Initial synchronization (data migration)

Initial synchronization gives you possibility to synchronize (migrate) Jira Issues and TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) Work Items that were created before TFS4JIRA Synchronizer has been installed.

Finding the initial synchronization screen

To perform initial synchronization for given synchronization profile go to the "Synchronization Configuration" screen and click "Initial Sync" in the "Operations" section.

Setting the initial synchronization options

The initial synchronization screen is shown below. The following options have to be specified before synchronization can be started:

1. Last update dates range Only entities (issues / work items) that have their last update date between given range will be processed by initial synchronization process.
2. Synchronization direction:
   1. TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) -> Jira,
   2. Jira -> TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS),
3. Synchronization mode. There are three options available
   1. Synchronize unpaired entities only. This is default and recommended initial synchronization mode. Only issues / work items have no counterparts created by Synchronizer yet will be processed. For each such entity new counterpart will be created and paired with given entity.
   2. Synchronize both unpaired and already paired entities (update counterparts). Recommended when initial synchronization was already performed in the past and you need to force Synchronizer to resynchronize all issues / work items. Not-yet-paired entities will be handled just like in default mode (new counterparts will be created). For each already paired issue / work item its counterpart will be updated.
   3. Synchronize both unpaired and already paired entities (create new counterparts). Not-yet-paired entities will be handled just like in default mode (new counterparts will be created). For each already paired issue / work item its counterpart will be deleted and new counterpart will be created. Please note that as this mode involves removing issues / work items it's strongly recommended to perform both Jira and TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) backup before running synchronization in this mode.

Note: When synchronizing in Jira -> TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) direction you will be asked about list of read-only Jira statuses. If you use default Jira workflow, the default value ("Closed") should be sufficient. 

Starting and stopping the initial synchronization

When all options are specified the initial synchronization can be started.

Synchronization may take up to several hours depending on number of items to synchronize.You can stop it at any time and restart with the same settings later.

Understanding the status section of initial synchronization screen

Current state of synchronization is displayed below configuration options. For each synchronization direction you will find:

• When initial synchronization for given profile was previously performed.
• Number of Issues/Work Items that were correctly synchronized.
• Number of Issues/Work Items that were skipped because has been synchronized before.
• Number of errors during synchronization.