Once you've chosen your transfer options in Step 3, it’s time to both execute a dry run transfer and schedule a production transfer.
Dry runs
A Google Workspace Domain Transfer dry run is a simulated execution of the domain transfer execution process. It captures the technical constraints of the Domain Transfer product, for example, swapping the primary domain to be the placeholder. Non-technical constraints (such as replicating Gmail compliance rules from the source to the destination environment or notifying your Google Workspace reseller) are not captured (and are communicated as such).
A dry run surfaces all outstanding tasks in both the source and destination environments. The removal of all dry run blockers is required before any execution of a dry run. For details on what's required, go to Complete pretransfer tasks.
Google schedules and executes every dry run. To validate that all tasks were completed on both the source and destination environments, multiple dry runs might be completed throughout the domain transfer process.
You must complete a successful dry run before you can schedule a production transfer. The results allow all parties to make an informed decision about the date of the production transfer based on the remaining tasks to complete.
You must complete a dry run with zero errors 24 hours before the final production transfer. Refusing to complete this step results in a delay in the transfer.
Scheduling
Google Workspace Domain Transfer is a shared service. Before scheduling a production transfer, the domain transfer team must consider transfers for other customers that are in the planning stages or that are already scheduled.
The domain transfer team works with both the source and destination environment admins to schedule and execute production transfers. The following are some scheduling notes to consider:
- Production transfer scheduling—The domain transfer process is run only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There’s a maximum of 3 scheduled production transfers each day for a maximum of 9 per week. There are no exceptions.
- Duration—The duration of the transfer process depends on the size of your Google Workspace environments, but you should set aside up to 48 hours for the transfer to complete. Learn more about a production transfer's estimated timing.
Transfers involving the same destination environment
You must schedule transfers involving the same destination environment at least 2 days apart. For example, if a transfer was executed on a Tuesday, the next valid transfer date is the Thursday 2 days later. If a transfer was executed on a Thursday, the next valid transfer date is the Tuesday 5 days later.
We'll conduct a dry run for both transfers before starting the production run of the first transfer. In addition, we'll complete another dry run before the second transfer to make sure that the second transfer won't:
- Require more Google Workspace licenses than you provisioned—For details, go to Destination tasks.
- Exceed the maximum number of domains and domain aliases—For details, go to How many domains can I add?
- Introduce any calendar resource conflicts.
Important: If there is an issue with the first transfer, the second transfer might need to be rescheduled.
