How do I migrate data from Team Foundation Server to Visual Studio Online?

Question

I'd like to take advantage of Visual Studio Online but I have been using Team Foundation Server on-premises and would like to migrate my data (version control, work items, test cases, and test results) to get my team started with our history. How do I do that?

Answer 1

The Team Foundation Server Integration Platform is available as a free platform for migrating/synchronizing data between TFS servers and with Visual Studio Online.

The ALM Rangers have an article in MSDN Magazine with a walkthrough: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj130558.aspx

There are a couple of limitations from what I understand:

• Takes some work to get up and going but the walkthrough helps out a lot
• This tool does migrate test cases but you need to run the UpdateSharedSteps tool from the product team.
• Not actively invested in as new features in Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online lights up

Answer 2

Another option is to build your own migration utility using the Team Foundation Server SDK. You can use the Client Object Model to read data from your TFS server and then write it to your Visual Studio Online account.

Answer 3

There is a free migration utility from migrating data from Team Foundation Server on-premises to Visual Studio Online available from OpsHub: http://aka.ms/OpsHubVSOMigrationUtility.

It allows you to migrate team project(s) from TFS 2010, TFS 2012, and TFS 2013 including the history of:

• Version Control
• Work Items
• Test Cases

It handles the most common scenarios by making smart assumptions that are good for most scenarios. For those with more advanced scenarios, the OpsHub Integration Platform is commercially available and helps with synchronizations, custom business rules during migrations including customized process templates, and migration/integrating with other ALM platforms like IBM, Atlassian, HP, etc.