Tfs Migration To Azure Devops

Difference between TFS and Azure DevOps

TFS is an on-premises DevOps platform. It was later renamed to Azure DevOps Server. The cloud version is Azure DevOps Services. So TFS itself is only on-prem, while Azure DevOps provides the cloud DevOps capabilities.

Migration Steps

PHASE 1 — Planning & Pre-Migration Setup

Identify what to migrate

• Work items (User Stories, Bugs, Tasks, Epics)

• Test Plans & Test Suites

• Attachments & Links

• Area/Iteration paths

• Tags

• Revisions (history)

Prepare TFS (Source)

• Get TFS URL and Project details

• Generate PAT token for TFS

• Confirm process template (Agile/Scrum/CMMI)

Prepare Azure DevOps (Target)

• Create Azure DevOps Project

• Create PAT token for Azure DevOps

• Re-create Area & Iteration structure

• Add custom field: Custom.ReflectedWorkItemId (Required for migration mapping)

PHASE 2 — Install Azure DevOps Migration Tools

• Download & extract: MigrationTools-16.0.9

• Navigate to the directory: cd Downloads\MigrationTools-16.0.9

• Verify tool runs: .\devopsmigration.exe

PHASE 3 — Create Configuration File (configuration.json)

This file defines:

• Source: TFS project

• Target: Azure DevOps project

• Processors to run (WorkItemMigration, TestPlansMigration, NodeStructureMigration, Attachments, etc.)

• WIQL queries (which work items to migrate)

PHASE 4 — Dry Run Migration (Testing Phase)

Run for selected items only:

• .\devopsmigration.exe execute --configFile configuration.json

PHASE 5 — Full Work Item Migration

After validating test run, you run full migration:

• .\devopsmigration.exe execute --configFile configuration.json

PHASE 6 — Validation in Azure DevOps

After migration, you validate: