        "AreaMaps": {
          "^OriginalProject\\\\(DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\Archive\\Descoped\\",
          "^OriginalProject\\\\(?!DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\NewArea\\"
        }
    }
  ],
  "Version": "11.6",
  "workaroundForQuerySOAPBugEnabled": false,
  "WorkItemTypeDefinition": {
    "sourceWorkItemTypeName": "targetWorkItemTypeName"
  }
}

And the description of the available options are:

TelemetryEnableTrace

Allows you to submit trace to Application Insights to allow the development team to diagnose any issues that may be found. If you are submitting a support ticket then please include the Session GUID found in your log file for that run. This will help us find the problem.

Note: All exceptions that you encounter will surface inside of Visual Studio as the developers are working on the source. This will make sure that they tackle issues as they arise.

Source & Target

Both the Source and Target entries hold the collection URL and the Team Project name that you are connecting to. The Source is where the tool will read the data to migrate. The Target is where the tool will write the data.

For multi Language support you can add the name used in the source and target for both ‘Area’ and ‘Iteration’. This allows a migration from one language version of TFS / Azure DevOps to another.

ReflectedWorkItemIDFieldName

This is the field that will be used to store the state for the migration . See Server Configuration

CommonEnrichersConfig

This configuration allows to set the configuration for some enrichers at the global level, and the configuration can then be re-used in processors. Currently supported only by TfsNodeStructureOption, to be re-used in WorkItemMigrationConfig and TestPlansAndSuitesMigrationConfig.

WorkItemMigrationConfig

You can specify BasePaths for Areas/Iterations to migrate. The area/iteration has to start with that string to be eligible for migration. E.g. BasePath = “Product\Area\Path1”

With existing areas: “Product\Area\Path1\TestArea” “SomeOtherProduct\Area\Path1\TestArea” “Product\OtherArea\Path1\TestArea”

only the first one matches the BasePath “Product\Area\Path1” and would be migrated, the other ones are ignored.

Field Maps

There are a number of field maps available for when you need to change the data as you are processing it. These mappings work for both in place bulk edit, and for project to project migrations.

"FieldMaps": [
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.MultiValueConditionalMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceFieldsAndValues": {
        "Field1": "Value1",
        "Field2": "Value2"
      },
      "targetFieldsAndValues": {
        "Field1": "Value1",
        "Field2": "Value2"
      }
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldBlankMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "targetField": "TfsMigrationTool.ReflectedWorkItemId"
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldValueMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "System.State",
      "targetField": "System.State",
      "defaultValue": "New",
      "valueMapping": {
        "Approved": "New",
        "New": "New",
        "Committed": "Active",
        "In Progress": "Active",
        "To Do": "New",
        "Done": "Closed"
      }
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldtoFieldMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "Microsoft.VSTS.Common.BacklogPriority",
      "targetField": "Microsoft.VSTS.Common.StackRank"
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldtoFieldMultiMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "SourceToTargetMappings": {
        "SourceField1": "TargetField1",
        "SourceField2": "TargetField2"
      }
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldtoTagMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "System.State",
      "formatExpression": "ScrumState:{0}"
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldMergeMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField1": "System.Description",
      "sourceField2": "Microsoft.VSTS.Common.AcceptanceCriteria",
      "targetField": "System.Description",
      "formatExpression": "{0} <br/><br/><h3>Acceptance Criteria</h3>{1}",
      "doneMatch": "##DONE##"
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.RegexFieldMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "COMPANY.PRODUCT.Release",
      "targetField": "COMPANY.DEVISION.MinorReleaseVersion",
      "pattern": "PRODUCT \\d{4}.(\\d{1})",
      "replacement": "$1"
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.FieldValuetoTagMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "sourceField": "Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Blocked",
      "pattern": "Yes",
      "formatExpression": "{0}"
    },
    {
      "$type": "VstsSyncMigrator.Engine.Configuration.FieldMap.TreeToTagMapConfig",
      "WorkItemTypeName": "*",
      "toSkip": 3,
      "timeTravel": 1
    }
  ],

Iteration Maps and Area Maps

These two configuration elements apply after the NodeBasePaths selector, i.e. only on Areas and Iterations that have been selected for migration. They allow to change the area path, respectively the iteration path, of migrated work items.

