Migrate GitLab groups and projects by using direct transfer

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: SaaS, self-managed

• Introduced in GitLab 13.7 for group resources with a flag named bulk_import. Disabled by default.
• Group items enabled on GitLab.com and self-managed in GitLab 14.3.
• Introduced in GitLab 14.4 for project resources with a flag named bulk_import_projects. Disabled by default.
• Enabled on GitLab.com in GitLab 15.6.
• New application setting bulk_import_enabled introduced in GitLab 15.8. bulk_import feature flag removed.
• bulk_import_projects feature flag removed in GitLab 15.10.

You can migrate GitLab groups:

• From self-managed GitLab to GitLab.com.
• From GitLab.com to self-managed GitLab.
• From one self-managed GitLab instance to another.
• Between groups in the same GitLab instance.

You can migrate groups in two ways:

• By direct transfer (recommended).
• By uploading an export file.

If you migrate from GitLab.com to self-managed GitLab, an administrator can create users on the self-managed GitLab instance.

On self-managed GitLab, by default migrating group items is not available. To show the feature, an administrator can enable it in application settings.

Migrating groups by direct transfer copies the groups from one place to another. You can:

• Copy many groups at once.
• In the GitLab UI, copy top-level groups to:
  • Another top-level group.
  • The subgroup of any existing top-level group.
  • Another GitLab instance, including GitLab.com.
• In the API, copy top-level groups and subgroups to these locations.
• Copy groups with projects (in Beta and not ready for production use) or without projects. Copying projects with groups is available:
  • On GitLab.com by default.

Not all group and project resources are copied. See list of copied resources below:

• Migrated group items.
• Migrated project items.

WARNING: Importing groups with projects is in Beta. This feature is not ready for production use.

We invite you to leave your feedback about migrating by direct transfer in the feedback issue.

If you want to move groups instead of copying groups, you can transfer groups if the groups are in the same GitLab instance. Transferring groups is a faster and more complete option.

Known issues

• Because of issue 406685, files with a filename longer than 255 characters are not migrated.
• In GitLab 16.1 and earlier, you should not use direct transfer with scheduled scan execution policies.
• For a list of other known issues, see epic 6629.

Estimating migration duration

Estimating the duration of migration by direct transfer is difficult. The following factors affect migration duration:

• Hardware and database resources available on the source and destination GitLab instances. More resources on the source and destination instances can result in shorter migration duration because:
  • The source instance receives API requests, and extracts and serializes the entities to export.
  • The destination instance runs the jobs and creates the entities in its database.
• Complexity and size of data to be exported. For example, imagine you want to migrate two different projects with 1000 merge requests each. The two projects can take very different amounts of time to migrate if one of the projects has a lot more attachments, comments, and other items on the merge requests. Therefore, the number of merge requests on a project is a poor predictor of how long a project will take to migrate.

There's no exact formula to reliably estimate a migration. However, the average durations of each pipeline worker importing a project relation can help you to get an idea of how long importing your projects might take:

If you are migrating large projects and encounter problems with timeouts or duration of the migration, see Reducing migration duration.

Limits

• Eight hour time limit on migrations removed in GitLab 16.7.

Hardcoded limits apply on migration by direct transfer.

Configurable limits are also available.

In GitLab 16.3 and later, the following previously hard-coded settings are configurable:

• Maximum relation size that can be downloaded from the source instance (set to 5 GiB).
• Maximum size of a decompressed archive (set to 10 GiB).

You can test the maximum relation size limit using these APIs:

• Group relations export API.
• Project relations export API

If either API produces files larger than the maximum relation size limit, group migration by direct transfer fails.

Visibility rules

After migration:

• Private groups and projects stay private.
• Internal groups and projects:
  • Stay internal when copied into an internal group unless internal visibility is restricted. In that case, the groups and projects become private.
  • Become private when copied into a private group.
• Public groups and projects:
  • Stay public when copied into a public group unless public visibility is restricted. In that case, the groups and projects become internal.
  • Become internal when copied into an internal group unless internal visibility is restricted. In that case, the groups and projects become private.
  • Become private when copied into a private group.

If you used a private network on your source instance to hide content from the general public, make sure to have a similar setup on the destination instance, or to import into a private group.

Ensure projects can be imported

You cannot import groups with projects when the source instance or group has Default project creation protection set to No one. If required, this setting can be changed:

• For a whole instance.
• For specific groups.

Prerequisites

• Requirement for Maintainer role instead of Developer role introduced in GitLab 16.0 and backported to GitLab 15.11.1 and GitLab 15.10.5.

