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Migrate from Azure DevOps

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This document provides an overview of how to migrate from Azure DevOps to CircleCI.

Source control setup

If you are using Azure DevOps Git or TFVC repositories, you will first need to migrate your source code to GitHub, Bitbucket or GitLab. For Azure DevOps Git repositories, here are links on how to import:

For TFVC repositories, we recommend using the git-tfs tool. Here is a link to the tool and steps for using it:

GitHub Enterprise

Following are the steps required for using the git command line tool to import your code into GitHub Enterprise:

  1. Create an empty repository on your GitHub Enterprise instance.

  2. Create a bare clone of your external repository on your local machine, fetching all remote tags (refs/tags/*) and copying all remote branch heads (refs/heads/\*) directly to their corresponding local branch heads.

    git clone https://external-host.com/extuser/repo.git --bare

  3. Add your GitHub Enterprise repository as a remote reference in your local clone.

    cd [repo-name]
git remote add enterprise git@[hostname]:[owner]/[repo-name].git

  4. Push all local references (refs/*) up to your remote GitHub Enterprise repository.

    git push enterprise --mirror

If you need to export other Azure DevOps artifacts, you can download most of the data into Excel spreadsheets. Follow the Azure DevOps documentation on saving project data.

Once you have imported your code into GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab, you can start creating a project in CircleCI using the Getting Started guide.

Build configuration

If you are using Azure DevOps Pipelines or TFS Build and Release, you will need to migrate your build configuration. In Azure DevOps Pipelines, the build configuration is defined in a file called azure-pipelines.yml in the root directory of your source code repository. In TFS Build and Release, the build configuration is done through the web interface and can be exported to a JSON file. In either case, if you use shell scripts to perform your build, you can reuse those scripts in CircleCI.

First, create a CircleCI build configuration file. In the root directory of your source code repository, create a folder named .circleci and create a file in that folder named config.yml. Next, follow the CircleCI documentation here to learn how to configure the config.yml file.

The Azure DevOps Pipelines and CircleCI configurations will be different. It may be helpful to have both Azure DevOps and CircleCI reference documentation open side-by-side to help with the conversion of the build steps:

Configuration comparison

Azure DevOpsCircleCI

Define a job that executes a single build step.

jobs:
  - job: job1
    steps:
      - script: chmod +x ./script.sh
      - script: ./script.sh
jobs:
  job1:
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: "execute-script-for-job1"

Specify a Docker image to use for a job.

jobs:
  - job: job1
    container:
      image: node:10
jobs:
  job1:
    docker:
      - image: node:10

Define a multi-stage build pipeline. Job1 and Job2 run in concurrently. Once they are done, Job3 runs. Once Job3 is done, Job4 runs.

stages:
  - stage: build
    jobs:
    - job: job1
      steps:
        - script: make build dependencies
    - job: job2
      steps:
        - script: make build artifacts
  - stage: test
    jobs:
    - job: job3
      steps:
        - script: make test
  - stage: deploy
    jobs:
    - job: job4
      steps:
        - script: make deploy
version: 2.1
jobs:
  job1:
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: make build dependencies
  job2:
    steps:
      - run: make build artifacts
  job3:
    steps:
      - run: make test
  job4:
    steps:
      - run: make deploy

workflows:
  jobs:
    - job1
    - job2
    - job3:
        requires:
          - job1
          - job2
    - job4:
        requires:
          - job3

Execute jobs on multiple platforms. Azure DevOps uses pools and demands to identify build runners. CircleCI provides executors for Docker, Linux and macOS.

jobs:
  - job: ubuntuJob
    pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-16.04
    steps:
      - script: echo "Hello, $USER!"
  - job: osxJob
    pool:
      vmImage: macOS-10.14
    steps:
      - script: echo "Hello, $USER!"
jobs:
  ubuntuJob:
    machine:
      # The image uses the current tag, which always points to the most recent
      # supported release. If stability and determinism are crucial for your CI
      # pipeline, use a release date tag with your image, e.g. ubuntu-2004:202201-02
      image: ubuntu-2004:current
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: echo "Hello, $USER!"
  osxJob:
    macos:
      xcode: 14.2.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: echo "Hello, $USER!"

For larger and more complex build files, we recommend moving over the build steps in phases until you get comfortable with the CircleCI platform. We recommend this order:

  1. Execution of shell scripts and Docker compose files

  2. Workflows

  3. Artifacts

  4. Caching

  5. Triggers

  6. Performance options

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