[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":819},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently":3,"navigation-en-us":40,"banner-en-us":451,"footer-en-us":461,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Magdalena Frankiewicz":702,"blog-related-posts-en-us-how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently":716,"blog-promotions-en-us":757,"next-steps-en-us":809},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"authors":8,"body":10,"category":11,"categorySlug":11,"config":12,"content":16,"date":20,"description":17,"extension":26,"externalUrl":27,"featured":14,"heroImage":19,"isFeatured":14,"meta":28,"navigation":29,"path":30,"publishedDate":20,"rawbody":31,"seo":32,"slug":13,"stem":36,"tagSlugs":37,"tags":38,"template":15,"updatedDate":27,"__hash__":39},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently.yml","How to migrate GitLab groups and projects more efficiently",[7],"magdalena-frankiewicz",[9],"Magdalena Frankiewicz","Migrating groups and projects using direct transfer enables you to easily move GitLab resources between GitLab instances using either the UI or API. In a [previous blog post](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/try-out-new-way-to-migrate-projects/), we announced the release of migrating projects as a beta\nfeature **available to everyone**. We described the benefits of the method and steps to try it out.\n\nSince then, we have made further improvements, especially focusing on [efficient](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/8983) and\n[reliable](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/8927) migrations for large projects. In this blog, we'll elaborate on these improvements, as well as their impact on the overall process and speed of migrations. We'll also discuss estimating the duration of migrations.\n\n## Imports of CI/CD pipelines\n### Problem: Timing out\nWe received [a bug report about imports of CI/CD pipelines timing out](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/365702) and realized we needed to refine the underlying migration process. We considered the root cause of the problem and possible solutions, and ran proofs of concept. We concluded that we should tackle the\nproblem of having one massive archive file for a project with a large number of a certain relation types (for example, pipelines).\n\n### What we improved\nTo fix the problem of timeouts, we decided to introduce batching to the process of exporting and importing relations (for example, merge requests or pipelines).\n\nBefore we could fully complete the [epic for introducing the batching](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9036), we had to introduce a couple of other optimizations\nto the process of exporting CI/CD pipelines.\n\nIn GitLab 15.10, we started:\n- [preloading associations when exporting CI/CD pipelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/391593)\n- [exporting commit notes as a separate relation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/391601)\n\nWith these optimizations, exporting CI/CD pipelines sped up considerably. That allowed for a large number of pipelines in a project to be successfully exported to an archive file and then imported on the destination instance. However, because we were finally importing the pipelines, the overall duration of the migration increased.\n\nIn GitLab 16.3, we are introducing [exporting and importing relations in batches](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9036). This has two benefits:\n- improves migration performance by creating and transferring smaller archive files, instead of one file per relation. These files can be very big if a project has thousands of pipelines.\n- enables more parallelism. For example, the CI pipeline data is now split into multiple batches and concurrent Sidekiq jobs (assuming the Sidekiq workers are available on the destination instance, see below) import each batch.\n\nThis improvement is already available by default on GitLab.com.\n- **Users migrating from a self-managed GitLab instance to GitLab.com** have to have their self-managed instance on at least GitLab 16.2, where batched export is available, to benefit from this improvement.\n- **Users migrating from GitLab.com to a self-managed GitLab instance** have to have their self-managed instance on at least GitLab 16.2 and enable the `bulk_imports_batched_import_export` [feature flag](https://docs.gitlab.com/administration/feature_flags/) to benefit from this improvement.\n\n## Can we estimate the duration of a migration?\nThis question has been asked time and again. The answer is that duration of migration with direct transfer depends on many different factors. Some of them are:\n- Hardware and database resources available on the source and destination GitLab instances. More resources on the source and destination instances can result in shorter migration duration because:\n  - the source instance receives API requests, and extracts and serializes the entities to export\n  - the destination instance runs the jobs and creates the entities in its database\n- Complexity and size of data to be exported. For example, imagine you want to migrate two different projects with 1,000 merge requests each. The two projects can take very different amounts of time to migrate if one of the projects has a lot more attachments, comments, and other items on the merge requests. Therefore, the number of merge requests on a project is a poor predictor of how long a project will take to migrate.\n\nThere’s no exact formula to reliably estimate a migration. However, we checked the duration of each job importing a project relation to share with you the average numbers, so you can get an idea of how long importing your projects might take. Here is what we found:\n\n- importing an empty project takes about 2.4 seconds\n- importing one MR takes about 1 second\n- importing one issue takes about 0.1 seconds\n\nYou can find more project relations and the average duration to import them in the table below.