Migrating from Server Pro to Group Professional

Switching from a self-hosted Server Pro instance to a new cloud-based Overleaf Group Professional subscription is a big change, so to make this process as smooth as possible we've put together the following guidance.

In general, we propose a three-month overlap period starting on your renewal date. This means that:

• Your existing Server Pro instance and your new Group Professional subscription will both be fully active.

• Your technical team can schedule time to get the Group Professional subscription set up and decide on the future of your on-premises deployment of Server Pro.

• Most importantly, your users will have ample time to copy their projects over to the new Overleaf Group Professional platform.

This quick guide will walk you through the key steps for this migration. Let’s get you started!

Phase 1: Setup and Configuration

• Overleaf will create your Group Professional subscription and add your Lead Administrator.

• Your group administrator will now be able to enable Managed Users, configure Single Sign-On (SSO), and invite the end users.

Enabling Managed Users and implementing SSO is a required step for FedRAMP® LI-SaaS compliance. Therefore, if your organization requires FedRAMP compliance, we highly recommend that you set up Managed Users and SSO prior to inviting your end users.

Phase 2: User Migration & Data Management

This is the primary migration window and has the following responsibilities:

End-Users

• Users should actively migrate any projects they wish to keep from your Server Pro instance to their new accounts on overleaf.com. The process involves exporting projects from Server Pro and uploading them to their account on overleaf.com. If a user doesn't already have an overleaf.com account, they can make one at overleaf.com/register.

Only the project source code (LaTeX and binary files) will be transferred through this export procedure. Any existing project settings, sharing settings, comments, tracked changes, etc. won't be transferred. Users will need to re-invite their collaborators through this procedure.

Technical Staff

• During this phase, your technical team should plan for the post-migration handling of your on-premises Server Pro instance and its data.

• Data Backup: You can export all projects before decommissioning. This creates an archive that allows you to assist users who may have forgotten to migrate or download their work. Instructions can be found here.

• Server Pro Decommissioning: After the migration window closes and your license key is disabled, you have two main options for the Server Pro instance itself:

  1. Uninstall Server Pro Completely: This will decommission Server Pro and remove the software entirely.

  2. Switch to Community Edition: This will switch your instance from Server Pro to Community Edition and preserve the database of users and projects with full project history.

The Community Edition does not have Sandboxed Compiles nor LDAP/SAML. If you need to revert back to native authentication (username/password), please see the guide here.

For a comparison of Server CE vs. Server Pro see here.

Phase 3: Server Pro Decommission

• The Overleaf team will formally deactivate your Server Pro license key. We will send a confirmation once this is complete. This is when you will need to either uninstall Server Pro completely or switch to Community Edition as described above.