How can we wipe a test site clean so we can perform a new test migration?

[Rob Horan]

I am assisting with a server-to-cloud migration and have performed a test migration that failed spectacularly. Yay.

I need to wipe the site and try again, but I can't find a way.

The instructions sent to me by Atlassian have me deleting the product and then adding it back, but every time I try, I bring all of the old data along with it.

How can I wipe the slate clean?  The urgency is high in this case, so any and all information is appreciated.

[Justin C · Accepted solution]

Hi Rob,

how much time elapses between deleting the subscription and booking a new one? It may take a few days in the cloud for the data to be erased is my guess.

Also maybe the following link might be interesting?

Atlassian Cloud - Reset & Delete Site Data - Atlassian Community

Justin

[Joseph Chung Yin · Accepted solution]

@Rob Horan -

Take a look at this posting by one of our community leaders - https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Atlassian-Cloud-Reset-amp-Delete-Site-Data/ba-p/1772186

There is also a youtube video for your reference - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UrE8-PRUIo

Lastly, Are you doing the migration by yourself?  You may also want to engage a third party to assist your migration process if you have a complex server env on your hand.

Best, Joseph Chung Yin

Jira/JSM Functional Lead, Global Infrastructure Applications Team

Viasat Inc.

[Krista Stellar]

I'll weigh in to say that the current advice provided by the Atlassian CMMs (Cloud Migration Managers) is to use trial sites for testing and only use the desired production instance when you are ready to do your production migration. This has come from more than on CMM and they emphasize it many times in our discussions.

This doesn't help you out much now, in your current state, and there is good advice above on what you could try. I will second the suggestions to raise a support ticket to get assistance. The turnaround time lately has been on the order of days, so keep that in mind for when you can expect a resolution.

FYI, I have done a few migrations for clients and I now plan on several test migrations as we find it takes quite a few iterations to work out the kinks. Even after you get your production instance reset, I would recommend you take the current Atlassian advice and use trial sites for the next tests.

Good luck!

[Dwight Holman]

Our experience has been worse than average - we've completed over 20 test migrations. Still troubleshooting and waiting for blocking app migration issues to be resolved.

There still seems to be debate about whether to use a test environment vs production... with free trials added to the mix.

Cloud migration trials for Server and Data Center customers

When we started the advice suggested to target a production instance - it definitely made user acceptance/exploration easier for us.

Doing initial test migrations in a test environment sounds like a good idea if you're starting out now.

[Rob Horan]

Likewise, that has been my experience.  In the past, the advice I received from Atlassian was to migrate to one site for both test and prod.  The advice I am receiving today is very different.   I prefer using separate sites, BUT there needs to be a way to either wipe a test site or remove test sites from admin.atlassian.com, so we're not piling them up.

[Krista Stellar]

@Rob Horan agree 100%. If there are people out there doing many migrations, the list of instances displayed when visiting admin.atlassian.com will get looooong and potentially confusing. Lots of risk of mixing things up as we find multiple test migrations are needed.

[Krista Stellar]

I'm posting an update (as things change!). I asked during a recent Atlassian Cloud Migration webinar about whether the current advice would be to use cloud sandbox sites to test migrations.

The answer was that, yes, generally this is a solid approach BUT understand that while a sandbox site can be reset, any users or groups migrated to the sandbox site have also been migrated to the full cloud site. That's because the sandbox is only a sandbox of the product data. Users and groups migrate to the Organization level and are shared with all sites/products in the organization. THERE IS NO MECHANISM TO ROLL BACK USER/GROUP MIGRATION.

The advice from the Atlassian migration panel on the webinar was to still use a trial, standalone site to do your initial testing to confirm users/groups have been properly prepared. Once you have confirmed the users/groups are migrating as desired THEN you can switch to using the sandbox.

This is the approach we are now using for all migration projects.

[Enrico Skottnik]

Together with a customer, we decided to set up a new cloud instance that is truly "naked".

