AkashMaheshwari's WebLog

Migration Planning from VSS to Team Foundation using VSS Converter

2006-02-22T09:24:00Z

This section contains information about how to plan to migrate your Visual SourceSafe source control projects to Team Foundation source control. The migration process is time-consuming because you are migrating years of source control data. The converter provides migration options that can minimize the time to migrate by either reducing the migration time or enabling your teams to work on source control during the migration. Evaluate which of the following migration options will work best for your team:

Project-by-Project migration Use this option to migrate the sources of one team or project at a time; typically one folder in Visual SourceSafe . This option makes sure that other teams are not blocked during migration; however, if two teams have dependencies between their sources, you should migrate the sources of both teams, that is project folders, together. The two folders may have some dependencies that could cause data loss if only some of the folders are migrated. The analysis phase helps identify the dependencies between folders.
Incremental Migration Use this option to migrate your Visual SourceSafe database in phases. Migrating a Visual SourceSafe database in phases ensures that users can continue to use Visual SourceSafe while migration is in progress. For more information, see How to: Incrementally Migrate to Team Foundation
Use Archive feature of VSS to migrate partial history Use this option if you are not interested in migrating old history. By using this feature you remove the version history of file and folder before a specific date. For more information, see How to: Migrate a Partial History Using Archives in Visual SourceSafe.

In the second phase, you do analysis of the Visual SourceSafe database under migration and in phase two, you do the actual migration of the Visual SourceSafe database to Team Foundation source control. The analysis phase generates a report that gives you information about potential data loss during migration. You can prevent some of the potential data loss by taking some pre migration steps; however, some data loss cannot be prevented because some Visual SourceSafe data cannot be mapped to Team Foundation source control. After migration, you receive a report that gives you information about status and any data loss during migration. Post migration, you may have to do some steps to make sure that you can use the migrated sources

Enough disk space on Client and Data Tier

2005-12-06T10:57:00Z

We have found that VSS Converter crash if the machine on which you are running converter ran out of disk space. VSS Converter requires disk space for storing intermediate data in SQL Express, some disk space for storing the log file and last but not least for downloading the files from VSS before uploading it Team Foundation(Converter use a folder in System drive for it). Hence it is advisable that you ensure that you have 5+GB of spare space on the system drive of machine of which you are running VSS Converter. Here I am assuming you have installed SQLExpress and running VSS Converter from a folder in system drive.

Incase you are using December CTP release you may start migration using incrementatl migration feature otherwise you have to restart migration from scratch.

I also suggest that you ensure that you have good enough diskspace on DT before you start migration.

Post migration tip from a seasoned player

2005-11-30T17:07:00Z

After migrating source control successfully, you should verify that the sources have been migrated to Team Foundation source control. After a successful migration, you should see whether there are differences between the latest versions of files and folders in Visual SourceSafe to the latest versions of the migrated sources in Team Foundation source control using any file comparison utility such as the WinDiff tool. If you find differences between the files, folders or their versions, you should migrate the latest version manually. This mean you have to add some files manually which are not present in Team Foundation and delete the ones which are not present in VSS. Some of these problems are due to VSS corruption issues, some are due to scenarios which cannot be taken care off by converter and Team Foundation issues.

Note
You always find some extra files on the Visual SourceSafe side with the extension .scc. These files are temporary files generated by Visual SourceSafe in your local folder when you use a get command for the latest in Visual SourceSafe . The extra files are not source files.

Approx migration time of a VSS Database

2005-11-30T17:06:00Z

We have generally noticed that VSS converter takes approx. 0.123+ sec per action. Hence you can roughly estimate the migration time after analysis phase. You will get the number of actions analyzed in the analysis report.

Please note that migration time depends number of actions, the machine configuration, network settings. Hence you may see different migration time per action in your set up.

Casing is not preserved in Beta3 during migration by VSS Converter

2005-11-30T17:06:00Z

Due to a bug in VSS Converter code the casing of the file and folder name is not preserved during migration. We have fixed the problem in current branch.

It is not possible for us to provide the fix of above issue on top of Beta3 bits. The issue is fixed in December CTP bits.

