Doing a 7.1 Migration to an 8.1 populated DB. Do I need to clear or delete the data in 8.1 first?

[GeorgeNathaniel]

Hi All, so we are doing a dev environment DB migration from 7.1 SP4 DB into a existing 8.1 SP1 sp15 DB.  We we did this when the 8.1 DB was empty, it worked fine.  All of the AMBA bulk imports and Exports were fine. 

Now that there is existing user and Tokens in the 8.1 DB, the AMBA imports and exports are not working. 

Just wondering if the 8.1 DB should be cleaned up or purged somehow, if so, is there a document that details how this is done? 

Thanks! 

[EdwardDavis · Accepted solution]

There are various ways to wipe a migration, but the most complete way is restore a database

backup taken before migrated data was seen.

Deleting migrated data by deleting users and tokens from 8.1 doesn't delete every shred of that migration.

The best way to go about re-migrating is

a) make a backup before migrating

b) migrate, test, kick the tires...

c) restore the backup from (a) to get 8.1 back to 'blank' or pre-migration state

Otherwise, simply deleting users (and/or identity source cleanup) is about as good as you can do.

Or if they are on AD/LDAP connections, modify the user search filter to make it not find the users, but

still have the AD connection, and run an identity source cleanup. This will wipe the database of any

GUIDs stored for AD users.

Another thing that would be possible if you do not want a 100% wipe, is 'export users and tokens' from 8.1 before deleting or wiping it, [this way you have a copy of first, last, default login, and tokens assigned]. Then you can blank it out with (a) and (c) above, but still have the ability to put one or more users back using the import function on the exported data.

[GeorgeNathaniel]

Thanks Edward, this makes sense, I will try again with these suggestions