\n\n| Project resource type | Average time (in seconds) to import a single record |\n| ---- | ---- |\n| Empty project\t| 2.4 |\n| Repository | 20 |\n| Project attributes\t| 1.5 |\n| Members\t| 0.2 |\n| Labels\t| 0.1 |\n| Milestones\t| 0.07 |\n| Badges\t| 0.1 |\n| Issues\t| 0.1 |\n| Snippets\t| 0.05 |\n| Snippet repositories | 0.5 |\n| Boards\t| 0.1 |\n| Merge requests\t| 1 |\n| External pull requests\t| 0.5 |\n| Protected branches\t| 0.1 |\n| Project feature\t| 0.3 |\n| Container expiration policy\t| 0.3 |\n| Service desk setting\t| 0.3 |\n| Releases | 0.1 |\n| CI/CD pipelines\t| 0.2 |\n| Commit notes\t| 0.05 |\n| Wiki\t| 10 |\n| Uploads |\t0.5 |\n| LFS objects\t| 0.5 |\n| Design\t| 0.1 |\n| Auto DevOps\t| 0.1 |\n| Pipeline schedules\t| 0.5 |\n| References\t| 5 |\n| Push rule\t| 0.1 |\n\n## How can we migrate efficiently?\nWe also know what is needed to achieve the most efficient migration possible.\nA single direct transfer migration runs up to five entities (groups or projects) per import at a time, independent of the number of Sidekiq workers available on the destination instance. Importing five concurrent entities is the maximum allowed per migration by direct transfer. This limit has been set to not overload the source GitLab instance, because\nwe saw network timeouts from source instances when we removed this limitation.\n\nThat doesn't mean that if more than five Sidekiq workers are available on the destination instance that they won't be utilized during a migration. On the contrary, more Sidekiq\nworkers help speed up the migration by decreasing the time it takes to import each entity. Import of relations is distributed across multiple jobs and a single project entity\nhas over 30 relations to be migrated. [Exporting and importing relations in batches](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9036) mentioned above results in even more\njobs to be processed by the Sidekiq workers.\nIncreasing the number of Sidekiq workers on the destination instance helps speed up the migration until the source instance hardware resources are saturated. For more information on\nincreasing the number of Sidekiq workers (increasing concurrency), see [Set up Sidekiq instance](https://docs.gitlab.com/administration/sidekiq/#set-up-sidekiq-instance).\n\nThe number of Sidekiq workers on the source instance should at least be enough to export the five concurrent entities in parallel (for each running import). Otherwise, there will\nbe delays and potential timeouts as the destination is waiting for exported data to become available.\n\nDistributing projects in different groups helps to avoid timeouts. If several large projects are in the same group, you can:\n1. Move large projects to different groups or subgroups.\n1. Start separate migrations each group and subgroup.\n\nThe GitLab UI can only migrate top-level groups. Using the API, you can also migrate subgroups.\n\n## What's next for migrating by direct transfer?\nOf course, we're not done yet! We will continue to improve the direct transfer method, aiming towards coming out of beta and into general availability. Next, we are working on:\n\n- [Moving hardcoded limits of direct transfer to settings](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/384976) - Migration by direct transfer has some hardcoded limits that can be made configurable to allow self-managed GitLab administrators to tune them according to their needs. For GitLab.com, we could set these limits higher than their hardcoded setting.\n- [Removing a 90-minute export timeout](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/392725) - Removing this limit will allow exporting of even larger projects, because only projects that can be migrated in under 90 minutes are supported at the moment.\n\nMore details can be found on our [migrating by direct transfer documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/import/). We are excited about this roadmap and hope you are too!\n\nWe want to hear from you. What's the most important missing piece for you? What else can we improve? Let us know\nin the [feedback issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/284495) or [schedule time](https://calendly.com/gitlab-magdalenafrankiewicz/45mins) with the Import and Integrations group product manager, and we'll keep iterating!\n\n_Disclaimer: This blog contains information related to upcoming products, features, and functionality. It is important to note that the information in this blog post is for informational purposes only. Please do not rely on this information for purchasing or planning purposes. As with all projects, the items mentioned in this blog and linked pages are subject to change or delay. The development, release, and timing of any products, features, or functionality remain at the sole discretion of GitLab._\n\nCover image by [Adrien VIN](https://unsplash.com/fr/@4dr13nv1n?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/migration-birds?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)\n","devsecops",{"slug":13,"featured":14,"template":15},"how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently",false,"BlogPost",{"title":5,"description":17,"authors":18,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":10,"category":11,"tags":21},"Learn about performance improvements to GitLab migration by direct transfer and what's next.",[9],"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749668760/Blog/Hero%20Images/migration2.jpg","2023-08-02",[22,23,24,25],"features","news","workflow","product","yml",null,{},true,"/en-us/blog/how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently","seo:\n  title: How to migrate GitLab groups and projects more efficiently\n  description: >-\n    Learn about performance improvements to GitLab migration by direct transfer\n    and what's next.\n  ogTitle: How to migrate GitLab groups and projects more efficiently\n  ogDescription: >-\n    Learn about performance improvements to GitLab migration by direct transfer\n    and what's next.\n  noIndex: false\n  ogImage: >-\n    https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749668760/Blog/Hero%20Images/migration2.jpg\n  ogUrl: >-\n    https://about.gitlab.com/blog/how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently\n  ogSiteName: https://about.gitlab.com\n  ogType: article\n  canonicalUrls: >-\n    https://about.gitlab.com/blog/how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently\ncontent:\n  title: How to migrate GitLab groups and projects more efficiently\n  description: >-\n    Learn about performance improvements to GitLab migration by direct transfer\n    and what's next.\n  authors:\n    - Magdalena Frankiewicz\n  heroImage: >-\n    https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749668760/Blog/Hero%20Images/migration2.jpg\n  date: '2023-08-02'\n  body: \"Migrating groups and projects using direct transfer enables you to easily\n    move GitLab resources between GitLab instances using either the UI or API.\n    In a [previous blog\n    post](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/try-out-new-way-to-migrate-projects/),\n    we announced the release of migrating projects as a beta\n\n    feature **available to everyone**. We described the benefits of the method\n    and steps to try it out.\n\n\n    Since then, we have made further improvements, especially focusing on\n    [efficient](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/8983) and\n\n    [reliable](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/8927) migrations for\n    large projects. In this blog, we'll elaborate on these improvements, as well\n    as their impact on the overall process and speed of migrations. We'll also\n    discuss estimating the duration of migrations.\n\n\n    ## Imports of CI/CD pipelines\n\n    ### Problem: Timing out\n\n    We received [a bug report about imports of CI/CD pipelines timing\n    out](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/365702) and realized we\n    needed to refine the underlying migration process. We considered the root\n    cause of the problem and possible solutions, and ran proofs of concept. We\n    concluded that we should tackle the\n\n    problem of having one massive archive file for a project with a large number\n    of a certain relation types (for example, pipelines).\n\n\n    ### What we improved\n\n    To fix the problem of timeouts, we decided to introduce batching to the\n    process of exporting and importing relations (for example, merge requests or\n    pipelines).\n\n\n    Before we could fully complete the [epic for introducing the\n    batching](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9036), we had to\n    introduce a couple of other optimizations\n\n    to the process of exporting CI/CD pipelines.\n\n\n    In GitLab 15.10, we started:\n\n    - [preloading associations when exporting CI/CD\n    pipelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/391593)\n\n    - [exporting commit notes as a separate\n    relation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/391601)\n\n\n    With these optimizations, exporting CI/CD pipelines sped up considerably.\n    That allowed for a large number of pipelines in a project to be successfully\n    exported to an archive file and then imported on the destination instance.\n    However, because we were finally importing the pipelines, the overall\n    duration of the migration increased.\n\n\n    In GitLab 16.3, we are introducing [exporting and importing relations in\n    batches](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9036). This has two\n    benefits:\n\n    - improves migration performance by creating and transferring smaller\n    archive files, instead of one file per relation. These files can be very big\n    if a project has thousands of pipelines.\n\n    - enables more parallelism. For example, the CI pipeline data is now split\n    into multiple batches and concurrent Sidekiq jobs (assuming the Sidekiq\n    workers are available on the destination instance, see below) import each\n    batch.\n\n\n    This improvement is already available by default on GitLab.com.\n\n    - **Users migrating from a self-managed GitLab instance to GitLab.com** have\n    to have their self-managed instance on at least GitLab 16.2, where batched\n    export is available, to benefit from this improvement.\n\n    - **Users migrating from GitLab.com to a self-managed GitLab instance** have\n    to have their self-managed instance on at least GitLab 16.2 and enable the\n    `bulk_imports_batched_import_export` [feature\n    flag](https://docs.gitlab.com/administration/feature_flags/) to\n    benefit from this improvement.\n\n\n    ## Can we estimate the duration of a migration?\n\n    This question has been asked time and again. The answer is that duration of\n    migration with direct transfer depends on many different factors. Some of\n    them are:\\\n\n\n    - Hardware and database resources available on the source and destination\n    GitLab instances. More resources on the source and destination instances can\n    result in shorter migration duration because:\n\n    \\  - the source instance receives API requests, and extracts and serializes\n    the entities to export\n\n    \\  - the destination instance runs the jobs and creates the entities in its\n    database\n\n    - Complexity and size of data to be exported. For example, imagine you want\n    to migrate two different projects with 1,000 merge requests each. The two\n    projects can take very different amounts of time to migrate if one of the\n    projects has a lot more attachments, comments, and other items on the merge\n    requests. Therefore, the number of merge requests on a project is a poor\n    predictor of how long a project will take to migrate.