Export and Import Project Data

To perform a backup, a project owner can export the project’s data to an OCI Object Storage bucket in any data center. Then later, the exported project data can be imported into the same project (or a different one) in the same data center (or a different one).

To export or import data, you'll need to set up a connection to OCI Object Storage. Contact your OCI administrator to get the required input values to set up the connection to the OCI Object Storage bucket. To successfully connect, you must provide either OCI credentials or a pre-authenticated request URL.

The values you need are explained in the import and export sections that follow.

What Project Data Does VB Studio Automatically Export?

Before exporting your project's data, you should be aware that VB Studio doesn't export all the artifacts automatically. You'll still have to manually export any artifacts and data that weren't exported automatically.

Here's a list of the artifacts that are exported by VB Studio and the ones you'll have to export manually:

Artifact Exported? Notes
Project users No When you export a project's data, its users are not exported. However, all the data associated with the usernames (issue ownership and reviewers of a merge request, for example) will be preserved.

After you import the project's data to another project, all the data associated with the username will automatically be restored after you add a user with the same username to the project.
User's favorite settings or personal preferences No  
Hosted Git repositories Yes  
Mirrored public external Git repositories Yes  
Mirrored private external Git repositories No Password-protected external Git repositories aren't exported.

After you import the project's data to another project, you must add each external private Git repository.
Branch restrictions Yes  
Merge Requests Yes  
Default reviewers of a branch Yes After you import the project's data to another project, default reviewers will be automatically added after you add the same users to the target project.
Workspaces No Repositories that are associated with your user's workspaces will be exported, but the workspaces themselves will not be.
Maven artifacts No  
Linked Docker registries No  
Build jobs Yes All builds of jobs are exported, along with their logs and artifacts. If a job retains an excessive number of builds, it will adversely affect the export process and will require a large amount of storage space in your bucket.

Configure a job to retain a reasonable number of builds before you export the project.

Build job's history and artifacts Yes  
Name of the build job's build executor template No  
Pipelines Yes  
Releases Yes  
Deployment configurations No  
Environments No  
Issues Yes  
Agile boards Yes  
Wiki pages Yes  
Snippets Yes  
Project template definition No  
Announcements No  
Webhooks No  
RSS/ATOM feeds No  
Link rules No  
Project tags Yes  
Issue products and components Yes  
Default owners of issue components Yes After you import your project's data to another project, owners will be automatically activated after the same users are added to the target project.
Issue custom fields Yes  
Named passwords/private keys Yes

Note:

The passwords are securely exported and imported as keystore binary data.

Export to and Import from an OCI Object Storage Bucket

If you're a project owner in an organization that runs VB Studio on OCI, you'll export project data to and import exported project data from an OCI Object Storage bucket.

Exported project data isn't encrypted and can be downloaded from the bucket. Your OCI administrator will already have set up an OCI Object Storage bucket for the project, and which users can read from or write to it. It may be a common bucket that's used for all the organization's projects, but more likely it's separate buckets for each project, which allows archive files to be organized without being grouped with archive files from other projects.

You can connect to the OCI Object Storage bucket using OCI credentials or a pre-authenticated request (PAR) URL:

  • The preferred method is to use OCI credentials since they're permanent and don't typically expire.
  • Using a PAR URL is simpler, although that convenience comes at a cost, since PAR URLs can fail due to various reasons and can be difficult to troubleshoot. For example, if the OCI administrator who gives you the PAR URL ever leaves the company, you'll need a new PAR URL.

    PAR URLs are also considered less safe than OCI credentials because you must store PAR URLs someplace outside Object Storage, and anyone with access to the URL has access to the bucket. For this reason, always ensure you store a PAR URL in a safe, recoverable place.

    For more information about PAR URLs, see Object Storage Pre-Authenticated Requests.

Export Project Data to an OCI Object Storage Bucket Using OCI Credentials

You must be a Project Owner to export project data. When you export project data, VB Studio will export data to an archive file in the specified OCI Object Storage bucket, connected using OCI credentials.

To export project data to an OCI Object Storage bucket, you need the following:
  • Name of the target bucket
  • Private key and fingerprint of a user who can write objects to the bucket
  • Details of the compartment that hosts the bucket

Note:

If you are an Oracle Cloud Applications customer, contact Oracle Support for the details you'll need to complete steps 6-13.

