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You have decided to make the big move and start using Request Tracker for ticketing, maybe because of the features, flexibility, open source code, or reasonably priced cloud hosting plans. Whatever the reason, you are ready to switch, but you don’t want to lose all of the information you have in your existing system. You might have years worth of correspondence with customers, support questions and answers, and internal project tickets.
Should you leave it behind and start fresh?
We’re happy to say you don’t need to make this tough decision. With our free migration extension, RT::Extension::Import::CSV, you can take all of your data with you. With a little planning and testing, your RT migration can be a smooth and hassle-free experience.
Exporting Your Existing Data
Most ticketing systems provide some way to export tickets information, usually to a spreadsheet, which can be easily converted to a CSV file. Each solution is a little different, but the first step is searching the documentation and following the steps to get an export.
The key information is usually on tickets. However, there is also user information, like names and email addresses, for your staff and also for end users and customers. You’ll also want to export that user data so it can be loaded into RT.
Your existing system may also record all of the correspondence on tickets, which might be the questions and answers between staff and end users. These usually don’t fit in a single ticket row, so there might be a way to export these also as transactions. If that sort of export is available, you can get that information also.
Map Existing Fields to RT Fields
This is where you will likely spend most of your time: mapping fields from your old ticketing system, which will be columns in your CSV files, to their RT counterparts.
RT has a number of common core ticket fields available, so you’ll first map information like “Status”, “Priority”, “Owner”, etc. And if you’ve spent any time customizing, you’re likely to have fields without a direct match in RT. For these, you can create new custom fields in RT. This is a good time to review which fields are still active, and consider dropping some fields that are no longer used.
If you have multiple export files with different formats, that’s not a problem. You can create one mapping configuration file for each ticket CSV and pass in the filename as an option when you run the import.
Run the Import
And now the big moment! Once you’ve completed the mapping process, you’re ready to run the imports. The RT::Extension::Import::CSV documentation shows you how to run the import utility for users, tickets, and even transactions if you have that information.
Verify Imported Data, Address Issues
After the import completes, look at how your data appears in RT. Does the data appear where you’d expect to see it in RT? If not, is it showing someplace else? Was it skipped entirely? Maybe you want to rename some fields or make other changes?
The import utility will log messages for any issues it encounters with the actual data. The logs are detailed and can help you identify missing required fields, formatting errors, unmapped fields, and other issues.
It also has features to help you reformat and adjust your data during the import process. There are hooks before and after each row is inserted, and the field mapping can accept small blocks of code to do things like reformat a date, normalize upper or lowercase issues, or any other data cleanup you might need.
If you are importing into a new RT, plan to do some test runs, clearing out the system between each. Once you get a clean import, you can plan your final migration!
Migrating from Zendesk
Zendesk provides a good example of how the migration process can work. Most ticket views in Zendesk allow you to export tickets to CSV. By navigating through the different views your organization has created, you can create multiple export files to migrate to RT, each with their own unique list of columns.
Sample tickets in Zendesk
For users, Zendesk provides an export of privileged users, which are staff users who can act on tickets. To generate an export of all users, including customers, there are a few more steps. A script is available to help you export users via the Zendesk API.
Once you have the files, configure the field mapping for each and run the imports to load your existing ticket data into RT. You’ll want to run the user import first so the user records will be available when you add your tickets. After running your ticket imports, all of your history will now be available in your new RT instance. You can find additional details in the extension documentation.
Sample tickets exported from Zendesk and imported into Request Tracker
But Wait, There’s More!
RT::Extension::Import::CSV can import articles (faqs, knowledge base, help text, common answers, etc.) too. If your previous system has this information and you can get an export, you can import using the same process discribed above. With these different types of imports, you can successfully mitigate much of the pain that comes with changing ticketing systems, allowing you to focus on helping your users to get up to speed with RT.
More Complex Cases
This only scratches the surface of what you can accomplish with our import tool. RT (and RT::Extension::Import::CSV) allow you to leverage the full power of the Perl programming language, widely known for its superior text processing capabilities.
Data may have quoted identifiers, byte-order marking, and other oddities. With some additional configuration, RT::Extension::Import::CSV will help you account for these instead of addressing them through code. We have used our importer on all kinds of source data and have always been able to find a way to get existing data into RT.
Start Your Migrations!
Has the thought of moving all of your data got you stuck in a ticketing system that isn’t working for you? Our free importer provides a powerful solution to migrate to RT from Zendesk and other ticketing systems. RT's flexibility and robust feature set will provide you with a powerful platform for managing your tickets going forward.
If you’re looking for some hands-on help with migrating your data RT, reach out to us to explore support, professional services, and hosting options. Want a guided tour of the latest version of RT? Book a demo today!