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0011: AuthZ for Course Authoring - Migration Process Details

Status

Draft

Context

The legacy course authoring roles and permissions system stores role assignments in the MySQL student_courseaccessrole table, represented by the CourseAccessRole model.

To preserve existing role assignments during the transition to the new openedx-authz system, we need a bidirectional data migration process that:

  • Supports course, organization, and instance-level migrations (compatible with the feature flag functionality in ADR 0010)
  • Enables rollback capability when the feature flag is disabled
  • Maintains data consistency by removing role assignments from the source system after migration
  • Ignores roles that exist in the new system but have no legacy equivalent

Note: New system roles without legacy equivalents will be preserved but not enforced until the flag is re-enabled.

Decision

Automatic Migration Triggers

Migration occurs immediately when the feature flag state changes:

  • Flag enabled: Legacy role assignments migrate to new system and are removed from legacy system
  • Flag disabled: New system role assignments migrate to legacy system and are removed from new system

Note: Roles without legacy equivalents remain in the new system and are not migrated

Forward Migration Process (Legacy → openedx-authz)

  • Parameters: Optional course or organization filter
  • Process:
    1. Query CourseAccessRole instances matching the specified filter (or all if no filter)
    2. Create equivalent role assignments in openedx-authz for each CourseAccessRole
    3. Remove successfully migrated CourseAccessRole instances
    4. Execute within database transaction for consistency

Rollback Migration Process (openedx-authz → Legacy)

  • Parameters: Optional course or organization filter
  • Process:
    1. Query openedx-authz role assignments for specified scope (or all course authoring roles)
    2. Create equivalent CourseAccessRole assignments for roles with legacy equivalents
    3. Log warnings for roles without legacy equivalents (these remain in openedx-authz)
    4. Remove successfully migrated openedx-authz assignments
    5. Execute within database transaction for consistency

Role Mapping

The following role equivalences define the migration logic:

Legacy Role (internal name) New AuthZ Role*
Admin (instructor) Course Admin
Staff (staff) Course Staff
Limited Staff (limited_staff) Course Limited Staff
Course Data Researcher (data_researcher) Course Data Researcher
Beta Testers (beta_testers) Course Beta Tester

New AuthZ role names are subject to change.

The following legacy roles won't be handled by the migration process:

  • finance_admin
  • sales_admin
  • library_user
  • ccx_coach
  • org_course_creator_group
  • course_creator_group
  • support

New planned roles for AuthZ won't be handled by the migration process.

Execution Methods

Automatic Execution
Django pre_save signal handlers trigger migration when flag state changes via Django Admin or management commands. See Authoring Waffle Flag Implementation Spike for details.

Management Commands

Flag Management (triggers automatic migration):

  • Enable globally: ./manage.py cms waffle_switch authz.enable_course_authoring on --create
  • Disable globally: ./manage.py cms waffle_switch authz.enable_course_authoring off

Manual Migration (for debugging):

  • Forward migration: ./manage.py cms authz_migrate_course_authoring [course_key|org_name]
  • Rollback migration: ./manage.py cms authz_rollback_course_authoring [course_key|org_name]

Consequences

  • Comprehensive migration documentation will be created for site operators
  • Database transactions ensure data consistency during migration operations
  • Site operators must test migration processes before legacy system deprecation
  • Automatic migration will execute for remaining courses when the feature flag is deprecated post-Willow (Specific mechanism for automatic execution will be defined later)

Rejected Alternatives

Instance-level migration only
Prevents granular testing on individual courses or organizations, increasing adoption risk.
Management command-only approach
Creates operational overhead and increases risk of inconsistent role assignments during transition.
Dual-write approach
Maintaining role assignments in both systems simultaneously would create data synchronization complexity and potential inconsistencies.
Copy-only migration
Keeping role assignments in both systems would lead to data duplication, confusion about source of truth, and potential security risks.
No rollback capability
Would make migration irreversible and increase adoption risk for site operators.

References