\n\n\n    There’s no exact formula to reliably estimate a migration. However, we\n    checked the duration of each job importing a project relation to share with\n    you the average numbers, so you can get an idea of how long importing your\n    projects might take. Here is what we found:\n\n\n    - importing an empty project takes about 2.4 seconds\n\n    - importing one MR takes about 1 second\n\n    - importing one issue takes about 0.1 seconds\n\n\n    You can find more project relations and the average duration to import them\n    in the table below.\n\n\n    | Project resource type | Average time (in seconds) to import a single\n    record |\n\n    | ---- | ---- |\n\n    | Empty project\\t| 2.4 |\n\n    | Repository | 20 |\n\n    | Project attributes\\t| 1.5 |\n\n    | Members\\t| 0.2 |\n\n    | Labels\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Milestones\\t| 0.07 |\n\n    | Badges\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Issues\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Snippets\\t| 0.05 |\n\n    | Snippet repositories | 0.5 |\n\n    | Boards\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Merge requests\\t| 1 |\n\n    | External pull requests\\t| 0.5 |\n\n    | Protected branches\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Project feature\\t| 0.3 |\n\n    | Container expiration policy\\t| 0.3 |\n\n    | Service desk setting\\t| 0.3 |\n\n    | Releases | 0.1 |\n\n    | CI/CD pipelines\\t| 0.2 |\n\n    | Commit notes\\t| 0.05 |\n\n    | Wiki\\t| 10 |\n\n    | Uploads |\\t0.5 |\n\n    | LFS objects\\t| 0.5 |\n\n    | Design\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Auto DevOps\\t| 0.1 |\n\n    | Pipeline schedules\\t| 0.5 |\n\n    | References\\t| 5 |\n\n    | Push rule\\t| 0.1 |\n\n\n    ## How can we migrate efficiently?\n\n    We also know what is needed to achieve the most efficient migration\n    possible.\\\n\n\n    A single direct transfer migration runs up to five entities (groups or\n    projects) per import at a time, independent of the number of Sidekiq workers\n    available on the destination instance. Importing five concurrent entities is\n    the maximum allowed per migration by direct transfer. This limit has been\n    set to not overload the source GitLab instance, because\n\n    we saw network timeouts from source instances when we removed this\n    limitation.\n\n\n    That doesn't mean that if more than five Sidekiq workers are available on\n    the destination instance that they won't be utilized during a migration. On\n    the contrary, more Sidekiq\n\n    workers help speed up the migration by decreasing the time it takes to\n    import each entity. Import of relations is distributed across multiple jobs\n    and a single project entity\n\n    has over 30 relations to be migrated. [Exporting and importing relations in\n    batches](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9036) mentioned above\n    results in even more\n\n    jobs to be processed by the Sidekiq workers.\\\n\n\n    Increasing the number of Sidekiq workers on the destination instance helps\n    speed up the migration until the source instance hardware resources are\n    saturated. For more information on\n\n    increasing the number of Sidekiq workers (increasing concurrency), see [Set\n    up Sidekiq\n    instance](https://docs.gitlab.com/administration/sidekiq/#set-up-sidekiq\\\n    -instance).\n\n\n    The number of Sidekiq workers on the source instance should at least be\n    enough to export the five concurrent entities in parallel (for each running\n    import). Otherwise, there will\n\n    be delays and potential timeouts as the destination is waiting for exported\n    data to become available.\n\n\n    Distributing projects in different groups helps to avoid timeouts. If\n    several large projects are in the same group, you can:\n\n    1. Move large projects to different groups or subgroups.\n\n    1. Start separate migrations each group and subgroup.\n\n\n    The GitLab UI can only migrate top-level groups. Using the API, you can also\n    migrate subgroups.\n\n\n    ## What's next for migrating by direct transfer?\n\n    Of course, we're not done yet! We will continue to improve the direct\n    transfer method, aiming towards coming out of beta and into general\n    availability. Next, we are working on:\n\n\n    - [Moving hardcoded limits of direct transfer to\n    settings](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/384976) - Migration\n    by direct transfer has some hardcoded limits that can be made configurable\n    to allow self-managed GitLab administrators to tune them according to their\n    needs. For GitLab.com, we could set these limits higher than their hardcoded\n    setting.\n\n    - [Removing a 90-minute export\n    timeout](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/392725) - Removing\n    this limit will allow exporting of even larger projects, because only\n    projects that can be migrated in under 90 minutes are supported at the\n    moment.\n\n\n    More details can be found on our [migrating by direct transfer documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/import/). We are\n    excited about this roadmap and hope you are too!\n\n\n    We want to hear from you. What's the most important missing piece for you?\n    What else can we improve? Let us know\n\n    in the [feedback\n    issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/284495) or [schedule\n    time](https://calendly.com/gitlab-magdalenafrankiewicz/45mins) with the\n    Import and Integrations group product manager, and we'll keep iterating!