OpsHub TFS to VSOnline Migration Utility - Will WorkItem # not stay the same?

Question

We're migrating various projects from on-prem to VS Online using the OpsHub Migration Tool.

I'm seeing that the work item numbers on-premises does not match the same work items number in VSO. Is that by design, or am I using the tool wrong?

If not, is there a way to retain the work item numbers?

Answer 1

Workitem # is auto-generated field in VS Online, OpsHub Migration Tool do not migrate them. OpsHub starts migration of workitems across workitem types(Bug, Test Case, etc) in parallel. Thus there is no guarantee that workitem# will be same in both end point.

Answer 2

This is by design. Work item numbers are not unique per project, but are set at the project collection level. The only way to import them while retaining values would be to import to a completely empty account, that would only work for the first project being imported though, since, after importing the first project, any further project would have to be re-numbered.

On an on-premise TFS, under very special circumstances and with high enough permissions on a completely bare collection it's possible to import a project while retaining Id's.

In the cloud, it's just not supported.