Workflow Behavior During Nintex Automation Cloud Production Cut Over – FAQ

When migration and remediation of workflows to Nintex Automation Cloud have been completed, the next critical step is to cut over the production deployment from SharePoint Online/SharePoint On-Prem platform to Nintex Automation Cloud. It is important to understand the behavior of workflows in both the legacy and Nintex Automation Cloud platforms to better manage the activation and deactivation of workflows. Here are the answers to some of the common questions regarding this topic.

1. What is the general process for production cut over of workflows to Nintex Automation Cloud? 
   Workflows that are ready for production cut over in Nintex Automation Cloud should adhere to the following sequence to complete the transition. 
   1. Deactivate the main workflow manually from your legacy environment, i.e. SharePoint Online/SharePoint On-Prem. 
   2. Immediately publish the same workflow in Nintex Automation Cloud as Production. The shorter the turnaround time in publishing the workflow, the shorter the downtime of the workflow being offline. 
   3. Repeat the above steps for any other workflows cutting over to Nintex Automation Cloud. 

Note it is important to ensure that the same workflow should not remain activated/published in both environments as it will lead to duplicate tasks being created and executed. 

2. What will happen to deactivated legacy workflows with tasks that are in flight? 
   Tasks that are in flight prior to the workflow deactivation will continue to be in flight until the task completes or fails.  
3. What happens when a new list item is being created shortly after the legacy workflow has been deactivated? 
   New tasks will now be created in Nintex Automation Cloud if the workflow is already published to production in Nintex Automation Cloud. 
4. Should component workflows be deactivated at the same time from the legacy environment?Component workflows should only be deactivated IF there are no more tasks in flight that requires the use of the component workflows. IF there are still tasks running that calls the component workflows, the component workflows should be left activated in SharePoint Online/SharePoint On-Prem.  
5. What happens if a component workflow that is required by an inflight task is being deactivated in the legacy environment?
   As the inflight task is required to start the component workflow which has been deactivated, the task will fail to complete as the component workflow is deemed unavailable. 
6. When can component workflows be deactivated from the legacy environment? 
   Component workflows can be deactivated in the following scenarios. 

   1. There are no more inflight tasks that require to start the component workflow(s). 

   2. Tasks that are still inflight have already completed the execution of the component workflow(s). 

7. Can the component workflows be published in Nintex Automation Cloud if the same workflows are still activated in the legacy environment? 
   Yes, they can and should be activated as part of the production cut over process. Component workflows are started by the parent workflow that invokes them and do not get impacted directly by items added to lists.  

8. Can legacy workflows start a component workflow in Nintex Automation Cloud and vice versa?Component workflows in Nintex Automation Cloud can only be started by parent workflows in Nintex Automation Cloud and cannot be started by workflows from the legacy environment using the “Start a Workflow” action. Likewise, workflows from the legacy environment cannot be started by parent workflows in Nintex Automation Cloud.