Here's how to export your project's data:

  1. Open the VB Studio project.
  2. In the left navigator, click Project Administration Project Administration.
  3. Click Data Export/Import.
  4. Click the Job tab.
  5. In Account Type, select OCI.
    Users that are extending Oracle Cloud Applications are strongly encouraged to contact Oracle Support to get the values they will need to complete steps 6-13.
  6. In Tenancy OCID, enter the tenancy's OCID copied from the Tenancy Details page.
  7. In User OCID, enter the user's OCID value who can access the bucket.
  8. In Home Region, select the home region of the OCI account.
  9. In Private Key, enter the private key of the user who can access the bucket.
  10. In Passphrase, enter the passphrase used to encrypt the private key. If no passphrase was used, leave the field empty.
  11. In Fingerprint, enter the fingerprint value of the private-public key pair.
  12. In Compartment OCID, enter the compartment's OCID copied from the Compartments page.
  13. In Storage Namespace, enter the storage namespace copied from the Tenancy Details page.
  14. Click Connect.

    Tip:

    Select the Remember check box before you press the Connect button if you want VB Studio to remember the OCI credential input values you entered.

    After the export operation starts, the fields in the OCI credentials window that were saved are cleared. The data from those fields has been saved, but it is cleared to protect the administrator's OCI information while the export operation is in progress. After the operation concludes, the saved OCI information will be filled in and visible once again. Credentials are saved only after successfully connecting to the storage. This prevents saving bad credentials.

    Credentials are also saved separately for each user. so even if the same storage account is being connected to, each user has a distinct set of credentials that enable access by that user only.

    To clear the saved OCI credential information, you need to explicitly uncheck the Remember check box and reconnect. This will clear all the fields.

  15. In the Create Job section, in Type, select Export.
  16. In Name, enter a name for the export job.
  17. In Description, enter the job's description.
  18. In Storage Container, select the bucket to export the project data.
  19. In Storage Object, if required, update the default .zip file name.
  20. Click Export.
  21. In the Confirm Project Export dialog box, select the Export project data check box, and click Yes.
  22. In the Exporting Project page, expand Steps to see the status of each module.
After the export is complete, the Recent Activities feed on the Project Home page (and the History tab of the Data Export/Import page) display messages about the export action.

Import Project Data from an OCI Object Storage Bucket Using OCI Credentials

You must be a Project Owner to import project data. When you import project data, it will overwrite all the project data in the target project. All of the project's artifacts will be replaced with the components from the project imported from the specified OCI Object Storage bucket, connected using OCI credentials.

To import project data from an OCI Object Storage bucket, you need the following information:
  • Name of the target bucket
  • Name of the archive file with the project data
  • Private key and fingerprint of a user who can read objects from the bucket
  • Details of the compartment that hosts the bucket

Contact Oracle Support or your OCI administrator for the details and get the required input values that you'll be entering in steps 6-13. These values are explained in Get the Required OCI Input Values in Administering Visual Builder Studio.

Here's how to import data to your target project:

  1. Open the VB Studio project.
  2. In the left navigator, click Project Administration Project Administration.
  3. Click Data Export/Import.
  4. Click the Job tab.
  5. In Account Type, select OCI.
    Users that are extending Oracle Cloud Applications are strongly encouraged to contact Oracle Support to get the values they will need to complete steps 6-13.
  6. In Tenancy OCID, enter the tenancy's OCID copied from the Tenancy Details page.
  7. In User OCID, enter the user's OCID value who can access the bucket.
  8. In Home Region, select the home region of the OCI account.
  9. In Private Key, enter the private key of the user who can access the bucket.
  10. In Passphrase, enter the passphrase used to encrypt the private key. If no passphrase was used, leave the field empty.
  11. In Fingerprint, enter the fingerprint value of the private-public key pair.
  12. In Compartment OCID, enter the compartment's OCID copied from the Compartments page.
  13. In Storage Namespace, enter the storage namespace copied from the Tenancy Details page.
  14. Click Connect.

    Tip:

    Select the Remember check box before you press the Connect button if you want VB Studio to remember the OCI credential input values you entered.

    After the import operation starts, the fields in the OCI credentials window that were saved are cleared. The data from those fields has been saved, but it is cleared to protect the administrator's OCI information while the import operation is in progress. After the operation concludes, the saved OCI information will be filled in and visible once again. Credentials are saved only after successfully connecting to the storage. This prevents saving bad credentials.

