JIRA Swamp... Need to migrate from cloud to server. Suggestions?

[Taryn]

I have taken over a JIRA instance that has not been managed very good with lots of different "admins" making random changes.  We plan to migrate from a JIRA Cloud instance to a JIRA Server instance.  I am considering three different approaches and I am wondering if anyone has had any prior experience with any of them.

• Clean up the JIRA swamp we have first, then migrate the entire instance to JIRA Server.
• Migrate the entire instance to JIRA Server first, then clean up the JIRA swamp.
• Create a clean JIRA Server instance, then migrate one project at a time, cleaning it up as I migrate it.

Any suggestions or past experiences anyone would like to share would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

I would rule out the migrate one-at-a-time approach - the process will involved repeated cycles of data hacking, cleaning and then importing.  Doing the migration all in one step will be a lot faster and less work.

Clean then migrate, vs migrate then clean, is a less easy choice.  Part of me says clean first as that reduces the chances of difficulties with migrating.  But cleaning a server instance can be a lot easier.

I would do a test migration to see if you do run into any oddities, and if not, then I'd migrate first, clean second.