To migrate groups by direct transfer:

• The network connection between instances or GitLab.com must support HTTPS.
• Any firewalls must not block the connection between the source and destination GitLab instances.
• Both GitLab instances must have group migration by direct transfer enabled in application settings by an instance administrator.
• The source GitLab instance must be running GitLab 14.0 or later.
• You must have a personal access token for the source GitLab instance:
  • For GitLab 15.1 and later source instances, the personal access token must have the api scope.
  • For GitLab 15.0 and earlier source instances, the personal access token must have both the api and read_repository scopes.
• You must have the Owner role on the source group to migrate from.
• You must have a role in the destination namespace that enables you to create a subgroup in that namespace.
• To import items stored in object storage, you must either:
  • Configure proxy_download.
  • Ensure that the destination GitLab instance has access to the object storage of the source GitLab instance.

Prepare user accounts

To ensure GitLab maps users and their contributions correctly:

1. Create the required users on the destination GitLab instance. You can create users with the API only on self-managed instances because it requires administrator access. When migrating to GitLab.com or a self-managed GitLab instance you can:
   • Create users manually.
   • Set up or use your existing SAML SSO provider and leverage user synchronization of SAML SSO groups supported through SCIM. You can bypass the GitLab user account verification with verified email domains.
2. Ensure that users have a public email on the source GitLab instance that matches any confirmed email address on the destination GitLab instance. Most users receive an email asking them to confirm their email address.
3. If users already exist on the destination instance and you use SAML SSO for GitLab.com groups, all users must link their SAML identity to their GitLab.com account.

Connect the source GitLab instance

Create the group you want to import to and connect the source GitLab instance:

1. Create either:
   • A new group. On the left sidebar, at the top, select Create new ({plus}) and New group. Then select Import group.
   • A new subgroup. On existing group's page, either:
     • Select New subgroup.
     • On the left sidebar, at the top, select Create new ({plus}) and New subgroup. Then select the import an existing group link.
2. Enter the base URL of a GitLab instance running GitLab 14.0 or later.
3. Enter the personal access token for your source GitLab instance.
4. Select Connect instance.

Select the groups and projects to import

• Introduced in GitLab 15.8, option to import groups with or without projects.

After you have authorized access to the source GitLab instance, you are redirected to the GitLab group importer page. Here you can see a list of the top-level groups on the connected source instance where you have the Owner role.

1. By default, the proposed group namespaces match the names as they exist in source instance, but based on your permissions, you can choose to edit these names before you proceed to import any of them.
2. Next to the groups you want to import, select either:
   • Import with projects. If this is not available, see Ensure projects can be imported.
   • Import without projects.
3. The Status column shows the import status of each group. If you leave the page open, it updates in real-time.
4. After a group has been imported, select its GitLab path to open its GitLab URL.

WARNING: Importing groups with projects is in Beta. This feature is not ready for production use.

Group import history

• Partially completed status introduced in GitLab 16.7.

You can view all groups migrated by you by direct transfer listed on the group import history page. This list includes:

• Paths of source groups.
• Paths of destination groups.
• Start date of each import.
• Status of each import.
• Error details if any errors occurred.

To view group import history:

1. Sign in to GitLab.
2. On the left sidebar, at the top, select Create new ({plus}) and New group.
3. Select Import group.
4. In the upper-right corner, select History.
5. If there are any errors for a particular import, select See failures to see their details.

Review results of the import

• Introduced in GitLab 16.6 with a flag named bulk_import_details_page. Enabled by default.
• Feature flag bulk_import_details_page removed in GitLab 16.8.

To review the results of an import:

1. Go to the Group import history page.
2. To see the details of a failed import, select the See failures link on any import with a Failed or Partially completed status.

Migrated group items

The group items that are migrated depend on the version of GitLab you use on the destination. To determine if a specific group item is migrated:

1. Check the groups/stage.rb file for all editions and the groups/stage.rb file for Enterprise Edition for your version on the destination. For example, for version 15.9:
   • https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/15-9-stable-ee/lib/bulk_imports/groups/stage.rb (all editions).
   • https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/15-9-stable-ee/ee/lib/ee/bulk_imports/groups/stage.rb (Enterprise Edition).
2. Check the group/import_export.yml file for groups for your version on the destination. For example, for version 15.9: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/15-9-stable-ee/lib/gitlab/import_export/group/import_export.yml.

Any other group items are not migrated.

Group items that are migrated to the destination GitLab instance include:

1. Epic resource state events introduced in GitLab 15.4, label associations introduced in GitLab 13.12, state and state ID introduced in GitLab 13.7, and system note metadata introduced in GitLab 14.0.
2. Group Labels cannot retain any associated Label Priorities during import. These labels will need to be re-prioritized manually once the relevant Project is migrated to the destination instance.
3. Group members are associated with the imported group if the user:
   • Already exists in the destination GitLab instance.
   • Has a public email in the source GitLab instance that matches a confirmed email in the destination GitLab instance.