    Credentials are also saved separately for each user. so even if the same storage account is being connected to, each user has a distinct set of credentials that enable access by that user only.

    To clear the saved OCI credential information, you need to explicitly uncheck the Remember check box and reconnect. This will clear all the fields.

  15. In the Create Job section, in Type, select Import.
  16. In Name, enter a name for the import job.
  17. In Description, enter the job's description.
  18. In Storage Container, select the bucket to import the project data from.
  19. In Storage Object, select the .zip file name of the exported data.
  20. Click Import.
  21. In the Confirm Project Import dialog box, read and verify the bucket and object details, select the Import project data checkbox, and click Yes.
  22. In the Importing Project page, expand Steps to see the status of each module.
    If you want to cancel the import process, click Cancel.
When an import job is in progress, the project will be in the locked state. You can’t access other pages of the project until the import job has finished. After the import is complete, you'll be redirected to the Project Home page. The Recent Activities feed on the Project Home page (and the History tab in the Data Export/Import page) display messages about the import action.

Export Project Data to an OCI Object Storage Bucket Using a PAR URL

You must be a project owner to export project data. When you export project data, VB Studio will export data to an archive file in the specified OCI Object Storage bucket, connected using a pre-authenticated request (PAR) URL for that bucket.

To do this, you need the following:
  • Pre-authenticated request URL for the bucket, which you can obtain from your OCI administrator

Here's how to export your project's data:

  1. Open the VB Studio project.
  2. In the left navigator, click Project Administration Project Administration.
  3. Click Data Export/Import.
  4. Click the Job tab.
  5. For the Object Storage authentication method, select Pre-Authenticated Request (PAR).
  6. In the Create Job section, in Type, select Export.
  7. In Name, enter a name for the export job.
  8. In Description, enter the job's description.
  9. In Storage Container PAR URL, enter the pre-authenticated request URL that you obtained from your OCI administrator. This URL is your access to the OCI bucket.
    Click Test PAR URL to confirm that the URL is valid.
  10. In Storage Object, if required, update the default .zip file name.
  11. Click Export.
  12. In the Confirm Project Export dialog box, select the Export project data checkbox, and click Yes.
  13. In the Exporting Project page, expand Steps to see the status of each module.
After the export is complete, the Recent Activities feed on the Project Home page (and the History tab of the Data Export/Import page) display messages about the export action.

Import Project Data from an OCI Object Storage Bucket Using a PAR URL

You must be a project owner to import project data. When you import project data, it will overwrite all the project data in the target project. All of the project's artifacts will be replaced with the components from the project imported from the specified OCI Object Storage bucket, connected using a pre-authenticated request (PAR) URL for that bucket.

To do this, you need the following:

  • Pre-authenticated request URL for the bucket, which you can obtain from your OCI administrator
  • Name of the archive file with the project data

Here's how to import data to your target project:

  1. Open the VB Studio project.
  2. In the left navigator, click Project Administration Project Administration.
  3. Click Data Export/Import.
  4. Click the Job tab.
  5. For the Object Storage authentication method, select Pre-Authenticated Request (PAR).
  6. In the Create Job section, in Type, select Import.
  7. In Name, enter a name for the import job.
  8. In Description, enter the job's description.
  9. In Storage Container PAR URL, enter the pre-authenticated request URL that you obtained from your OCI administrator. This URL is your access to the OCI bucket.
    Click Test PAR URL to confirm that the URL is valid.
  10. In Storage Object, select the .zip file name of the exported data.
  11. Click Import.
  12. In the Confirm Project Import dialog box, read and verify the container and object details, select the Import project data check box, and click Yes.
  13. In the Importing Project page, expand Steps to see the status of each module.
    If you want to cancel the import process, click Cancel.
When an import job is in progress, the project will be in the locked state. You can’t access other pages of the project until the import job has finished. After the import is complete, you'll be redirected to the Project Home page. The Recent Activities feed on the Project Home page (and the History tab in the Data Export/Import page) display messages about the import action.

View Export and Import History of the Project

You can examine a project's export and import history from the Data Export/Import page's History tab:

  1. In the left navigator, click Project Administration Project Administration.

  2. Click Data Export/Import.

  3. Click the History tab.

The history of all export and import jobs is displayed. Select a job to view its details. In the case of a failed job, expand Steps to view the modules that passed and those which failed.