\n\n\n    _Disclaimer: This blog contains information related to upcoming products,\n    features, and functionality. It is important to note that the information in\n    this blog post is for informational purposes only. Please do not rely on\n    this information for purchasing or planning purposes. As with all projects,\n    the items mentioned in this blog and linked pages are subject to change or\n    delay. The development, release, and timing of any products, features, or\n    functionality remain at the sole discretion of GitLab._\n\n\n    Cover image by [Adrien\n    VIN](https://unsplash.com/fr/@4dr13nv1n?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=refe\\\n    rral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on\n    [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/migration-birds?utm_source=unsplas\\\n    h&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)\\n\"\n  category: devsecops\n  tags:\n    - features\n    - news\n    - workflow\n    - product\nconfig:\n  slug: how-to-migrate-gitlab-groups-and-projects-more-efficiently\n  featured: false\n  template: 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software development the easy way using GitLab","Learn how University of Washington lecturer Stephen G. Dame uses GitLab for Education to manage student assignments, distribute course materials, and provide inline code feedback at scale.\n",[722],"Rod Burns","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749659537/Blog/Hero%20Images/display-article-image-0679-1800x945-fy26.png","2026-04-29","For instructors teaching software development, one of the biggest logistical challenges is assignment distribution and feedback at scale. How do you give large groups of students access to course materials, keep solution code private, and still deliver meaningful, contextual feedback without lots of administrative overhead?\n\nThe **[GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/)** provides qualifying institutions with free access to **GitLab Ultimate**, enabling instructors to build professional-grade workflows that mirror real-world software development environments. In this article, you'll learn how Stephen G. Dame, a lecturer in the Computing and Software Systems department at the University of Washington, Bothell, uses simple workflows in GitLab to manage everything from course materials to student feedback across multiple classes.\n\n## From aerospace to academia: Bringing GitLab to the classroom\n\nDame came to academia with years of experience as a chief software engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where GitLab was used for aerospace projects. As an adjunct professor, he became an early advocate for GitLab within the university, joining the GitLab for Education program to access the full feature set needed to run structured, scalable course workflows.\n\n> **\"GitLab provides the greatest way to organize multiple classes, student assignments, lectures, and code samples through the use of Groups and Subgroups, which I found to be unique to GitLab compared to other repository platforms.\"**\n>\n> - Stephen G. Dame, University of Washington, Bothell\n\n## Set up groups: Build the right structure before writing a line of code\n\nThe foundation of an effective GitLab-based course is a well-planned group hierarchy. GitLab's **[Groups and Subgroups](https://docs.gitlab.com/tutorials/manage_user/#create-the-organization-parent-group-and-subgroups)** allow instructors to model the natural structure of a university department institution, course, and role with precise, inheritable permissions at every level.\n\nDame's structure places the university at the root (`UWTeaching`), with each course occupying its own subgroup (e.g. `css430`). Within each course sit repositories for `lecture-materials` and `code`, alongside dedicated Subgroups for `students` and `graders`. Instructor materials remain private, while student and grader subgroups are configured with controlled permissions so that assignment briefs and solutions are visible only to the right people.\n\n![Screenshot of GitLab group hierarchy — institution, course subgroup, and per-student subgroups](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1777463673/dpxfnitv76pdmvcqtgag.png)\n\nPermissions cascade downward through the hierarchy via **Manage > Members**, allowing Dame to add students to a course's `students` subgroup with `Reporter` access and an expiration date tied to the end of the academic quarter. Students can clone and pull from assignment repositories but cannot push — keeping solution code firmly under instructor control.\n\nStudents are guided to set up SSH keys across all their working environments (local machines, cloud shells, virtual machines) so they can clone repositories and receive weekly updates via `git pull`. They copy relevant code into their own private repositories to manage their own version history.\n\n**Tip for large classes:** For larger cohorts, adding students by hand is impractical. GitLab's REST API lets you automate subgroup creation and membership from a list of usernames. Below is a sample Python script that handles this:\n\n```python\n    import gitlab\n    from datetime import datetime\n\n    # Connect to your GitLab instance\n    gl = gitlab.Gitlab('https://gitlab.com', private_token='YOUR_PRIVATE_TOKEN')\n\n    # Target parent group ID (e.g., the ID for \"css430 > students\")\n    parent_group_id = 12345678\n\n    # Set expiration: typically the beginning of the next month after quarter end\n    expiry_date = '2025-01-01'\n\n    # List of collected student usernames\n    student_list = ['alice_css430', 'bob_css430', 'carol_css430', 'dave_css430', 'eve_css430']\n\n    for username in student_list:\n        try:\n            # 1. Create a personal subgroup for the student\n            subgroup = gl.groups.create({\n                'name': username,\n                'path': username,\n                'parent_id': parent_group_id,\n                'visibility': 'private'\n            })\n\n            # 2. Add student to the new subgroup with Expiration\n            user = gl.users.list(username=username)[0]\n            subgroup.members.create({\n                'user_id': user.id,\n                'access_level': gitlab.const.REPORTER_ACCESS,\n                'expires_at': expiry_date\n            })\n            print(f\"Success: Subgroup created and student added for {username}\")\n        except Exception as e:\n            print(f\"Error processing {username}: {e}\")\n```\nThere is also an [open source project that automates class management](https://gitlab.com/edu-docs/class-management-automation) published by GitLab that provides additional tooling for this workflow.