The migration is a two step process:

1. one or more test migrations
2. the final migration

The first step is the longer one. The second step can take less than an hour to perform.

When you first upload your database, the migration platform will try to migrate it automatically.

If the database cannot be migrated automatically, the Migration team will fix the migration scripts. This step can take from a couple of hours to several days depending on the complexity of the problems.

If the automatic process succeeds, the Migration team will perform a series of functional tests on it. This testing step should normally take approximately less than 2 days.

Any issues found during this testing phase will be recorded in our bug tracking system and you will have the opportunity to follow it and discuss about it using the OpenERP portal. Issues will either be categorized as:

• migration issues
• framework issues (server, addons, web client)

Once all migration issues have been fixed, you will be notified and you will have the opportunity to download the migrated database to test it yourself. This is also an important step because we only test the standard flows. If you follow specific flows, the Migration team cannot test them because they don't know the way you are using your database.

If you discover issues yourself, you can submit them to OpenERP and they will be handled as usual. They will be categorized accordingly and handled by the Maintenance team or the Migration team. Framework issues found during the testing phase by the Migration team will also be fixed as usual.

During this time, you still continue your usual work on the old version of OpenERP. You can also submit new databases as often as you want on the Migration platform. Be sure not to install, remove modules or, more generally, modify the database schema because it could lead to new issues not found during the testing phase.

Once you are satisfied with the result, you can plan the final migration. This time you stop working on your production database, create a backup and send it on the Migration platform (choose the "Migration for production" option) and it will be migrated right away without any testing phase. You will already know how much time it will take to migrate it. This information will be available on your status page (Processing time section) Most of the time, databases are migrated in less than an hour.

About your custom fields and views: you need to avoid modifying standard views (views defined in standard modules) because these views are overwritten after each update of the modules (-u all command line option or "apply scheduled upgrades" wizard).

A best practice is to create inherited views. A lot less problem will be raised if you do so.

About custom modules: at the end of the migration process, your custom modules will be in the 'to upgrade' status. If you have migrated them yourself or if you rely on the community, you just need to add them in your addons-path and update your modules using the "apply scheduled upgrades" wizard (or from the command line if you prefer)

You also have the choice of asking OpenERP to migrate your custom modules (for a price of course). In this case, we handle everything:

• we migrate them to be compatible with version 7
• we send them to you for testing
• we fix issues you'll have discovered
• once these modules are validated by you, we migrate your database with them
• you receive it with these modules already installed

Hope this will clarify you.