What a migration costs you

A migration is cheap in money and not free in disruption. Knowing the four costs up front is what stops a run being a surprise to everybody else.

None of them are large. All of them are worth telling people about first.


#The four costs

Cost

Detail

A new page version on every changed page

This is the safety net, and it is also a lot of versions on a large space.

Watcher notifications

Page watchers may be notified of those versions. On a busy space, tell people before you run.

Run time

The tab has to stay open. A large estate with diagram history replay can take hours.

Duplicated content, if you use Keep source macros

The page renders twice until you clean up, and re-running does not remove the duplicates.


#What it does not cost

  • Nothing is deleted. Original attachments, preview images and vendor content are read and left in place.

  • No content is lost on failure. A macro that fails to convert stays exactly as it was.

  • No licence juggling during the run. You can keep both apps installed while you review.


#A few things that catch people out

  • Version churn is the cost people forget to mention to space admins. It is the one that generates complaints.

  • Keep source macros is a pilot option, not a production one.

  • The run cannot be paused and resumed. Budget the time in one sitting.



Cheap, but not invisible.