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Migrating organizations from GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise Cloud

You can migrate organizations from GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, using the GitHub CLI or the GraphQL API.

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About organization migrations with GitHub Enterprise Importer

Migrations to GitHub Enterprise Cloud include migrations between accounts on GitHub.com and, if you're adopting data residency, migrations to your enterprise's subdomain of GHE.com.

You can run your migration with either the GitHub CLI or the API.

The GitHub CLI simplifies the migration process and is recommended for most customers. Advanced customers with heavy customization needs can use the API to build their own integrations with GitHub Enterprise Importer.

To see instructions for using the API, use the tool switcher at the top of the page.

Prerequisites

  • We strongly recommend that you perform a trial run of your migration and complete your production migration soon after. To learn more about trial runs, see Overview of a migration between GitHub products.
  • Ensure you understand the data that will be migrated and the known support limitations of the Importer. For more information, see About migrations between GitHub products.
  • While not required, we recommend halting work during your production migration. The Importer doesn't support delta migrations, so any changes that happen during the migration will not migrate. If you choose not to halt work during your production migration, you'll need to manually migrate these changes.
  • For the source organization, you must be an organization owner or have the migrator role. For more information, see Managing access for a migration between GitHub products.
  • For the destination enterprise account, you must be an enterprise owner.

Step 1: Install the GEI extension of the GitHub CLI

If this is your first migration, you'll need to install the GEI extension of the GitHub CLI. For more information about the GitHub CLI, see About GitHub CLI.

  1. Install the GitHub CLI. For installation instructions for GitHub CLI, see the GitHub CLI repository.

    Note

    You need version 2.4.0 or newer of GitHub CLI. You can check the version you have installed with the gh --version command.

  2. Install the GEI extension.

    Shell
    gh extension install github/gh-gei
    

Any time you need help with the GEI extension, you can use the --help flag with a command. For example, gh gei --help will list all the available commands, and gh gei migrate-repo --help will list all the options available for the migrate-repo command.

Step 2: Update the GEI extension of the GitHub CLI

The GEI extension is updated weekly. To make sure you're using the latest version, update the extension.

gh extension upgrade github/gh-gei

Step 3: Set environment variables

Before you can use the GEI extension to migrate to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, you must create personal access tokens (classic) that can access the source organization and destination enterprise, then set the personal access tokens (classic) as environment variables.

  1. Create and record a personal access token that meets all the requirements to authenticate for the source organization for organization migrations. For more information, see Managing access for a migration between GitHub products.

  2. Create and record a personal access token (classic) that meets all the requirements to authenticate for the destination enterprise for organization migrations.

  3. Set environment variables for the personal access tokens (classic), replacing TOKEN in the commands below with the personal access tokens (classic) you recorded above. Use GH_PAT for the destination enterprise and GH_SOURCE_PAT for the source organization.

    • If you're using Terminal, use the export command.

      Shell
      export GH_PAT="TOKEN"
      export GH_SOURCE_PAT="TOKEN"
      
    • If you're using PowerShell, use the $env command.

      Shell
      $env:GH_PAT="TOKEN"
      $env:GH_SOURCE_PAT="TOKEN"
      
  4. If you're migrating to GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency, for convenience, set an environment variable for the base API URL for your enterprise. For example:

    Shell
    export TARGET_API_URL="https://api.octocorp.ghe.com"
    

    You'll use this variable with the --target-api-url option in commands you run with the GitHub CLI.

Step 4: Migrate your organization

To migrate an organization, use the gh gei migrate-org command.

Shell
gh gei migrate-org --github-source-org SOURCE --github-target-org DESTINATION --github-target-enterprise ENTERPRISE

Note

If you're migrating to GHE.com, add --target-api-url TARGET-API-URL, where TARGET-API-URL is the base API URL for your enterprise's subdomain. For example: https://api.octocorp.ghe.com.

Replace the placeholders in the command above with the following values.

PlaceholderValue
SOURCEName of the source organization
DESTINATIONThe name you want the new organization to have. Cannot be shared by another organization on your destination platform.
ENTERPRISEThe slug for your destination enterprise, which you can identify by looking at the URL for your enterprise account, https://github.com/enterprises/SLUG or https://SLUG.ghe.com.

Step 5: Validate your migration and check the error log

After your migration has finished, we recommend that you check the migration log repository. For more information, see Accessing your migration logs for GitHub Enterprise Importer.

Finally, we recommend you perform a soundness check of your organization and migrated repositories.