Migration in phases using VSS Converter

2005-11-30T15:38:00Z

We have added a interesting feature post Beta3 to VSS Converter.

This topic describes how to do an incremental migration if you want to migrate your Visual SourceSafe database in phases or if your migration was interrupted and you want to resume migration from where it stopped. Migrating a Visual SourceSafe database in phases ensures that users can continue to use Visual SourceSafe while migration is in progress. During incremental migration, the converter will only migrate the delta of changes that were not migrated previously. Check Ankur's blog for more tech information about incremental migration.

Limitations on Incremental Migration

Be aware of the following limitations that apply when you start incremental migration and continue until all phases of incremental migration are finished.

You must not change the existing mapping of Visual SourceSafe folders to Team Foundation source control folders. Also you must not add or remove mappings.
Do not perform destroy, purge, archive, or restore activities on the Visual SourceSafe database.
Do not use the migrated Team Foundation source control folders.

To migrate in phases

Ask users to stop using the Visual SourceSafe database.
Copy the Visual SourceSafe database to a different computer that is dedicated to performing the migration.
Inform Visual SourceSafe users that they can continue to use the Visual SourceSafe database.
Start normal migration on the copied Visual SourceSafe database on the migration computer.
Wait for migration to finish.
When migration is completed, stop users from using the Visual SourceSafe database. Copy the Visual SourceSafe database to the migration computer.
Make a backup copy of the report file generated by the previous migration so that you have it for future reference.
Restart migration on the copied Visual SourceSafe database. The VSS converter will automatically determine that this is an incremental migration and start migrating changes that occurred after the first migration.
1. On the Start menu, click All Programs, and then select Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio Tools, Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command, using the same settings file that you used during the previous migration:
  
  VSSConverter Migrate settings.xml
  
  Tip
  
  Use the /? switch to view the available command-line options.
3. The converter automatically detects that this is an incremental migration, and it prompts you to confirm you want to do an incremental migration. Type Y to confirm that you want to do an incremental migration.
4. The converter tool displays the migration status. When the conversion process finishes, the tool saves a post-migration report in the current directory. You can use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view the file for details.
5. When you are prompted, provide the password for the Visual SourceSafe admin user.
When you have completed all incremental phases in migrating the Visual SourceSafe database, you can switch users over to the migrated source on Team Foundation source control.

Tip
Use the /? switch to view the available command-line options.

To restart migration after migration is interrupted

Resolve the problem that caused the migration to be interrupted.
Make a backup copy of the report file generated by the previous migration so that you have it for future reference.
Follow step 8 in the previous procedure, "To migrate in phases."

VSS Converter Post Beta3

2005-09-27T11:42:00Z

Here is the quick introduction of who I am and what I do for living. I am Program Manager in Team Foundation Team and I am owner of migration tool that will migrate your sources from VSS to Team Foundation. I write specs in addition to fight with my developers and QA. So if I am missing from my cubicle with no traces, you know who are at blameJ.

I was planning to get back on blogging since I posted my last blog at the time of Beta2. Now Beta3 provided an excellent opportunity to jump on Team Foundation blogging wagon. First choice of blogging is no-brainer “VSS Converter”.

Here is a writeup on how you must plan and execute you migration Planning for Migration from VSS to Team Foundation.

Check out following articles by my other team members that will help you in migration process and understanding about VSS Converter.

Ankur has discussed some interesting facts about VSS converter design.

Check out Nagendra's blog for post migration steps.

Check a separate section of my blog for other VSS Converter related discussion.

Stay tuned to read more about VSS Converter. Post your questions on VSS Converter on Visual Studio Team System General or Visual Studio Team Foundation Forums

or contact me at akashm at microsoft.com.

Thanks,

-Akash

Clearcase users interested in VSTS

2005-01-24T20:56:00Z

Hi,

We are internally debating about migration solution for Clearcase to Team Foundation Version Control. I want to discuss with Clearcase users, interested in VSTS, about the migration solutions and your expectations. Incase you are interested in helping us in this effort do let me know I will get in touch with you.

Thanks,

-Akash