\n## Give feedback where the work actually lives\n\nOnce the structure is in place, the feedback workflow is where GitLab's value becomes most apparent to students. Dame asks students to submit assignments by opening a **[merge request](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/merge_requests/)** in their repository. This gives instructors an immediate, clean diff of everything the student has written.\n![A GitLab merge request showing inline code comment function for an instructor](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1777467468/icclzyglbkwlvfysggbi.png)\nInstructors can click any line of code and leave an **inline comment** — not just flagging what is wrong, but explaining why, and pointing to what to look at next. Students receive this feedback in direct context with their code, which is far more actionable than a comment at the bottom of a submitted document.\n\n## Join GitLab for Education\n\nSetting up your first GitLab assignment takes some initial effort, but once the structure is in place it largely runs itself. The real payoff goes beyond organization: Students graduate having worked daily in an environment that mirrors professional software development, building habits around [version control](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/version-control/) and [code review](https://docs.gitlab.com/development/code_review/) rather than learning them as abstract concepts.\n\nIf you are just getting started, keep it simple. Begin with a single course group, one assignment template, and a basic pipeline. The structure will grow naturally alongside your confidence with the platform.\n\nMake sure to **[sign up for GitLab for Education](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/join/)** so that you and your students can access all top-tier features, including unlimited reviewers on merge requests, additional compute minutes, and expanded storage.\n\n> [Apply to the GitLab for Education program today](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/join/).",[624,727],"open source",{"featured":14,"template":15,"slug":729},"teaching-software-development-the-easy-way-using-gitlab",{"content":731,"config":743},{"description":732,"authors":733,"heroImage":735,"date":736,"title":737,"body":738,"category":11,"tags":739},"AI-generated code is 34% of development work. Discover how to balance productivity gains with quality, reliability, and security.",[734],"Manav Khurana","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767982271/e9ogyosmuummq7j65zqg.png","2026-01-08","AI is reshaping DevSecOps: Attend GitLab Transcend to see what’s next","AI promises a step change in innovation velocity, but most software teams are hitting a wall. According to our latest [Global DevSecOps Report](https://about.gitlab.com/developer-survey/), AI-generated code now accounts for 34% of all development work. Yet 70% of DevSecOps professionals report that AI is making compliance management more difficult, and 76% say agentic AI will create unprecedented security challenges.\n\nThis is the AI paradox: AI accelerates coding, but software delivery slows down as teams struggle to test, secure, and deploy all that code.\n\n## Productivity gains meet workflow bottlenecks\nThe problem isn't AI itself. It's how software gets built today. The traditional DevSecOps lifecycle contains hundreds of small tasks that developers must navigate manually: updating tickets, running tests, requesting reviews, waiting for approvals, fixing merge conflicts, addressing security findings. These tasks drain an average of seven hours per week from every team member, according to our research.\n\nDevelopment teams are producing code faster than ever, but that code still crawls through fragmented toolchains, manual handoffs, and disconnected processes. In fact, 60% of DevSecOps teams use more than five tools for software development overall, and 49% use more than five AI tools. This fragmentation creates collaboration barriers, with 94% of DevSecOps professionals experiencing factors that limit collaboration in the software development lifecycle.\n\nThe answer isn't more tools. It's intelligent orchestration that brings software teams and their AI agents together across projects and release cycles, with enterprise-grade security, governance, and compliance built in.\n\n## Seeking deeper human-AI partnerships\nDevSecOps professionals don't want AI to take over — they want reliable partnerships. The vast majority (82%) say using agentic AI would increase their job satisfaction, and 43% envision an ideal future with a 50/50 split between human and AI contributions. They're ready to trust AI with 37% of their daily tasks without human review, particularly for documentation, test writing, and code reviews.\n\nWhat we heard resoundingly from DevSecOps professionals is that AI won't replace them; rather, it will fundamentally reshape their roles. 83% of DevSecOps professionals believe AI will significantly change their work within five years, and notably, 76% think this will create more engineering jobs, not fewer. As coding becomes easier with AI, engineers who can architect systems, ensure quality, and apply business context will be in high demand.