These remapping rules are applied both while creating path nodes in the target project and when migrating work items.

These remapping rules are applied with a higher priority than the PrefixProjectToNodes option. This means that if no declared rule matches the path and the PrefixProjectToNodes option is enabled, then the old behavior is used.

The syntax is a dictionary of regular expressions and the replacement text.

Warning: These follow the .net regular expression language. The key in the dictionary is a regular expression search pattern, while the value is a regular expression replacement pattern. It is therefore possible to use back-references in the replacement string.

Warning: Special characters in the acceptation of regular expressions and json both need to be escaped. For a key, this means, for example, that a literal backslash must be escaped for the regular expression language \\ and each of these backslashes must then be escaped for the json encoding: \\\\. In the replacement string, a literal $ must be escaped with an additional $ if it is followed by a number (due to the special meaning in regular expression replacement strings), while a backslash must be escaped (\\) due to the special meaning in json.

Advice: To avoid unexpected results, always match terminating backslashes in the search pattern and replacement string: if a search pattern ends with a backslash, you should also put one in the replacement string, and if the search pattern does not include a terminating backslash, then none should be included in the replacement string.

Examples explained
"IterationMaps": {
  "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2022)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\NewTeam",
  "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2020)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\Archives\\Sprints 2020",
  "^OriginalProject\\\\Path2": "TargetProject\\YetAnotherPath\\Path2",
},
"AreaMaps": {
  "^OriginalProject\\\\(DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\Archive\\Descoped\\",
  "^OriginalProject\\\\(?!DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\NewArea\\",
}
  • "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2022)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\NewTeam",

    In an iteration path, OriginalProject\Path1 found at the beginning of the path, when followed by \Sprint 2022, will be replaced by TargetProject\AnotherPath\NewTeam.

    OriginalProject\Path1\Sprint 2022\Sprint 01 will become TargetProject\AnotherPath\NewTeam\Sprint 2022\Sprint 01 but OriginalProject\Path1\Sprint 2020\Sprint 03 will not be transformed by this rule.

  • "^OriginalProject\\\\Path1(?=\\\\Sprint 2020)": "TargetProject\\AnotherPath\\Archives\\Sprints 2020",

    In an iteration path, OriginalProject\Path1 found at the beginning of the path, when followed by \Sprint 2020, will be replaced by TargetProject\AnotherPath\Archives\\Sprints 2020.

    OriginalProject\Path1\Sprint 2020\Sprint 01 will become TargetProject\AnotherPath\Archives\Sprint 2020\Sprint 01 but OriginalProject\Path1\Sprint 2021\Sprint 03 will not be transformed by this rule.

  • "^OriginalProject\\\\Path2": "TargetProject\\YetAnotherPath\\Path2",

    In an iteration path, OriginalProject\Path2 will be replaced by TargetProject\YetAnotherPath\Path2.

  • "^OriginalProject\\\\(DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\Archive\\Descoped\\",

    In an area path, OriginalProject\ found at the beginning of the path, when followed by either DescopeThis or DescopeThat will be replaced by TargetProject\Archive\Descoped\.

    OriginalProject\DescopeThis\Area will be transformed to TargetProject\Archive\Descoped\DescopeThis\Area. OriginalProject\DescopeThat\Product will be transformed to TargetProject\Archive\Descoped\DescopeThat\Product.

  • "^OriginalProject\\\\(?!DescopeThis|DescopeThat)": "TargetProject\\NewArea\\",

    In an area path, OriginalProject\ found at the beginning of the path will be replaced by TargetProject\NewArea\ unless it is followed by DescopeThis or DescopeThat.

    OriginalProject\ValidArea\ would be replaced by TargetProject\NewArea\ValidArea\ but OriginalProject\DescopeThis would not be modified by this rule.

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