How to import repository from local Gitlab (V7.7.1) instance to local Gitlab (V8.5.1) instance

Hi,

I want to import a number of existing project repositories from a local Gitlab (V7.7.1) server to new local Gitlab (V8.5.1) server, but I’m finding the help in this forum and in the documentation quite limited.

On the V7.7.1 instance, each repository access (ssh://) is of the form

git@gitlab.ours.com:GroupName/project_nn.git

The group has users assigned to it and each project has different users from the group assigned in varying roles to it, and I am the Owner of the projects.

I tried this already using the +New Projectgit Any repo by URL, but got ssh key errors even though my ssh key is added in both servers. And when I went investigating the errors, I ended up getting postgresql errors and so had to start again.

So my questions are …

  1. Is +New Projectgit Any repo by URL the correct way to do this and if not, how should I go about it?
  2. Does the group have to exist in the V8.5.1 server before I import?
  3. Do the all users/team members from the V7.7.1 server have to exist in the new server, including ssh keys, before I import?
  4. Will all project data in V7.7.1 server repositories transfer to the V8.5.1 server repositories via the import or do I need to do more to bring in this data in the same context and if so what? Among other things, I’m thinking of, for example, commit review comments and replies etc. I am assuming that all branch information will be fully and correctly imported.

I want to do this via ssh because I have seen that using the https method exposes the password.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.