\n\nCritically, 88% agree there are essential human qualities that AI will never fully replace, including creativity, innovation, collaboration, and strategic vision.\n\nSo how can organizations bridge the gap between AI’s promise and the reality of fragmented workflows?\n\n## Join us at GitLab Transcend: Explore how to drive real value with agentic AI\nOn February 10, 2026, GitLab will be hosting Transcend, where we'll reveal how intelligent orchestration transforms AI-powered software development. You'll get a first look at GitLab's upcoming product roadmap and learn how teams are solving real-world challenges by modernizing development workflows with AI.\n\nOrganizations winning in this new era balance AI adoption with security, compliance, and platform consolidation. AI offers genuine productivity gains when implemented thoughtfully — not by replacing human developers, but by freeing DevSecOps professionals to focus on strategic thinking and creative innovation.\n\n[Register for Transcend today](https://about.gitlab.com/events/transcend/virtual/) to secure your spot and discover how intelligent orchestration can help your software teams stay in flow.",[740,741,742],"AI/ML","DevOps platform","security",{"featured":29,"template":15,"slug":744},"ai-is-reshaping-devsecops-attend-gitlab-transcend-to-see-whats-next",{"content":746,"config":755},{"title":747,"description":748,"authors":749,"heroImage":751,"date":752,"body":753,"category":11,"tags":754},"Atlassian ending Data Center as GitLab maintains deployment choice","As Atlassian transitions Data Center customers to cloud-only, GitLab presents a menu of deployment choices that map to business needs.",[750],"Emilio Salvador","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750098354/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%281%29_5XrohmuWBNuqL89BxVUzWm_1750098354056.png","2025-10-07","Change is never easy, especially when it's not your choice. Atlassian's announcement that [all Data Center products will reach end-of-life by March 28, 2029](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/atlassian-ascend), means thousands of organizations must now reconsider their DevSecOps deployment and infrastructure. But you don't have to settle for deployment options that don't fit your needs. GitLab maintains your freedom to choose — whether you need self-managed for compliance, cloud for convenience, or hybrid for flexibility — all within a single AI-powered DevSecOps platform that respects your requirements.\n\nWhile other vendors force migrations to cloud-only architectures, GitLab remains committed to supporting the deployment choices that match your business needs. Whether you're managing sensitive government data, operating in air-gapped environments, or simply prefer the control of self-managed deployments, we understand that one size doesn't fit all.\n\n## The cloud isn't the answer for everyone\n\nFor the many companies that invested millions of dollars in Data Center deployments, including those that migrated to Data Center [after its Server products were discontinued](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/atlassian-server-ending-move-to-a-single-devsecops-platform/), this announcement represents more than a product sunset. It signals a fundamental shift away from customer-centric architecture choices, forcing enterprises into difficult positions: accept a deployment model that doesn't fit their needs, or find a vendor that respects their requirements.\n\nMany of the organizations requiring self-managed deployments represent some of the world's most important organizations: healthcare systems protecting patient data, financial institutions managing trillions in assets, government agencies safeguarding national security, and defense contractors operating in air-gapped environments.\n\nThese organizations don't choose self-managed deployments for convenience; they choose them for compliance, security, and sovereignty requirements that cloud-only architectures simply cannot meet. Organizations operating in closed environments with restricted or no internet access aren't exceptions — they represent a significant portion of enterprise customers across various industries.\n\n![GitLab vs. Atlassian comparison table](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1759928476/ynl7wwmkh5xyqhszv46m.jpg)\n\n## The real cost of forced cloud migration goes beyond dollars\n\nWhile cloud-only vendors frame mandatory migrations as \"upgrades,\" organizations face substantial challenges beyond simple financial costs:\n\n* **Lost integration capabilities:** Years of custom integrations with legacy systems, carefully crafted workflows, and enterprise-specific automations become obsolete. Organizations with deep integrations to legacy systems often find cloud migration technically infeasible.\n\n* **Regulatory constraints:** For organizations in regulated industries, cloud migration isn't just complex — it's often not permitted. Data residency requirements, air-gapped environments, and strict regulatory frameworks don't bend to vendor preferences. The absence of single-tenant solutions in many cloud-only approaches creates insurmountable compliance barriers.\n\n* **Productivity impacts:** Cloud-only architectures often require juggling multiple products: separate tools for planning, code management, CI/CD, and documentation. Each tool means another context switch, another integration to maintain, another potential point of failure. GitLab research shows [30% of developers spend at least 50% of their job maintaining and/or integrating their DevSecOps toolchain](https://about.gitlab.com/developer-survey/). Fragmented architectures exacerbate this challenge rather than solving it.