The advantage was that you don't have to write to all the app manufacturers so that Atlassian is allowed to carry out the extension. So only Atlassian extended the licences for their products in the new instance, thankfully, and the apps could then also be tested again for 30 days. We have informed Atlassian about a "move" issue that we are deleting the previous instance as described here https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/cancellations-873871347.html.

A snapshot of an empty instance before a test migration would be a great thing ;-)

[Paul Hecker]

I agree.  If time is of the essence, and the cloud data is not being removed in a timely manner, provisioning a new site might be best.  

It might also be worth your while to check the amount of data associated with your site to judge if that is part of the problem.  Particularly if you need to contact support for assistance.

Track storage and move data across products
https://support.atlassian.com/security-and-access-policies/docs/track-storage-and-move-data-across-products/

[Rob Horan]

If I keep provisioning sites, I will have this massive list of junk sites piled up.  How do I get rid of them?

[Paul Hecker]

Provisioning another site is not an ideal solution, but fortunately it is an option.

You can cancel the site in either admin.atlassian.com or my.atlassian.com using this procedure.

Cancel your site subscription
https://support.atlassian.com/subscriptions-and-billing/docs/cancel-your-site-subscription

[Paul Hecker]

Hi Rob,

@Joseph Chung Yin provided the same resources I would have so I think you're good to go from there.

@Justin C also makes a good point that in some circumstances, particularly where there is a lot of data, it can take a while for the data removal to complete.  In one very large site it took hours ,but we're talking the terabyte range.

In general, if you have a cloud site with Jira Software or Jira Service Management and Confluence, as you're probably seen, you delete one of the subscriptions and wait for confirmation that the application has been removed. If you do not see that confirmation after 15 minutes, I would recommend existing and then re-checking.  Once you verify that the application has been removed, when you re-add it, you should not see an application data.  If you do, please contact Customer Support.

I few things to point out.  First, a cloud reset does NOT remove users and groups.  If you want a completely clean site, you would need to delete the site subscription from you my.atlassian.com console and request that Customer Support delete the site now rather than waiting for it to age out.  Even so, that will probably take a day or two.

Another thing that occurs to me is if you have Jira Software and Jira Service Management and you only want to reset one of them, you may need to remove both applications.  When performing cloud resets I have never just deleted one Jira application and not both but, if this is what you are attempting, it might require that both Jira applications be removed.  This too would be a good thing to discuss with Customer Support if you have any questions.'

Good luck and let us know if you were successful or not.

Regards, Paul.

[Rob Horan]

Is there no way to quickly run a test, wipe, and re-run immediately after?

[Dwight Holman]

Atlassian don't have any specific (easy or fast) method to wipe a cloud instance for a re-run. Since this seemed like a basic migration tool/function, I logged a support case asking this specific question back in February, which has become our primary MOVE discussion.

The conclusion of that discussion, and our current method for preparing for the next test run is to delete the cloud instance and re-create it. Basically you unsubscribe from the product and then re-subscribe:

   Admin > Billing > Manage Subscription

Of course this only works if you're migrating ALL projects at once.

The new subscription is isolated from the previous one - so even if Atlassian have not deleted all the data yet - the new instance is clean.

This Atlassian article described the process:

Reset and Delete data from your site (updated since this post)

Which is linked from Step 7 here:

https://support.atlassian.com/migration/docs/test-your-server-to-cloud-migration/

We're still using this approach - because there is no other way to wipe previously migrated data and ensure the next migration run is clean (i.e. repeatable).

As noted by Paul - this does not remove users & groups. But none of our migration issues have related to that. It is something to be aware of.

Good luck with the process.

Cheers,
Dwight

[Peter Quick]

Hi @Rob Horan ,

We are going through the same process after a failed migration, mmm Yay.

Log a support request with Atlassian for a site reset. Support will ask a few questions and do the deed.

The documentation referred to has been taken down as the process is being re-worked.

Cheers,

Peter Quick