• Migrated group items
  • Excluded items
• Migrated project items
  • Issue-related items
  • Merge request-related items
  • Setting-related items
  • Excluded items

Items migrated when using direct transfer

Many items are migrated when using the direct transfer method, and some are excluded.

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:

Footnotes:

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. See User contributions and membership mapping.

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

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.

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

Footnotes:

1. Imported branches respect the default branch protection settings of the destination group, which could cause an unprotected branch to be imported as protected.
2. See User contributions and membership mapping.

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:

Footnotes:

1. Includes the list of approvers for specific merge requests and includes systems notes that mention the approvals. Also includes the following items that are related to merge request approvals:

   • Approvals for protected branches.
   • The list of users that can approve merge requests except in cases where a group was added as an approver.

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
  • Approval rules, except for those mentioned above.
  • Container Registry
  • Environments
  • Feature flags
  • Infrastructure Registry
  • Package registry
  • Pages domains
  • Remote mirrors