This article covers the recommended steps to migrate from Project Server to Project Online. These steps can also be applied to migrations between different Project Server versions, such as a migration from Project Server 2013 to Project Server 2016.
In some instances, migration between Project Server and Project Online can cause the Unique ID or the GUID field in your project plans to change. When Microsoft changes the GUIDs or UIDs in your existing project plans, OnePager needs to make adjustments. This is because OnePager relies on either the Unique ID (from Project locally) or the GUID (from the Project Server/Project Online connection) to successfully track updates to your report.
Automatic Safeguards
OnePager has several layers of redundancy that help eliminate issues when the fundamental elements of your project plan have changed:
- When your Project Online GUIDs change values from one environment to another, OnePager has a method to silently and accurately re-map the tasks in your report to use the new GUID instead of the old GUID. This holds true for local Microsoft Project Unique IDs as well.
- When task names in your project plan have changed, or if you have modified task names in your OnePager report to be different than what is stored in Project, OnePager is able to adjust to these changes assuming that the Unique ID or GUID remains consistent.
- All automatic and rules-based formatting in OnePager will carry forward during a Project Server to Project Online migration, even if both the Unique ID/GUID and the task names have changed.
As long as at least one of the three conditions above are true, OnePager will be able to seamlessly migrate your reports from one Project Server or Project Online environment to another.
Risk of Manual Formatting Loss
In rare cases, we see customers who have:
- GUID or Unique ID values that have changed between environments; AND
- Task names that have been changed, either in Project, or in OnePager, where one is out of sync with the other; AND
- Formatted tasks manually (point and click) instead of using rules-based formatting.
If all three of the above safeguards have been missed, it's possible to see some OnePager reports where formatting is not preserved between the old environment and the new environment. To avoid this, there is a special one-time maintenance update that you can do to your OnePager reports in your old environment before migrating them to the new environment.
We have two sets of instructions, depending on whether you prefer to connect to Project Server and Project Online through Microsoft Project on the desktop, or if you prefer to connect OnePager directly to your server without going through Microsoft Project. Please follow the set of instructions that most closely match how you use OnePager:
Project Server Migration Using Microsoft Project
In this example migration, we will move a OnePager report from Project Server 2013 to Project Online using the Microsoft Project desktop client to read the information from both environments.
- As a starting point, here is the OnePager file that was created in Project Server 2013. Notice that all of the task names are called "Original" and are colored orange, which was done manually:
We're also displaying the Project Server 2013 GUIDs in the OnePager report for diagnostic purposes.
Looking at Project Server 2013, notice that the task names have since been changed to something different at some point along the way and are called "Renamed":
Normally, it's not a problem for task names to be different between Project Server and OnePager, but when migrating environments, we want to get everything temporarily back in sync to add in an extra layer of redundancy.
To preserve manual formatting in preparation for the move from Project Server 2013 to Project Online, we want to refresh the task names in OnePager to match the ones in Project Server 2013. OnePager will do this using the GUIDs, which are still consistent between Project Server 2013 and OnePager, because the migration hasn't happened yet.
In desktop Microsoft Project, log into Project Server 2013 and open your project plan. Then click the OnePager button and choose the Update option from the OnePager start menu. On the update wizard, make sure that you've selected the All Properties option:
Click on the Replace All Properties button. OnePager will connect to Project Server 2013 using the old set of GUIDs, and you should see your task names refresh to match Project Server 2013:
With the task names updated, OnePager will now be able to switch environments and preserve all of your manual formatting, even if the GUIDs completely change between Project Server to Project Online.
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Now, it's time to switch environments. Close OnePager, close Microsoft Project, and sign out of Project Server 2013. Now, re-launch Microsoft Project and sign into Project Online instead of Project Server 2013. We assume that there's already a version of the same project plan checked into Project Online, but if not, you'll want to move that over first.
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Re-open the project plan from Project Online, and then go back to the Add-Ins tab and click the OnePager button again. Choose the Update option from the start menu again and pick your OnePager report from the recent files list. OnePager will detect that the report was originally created with the Project Server 2013 version of your plan and is now being updated with the Project Online version of your plan and will give you a warning like this:
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Check the box that says Always Use the Open Microsoft Project file. This will remove all old references to Project Server 2013 so that your OnePager report will be associated with Project Online going forward:
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Now, choose the All Properties replacement mode again and click the Replace All Properties button:
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OnePager will re-import your plan from Project Online. It will detect the change in GUIDs, and because the task names are the same, OnePager will automatically re-map the GUIDs to match what's in Project Online. This keeps your formatting intact:
In this example, all of the formatting stays the same, even though the GUIDs (shown on the left) have completely changed between Project Server and Project Online
Once the OnePager report has been migrated from Project Server to Project Online, you are free to once again change task names, reformat your tasks, and make any other adjustments as you see fit. The migration is a one-time maintenance task for each report, so once a report has been successfully moved from one environment to another, it will continue to work normally going forward and will not need to be updated in this special way again.
Project Server Migration Without Microsoft Project
In this example migration, we will move a OnePager report from Project Server 2013 to Project Online using OnePager's direct connection to Project Server and Project Online that does not rely on Microsoft Project on the desktop.
- As a starting point, here is the OnePager file that was created in Project Server 2013. Notice that all of the task names are called "Original" and are colored orange, which was done manually:
We're also displaying the Project Server 2013 GUIDs in the OnePager report for diagnostic purposes.
Looking at Project Server 2013, notice that the task names have since been changed to something different at some point along the way and are called "Renamed":
Normally, it's not a problem for task names to be different between Project Server and OnePager, but when migrating environments, we want to get everything temporarily back in sync to add in an extra layer of redundancy.
To preserve manual formatting in preparation for the move from Project Server 2013 to Project Online, we want to refresh the task names in OnePager to match the ones in Project Server 2013. OnePager will do this using the GUIDs, which are still consistent between Project Server 2013 and OnePager, because the migration hasn't happened yet.
Launch OnePager and open your chart. Then go to Data > Custom Update. On the update wizard, make sure that you've selected the All Properties option:
Click on the Replace All Properties button. OnePager will connect to Project Server 2013 using the old set of GUIDs, and you should see your task names refresh to match Project Server 2013:
With the task names updated, OnePager will now be able to switch environments and preserve all of your manual formatting, even if the GUIDs completely change between Project Server to Project Online.
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Now, it's time to switch environments. With your OnePager chart still open, go to Data > Selected Files. Click on your project plan from Project Server 2013 and click the Remove button
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With the Project Server 2013 version of your plan removed, click on Add > Browse Project Online/Server:
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On the server connections screen, click Change to change your default connection from Project Server 2013 to Project Online:
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Once you're logged into Project Online, find the corresponding project plan, select it, and click OK twice to return to your chart:
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With your OnePager chart now pointing to your Project Online plan instead of Project Server 2013, click Custom Update one more time and make sure that you choose the All Properties replacement mode again. Then, click the Replace All Properties button:
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OnePager will re-import your plan from Project Online. It will detect the change in GUIDs, and because the task names are the same, OnePager will automatically re-map the GUIDs to match what's in Project Online. This keeps your formatting intact:
In this example, all of the formatting stays the same, even though the GUIDs (shown on the left) have completely changed between Project Server and Project Online
Once the OnePager report has been migrated from Project Server to Project Online, you are free to once again change task names, reformat your tasks, and make any other adjustments as you see fit. The migration is a one-time maintenance task for each report, so once a report has been successfully moved from one environment to another, it will continue to work normally going forward and will not need to be updated in this special way again.
Last Updated: December 27, 2019