Excluded items

Some group items are excluded from migration because they either:

• May contain sensitive information: CI/CD variables, webhooks, and deploy tokens.
• Are not supported: push rules.

Migrated project items

DETAILS: Status: Beta

• Introduced in GitLab 14.4 with a flag named bulk_import_projects. Disabled by default.
• Enabled on GitLab.com in GitLab 15.6.
• bulk_import_projects feature flag removed in GitLab 15.10.
• Project-only migrations using API added in GitLab 15.11.

If you choose to migrate projects when you select groups to migrate, project items are migrated with the projects.

The project items that are migrated depends on the version of GitLab you use on the destination. To determine if a specific project item is migrated:

1. Check the projects/stage.rb file for all editions and the projects/stage.rb file for Enterprise Edition for your version on the destination. For example, for version 15.9:
   • https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/15-9-stable-ee/lib/bulk_imports/projects/stage.rb (all editions).
   • https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/15-9-stable-ee/ee/lib/ee/bulk_imports/projects/stage.rb (Enterprise Edition).
2. Check the project/import_export.yml file for projects for your version on the destination. For example, for version 15.9: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/15-9-stable-ee/lib/gitlab/import_export/project/import_export.yml.

Any other project items are not migrated.

If you choose not to migrate projects along with groups or if you want to retry a project migration, you can initiate project-only migrations using the API.

WARNING: Migrating projects when migrating groups by direct transfer is in Beta and is not ready for production use.

Project items that are migrated to the destination GitLab instance include:

Issue-related items

Issue-related project items that are migrated to the destination GitLab instance include:

Merge request-related items

Merge request-related project items that are migrated to the destination GitLab instance include:

Setting-related items

Setting-related project items that are migrated to the destination GitLab instance include:

Excluded items

Some project items are excluded from migration because they either:

• May contain sensitive information:
  • CI/CD variables
  • Deploy keys
  • Deploy tokens
  • Pipeline schedule variables
  • Pipeline triggers
  • Webhooks
• Are not supported:
  • Agents
  • Container Registry
  • Environments
  • Feature flags
  • Infrastructure Registry
  • Package registry
  • Pages domains
  • Remote mirrors

Troubleshooting

In a rails console session, you can find the failure or error messages for the group import attempt using:

# Get relevant import records
import = BulkImports::Entity.where(namespace_id: Group.id).map(&:bulk_import).last

# Alternative lookup by user
import = BulkImport.where(user_id: User.find(...)).last

# Get list of import entities. Each entity represents either a group or a project
entities = import.entities

# Get a list of entity failures
entities.map(&:failures).flatten

# Alternative failure lookup by status
entities.where(status: [-1]).pluck(:destination_name, :destination_namespace, :status)

You can also see all migrated entities with any failures related to them using an API endpoint.

Stale imports

• Introduced in GitLab 14.10.

When troubleshooting group migration, an import may not complete because the import workers took longer than 8 hours to execute. In this case, the status of either a BulkImport or BulkImport::Entity is 3 (timeout):

# Get relevant import records
import = BulkImports::Entity.where(namespace_id: Group.id).map(&:bulk_import)

import.status #=> 3 means that the import timed out.

Error: 404 Group Not Found

If you attempt to import a group that has a path comprised of only numbers (for example, 5000), GitLab attempts to find the group by ID instead of the path. This causes a 404 Group Not Found error in GitLab 15.4 and earlier.

To solve this, you must change the source group path to include a non-numerical character using either:

• The GitLab UI:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Advanced.
  4. Under Change group URL, change the group URL to include non-numeric characters.

• The Groups API.

Other 404 errors

You can receive other 404 errors when importing a group, for example:

"exception_message": "Unsuccessful response 404 from [FILTERED] Bo...",
"exception_class": "BulkImports::NetworkError",

This error indicates a problem transferring from the source instance. To solve this, check that you have met the prerequisites on the source instance.

Reducing migration duration

A single direct transfer migration runs 5 entities (groups or projects) per import at a time, independent of the number of workers available on the destination instance. That said, having more workers on the destination instance speeds up migration by decreasing the time it takes to import each entity.

Increasing the number of workers on the destination instance helps reduce the migration duration until the source instance hardware resources are saturated. Exporting and importing relations in batches (proposed in epic 9036) will make having enough available workers on the destination instance even more useful.

The number of workers on the source instance should be enough to export the 5 concurrent entities in parallel (for each running import). Otherwise, there can be delays and potential timeouts as the destination is waiting for exported data to become available.

Distributing projects in different groups helps to avoid timeouts. If several large projects are in the same group, you can:

1. Move large projects to different groups or subgroups.
2. Start separate migrations each group and subgroup.

The GitLab UI can only migrate top-level groups. Using the API, you can also migrate subgroups.