\n\n## GitLab offers choice, commitment, and consolidation\n\nEnterprise customers deserve a trustworthy technology partner. That's why we've committed to supporting a range of deployment options — whether you need on-premises for compliance, hybrid for flexibility, or cloud for convenience, the choice remains yours. That commitment continues with [GitLab Duo](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo-agent-platform/), our AI solution that supports developers at every stage of their workflow.\n\nBut we offer more than just deployment flexibility. While other vendors might force you to cobble together their products into a fragmented toolchain, GitLab provides everything in a **comprehensive AI-native DevSecOps platform**. Source code management, CI/CD, security scanning, Agile planning, and documentation are all managed within a single application and a single vendor relationship.\n\nThis isn't theoretical. When Airbus and [Iron Mountain](https://about.gitlab.com/customers/iron-mountain/) evaluated their existing fragmented toolchains, they consistently identified challenges: poor user experience, missing functionalities like built-in security scanning and review apps, and management complexity from plugin troubleshooting. **These aren't minor challenges; they're major blockers for modern software delivery.**\n\n## Your migration path: Simpler than you think\n\nWe've helped thousands of organizations migrate from other vendors, and we've built the tools and expertise to make your transition smooth:\n\n* **Automated migration tools:** Our [Bitbucket Server importer](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/import/bitbucket_server/) brings over repositories, pull requests, comments, and even Large File Storage (LFS) objects. For Jira, our [built-in importer](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/import/jira/) handles issues, descriptions, and labels, with professional services available for complex migrations.\n\n* **Proven at scale:** A 500 GiB repository with 13,000 pull requests, 10,000 branches, and 7,000 tags is likely to [take just 8 hours to migrate](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/import/bitbucket_server/) from Bitbucket to GitLab using parallel processing.\n\n* **Immediate ROI:** A [Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/resources/study-forrester-tei-gitlab-ultimate/) found that investing in GitLab Ultimate confirms these benefits translate to real bottom-line impact, with a three-year 483% ROI, 5x time saved in security related activities, and 25% savings in software toolchain costs.\n\n## Start your journey to a unified DevSecOps platform\n\nForward-thinking organizations aren't waiting for vendor-mandated deadlines. They're evaluating alternatives now, while they have time to migrate thoughtfully to platforms that protect their investments and deliver on promises.\n\nOrganizations invest in self-managed deployments because they need control, compliance, and customization. When vendors deprecate these capabilities, they remove not just features but the fundamental ability to choose environments matching business requirements.\n\nModern DevSecOps platforms should offer complete functionality that respects deployment needs, consolidates toolchains, and accelerates software delivery, without forcing compromises on security or data sovereignty.\n\n[Talk to our sales team](https://about.gitlab.com/sales/) today about your migration options, or explore our [comprehensive migration resources](https://about.gitlab.com/move-to-gitlab-from-atlassian/) to see how thousands of organizations have already made the switch.\n\nYou also can [try GitLab Ultimate with GitLab Duo Enterprise](https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/devsecops/) for free for 30 days to see what a unified DevSecOps platform can do for your organization.",[575,568,25,22],{"featured":29,"template":15,"slug":756},"atlassian-ending-data-center-as-gitlab-maintains-deployment-choice",{"promotions":758},[759,773,784,795],{"id":760,"categories":761,"header":763,"text":764,"button":765,"image":770},"ai-modernization",[762],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":766,"config":767},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":768,"dataGaName":769,"dataGaLocation":244},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":771},{"src":772},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":774,"categories":775,"header":776,"text":764,"button":777,"image":781},"devops-modernization",[25,11],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":778,"config":779},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":780,"dataGaName":769,"dataGaLocation":244},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":782},{"src":783},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":785,"categories":786,"header":787,"text":764,"button":788,"image":792},"security-modernization",[742],"Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":789,"config":790},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":791,"dataGaName":769,"dataGaLocation":244},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":793},{"src":794},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"id":796,"paths":797,"header":800,"text":801,"button":802,"image":807},"github-azure-migration",[798,799],"migration-from-azure-devops-to-gitlab","integrating-azure-devops-scm-and-gitlab","Is your team ready for GitHub's Azure move?","GitHub is already rebuilding around Azure. Find out what it means for you.",{"text":803,"config":804},"See how GitLab compares to GitHub",{"href":805,"dataGaName":806,"dataGaLocation":244},"/compare/gitlab-vs-github/github-azure-migration/","github azure migration",{"config":808},{"src":783},{"header":810,"blurb":811,"button":812,"secondaryButton":817},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":813,"config":814},"Get your free trial",{"href":815,"dataGaName":51,"dataGaLocation":816},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":507,"config":818},{"href":55,"dataGaName":56,"dataGaLocation":816},1777493597321]