Updated November 2026

Migrating from Azure DevOps to GitHub

Class Duration

14 hours of live training delivered over 2 days.

Student Prerequisites

Working experience with Azure DevOps Services: Repos, Pipelines, and Boards
Comfortable with Git, pull requests, and YAML pipelines
Basic command-line skills
Familiarity with GitHub is helpful but not required

Target Audience

Platform and DevOps engineers, release managers, and administrators moving an Azure DevOps estate to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, plus the security and identity owners who sign off. It also fits organizations keeping Azure Boards or Test Plans while code and CI/CD move to GitHub. Teams new to GitHub Actions can pair it with CI/CD with GitHub Actions, and teams adopting GitHub's security features can add GitHub Advanced Security in Action.

Description

This two-day course teaches teams to plan and run a phased move from Azure DevOps to GitHub. Students inventory their Azure DevOps estate and decide what moves, what stays, and in what order. They design the GitHub enterprise, identity, and permission model, including Enterprise Managed Users with Microsoft Entra ID. They move repositories with GitHub Enterprise Importer and convert pipelines with GitHub Actions Importer. The course also covers Boards options, packages, Advanced Security, coexistence, and wave-based cutover.

Learning Outcomes

Inventory an Azure DevOps organization and decide what moves to GitHub.
Design GitHub enterprises, organizations, teams, and repository roles.
Set up Enterprise Managed Users with Microsoft Entra ID.
Migrate repositories and pull requests with GitHub Enterprise Importer.
Evaluate Enterprise Live Migrations for continuous-sync migrations.
Convert Azure Pipelines to GitHub Actions with GitHub Actions Importer.
Hand-convert templates, variable groups, service connections, and approvals.
Choose between Azure Boards and GitHub Issues and Projects.
Plan the move of packages, wikis, and test assets.
Restore GitHub Advanced Security coverage after migration.
Run Azure DevOps and GitHub side by side without losing traceability.
Execute migration waves with validation and rollback.

Training Materials

All students receive comprehensive courseware covering all topics in the course. Courseware is distributed via GitHub in the form of documentation and extensive code samples.

Software Requirements

Students will need a free, personal GitHub account to access the courseware, the GitHub CLI with the ado2gh and actions-importer extensions, Docker Desktop or Podman (for GitHub Actions Importer), Git, and Visual Studio Code. Migration demonstrations use an Azure DevOps Services organization and a GitHub Enterprise Cloud trial organization; students who want to follow along need access to both.

Training Topics

Planning the Migration

Why organizations consolidate on GitHub
When a hybrid end state is better
Inventorying projects, repos, and pipelines
Inventorying service connections and users
Mapping Azure DevOps services to GitHub
Enterprise Cloud with and without data residency
Phased vs. big-bang migrations
Choosing pilot projects

Identity, Organizations, and Permissions

Designing enterprises, organizations, and teams
Enterprise Managed Users with Microsoft Entra ID
SCIM provisioning
Mapping Azure DevOps permissions to GitHub roles
Custom repository roles
Organization rulesets
GitHub Apps and fine-grained tokens

Migrating Repositories with GitHub Enterprise Importer

What GitHub Enterprise Importer migrates
What it leaves behind
Running gh ado2gh and generate-script
Reclaiming mannequins
Migration logs and validation
Repository size limits
Azure DevOps Server sources

Enterprise Live Migrations (Preview)

Continuous sync with a short cutover
Targeting Enterprise Cloud with data residency
Branch policies to rulesets
Rewired pipelines and Boards connections
Choosing ELM or GitHub Enterprise Importer

Pipelines to GitHub Actions with GitHub Actions Importer

audit, forecast, dry-run, and migrate
Reading the audit report
Templates to reusable workflows
Variable groups and secure files to secrets
Service connections to OIDC federation
Agent pools to GitHub runners
Approvals and checks to environments
Classic build and release pipelines

Rewiring During Coexistence

Azure Pipelines with GitHub repositories
Rewiring pipelines in the migration script
Traceability across both platforms
Freeze windows and communication

Work Tracking: Azure Boards or GitHub

The Azure Boards app for GitHub
AB# links and state transitions
GitHub Issues and Projects
Moving work items to GitHub
Staying hybrid, moving, or archiving

Packages, Wikis, and Test Assets

Azure Artifacts vs. GitHub Packages
Upstream sources and package consumers
Wikis to GitHub wikis or docs-as-code
Options for Azure Test Plans

Advanced Security on Both Platforms

GHAS for Azure DevOps vs. GitHub
Re-enabling secret scanning and push protection
Re-enabling code scanning and Dependabot
Alert triage during the transition
Licensing during coexistence

Phased Cutover and Decommissioning

Wave planning and pilots
Success criteria
Validating repositories, pipelines, and permissions
Rollback paths per wave
Locking or archiving Azure DevOps sources
Closing out the migration