Moving 50+ repositories to a secure network

Problem

The project had more than 50 repositories and more than 25 developers. All of it had to move to a secure network: the code, the GitLab CI/CD pipelines that built and tested it, and each developer’s setup.

Pipelines written for the old environment would not simply run in the new one. Every developer also needed a working setup on the new network before they could get back to work. Partway through, the senior technical lead went on leave.

Approach

I was the feature lead, with two developers on my team. I implemented the core changes, wrote most of the project’s 60+ merge requests, and supported nearly all of the rest.

In the new environment, I rebuilt the GitLab CI/CD pipelines, set up a GitLab Runner, created and enforced repository rules, and fixed build issues until every migrated project worked again.

I also wrote the onboarding guide: virtual machine setup, environment configuration, secure access, and tooling. Every developer used it to get set up. As the team moved over, I answered questions and troubleshot problems so they could keep working.

While the senior technical lead was on leave, I kept the migration on track and reported its status to stakeholders.

Result

The migration finished ahead of schedule. Every migrated project was fully working in the new environment, and every developer got set up with the guide.

Table 1: The migration in numbers.

Next case study: Debugging and snapshots for a PowerPC emulator