Why QnA Maker is being retired? How does the migration work?

Question

Hello Teams,

According to the Microsoft Documentation of QnA Maker, QnA Maker is being retired on the 31st of March, 2025, and will be replaced by the newer version-"Question and Answering" as part of Azure. Here are some questions and concerns related to the new updates:

1. Will QnA Maker be disabled after 2025?
2. As information provided from the Documentation, we will not be able to create new resouces starting from Novemeber 2022. However, will we still be able to edit the resources (Knowledge Base) on our QnA Maker Page?
3. How does the migration work? Does the newer version also work the same as the old QnA Maker?
4. For the migration, can we upload the same recources(from the old QnA Maker Knowledge Base) to the newer version? Any new updates for the KB formatting (For example: Multi-turn, etc…) ? Other concerns that we should be acknowledged?

Answer 1

@sltcrmicecream I will try my best to address your questions based on my experience with previous azure cognitive services retirement.

Will QnA Maker be disabled after 2025?

Yes, after the published date the QnAMaker resource or the API or console will be retired.

As information provided from the Documentation, we will not be able to create new resouces starting from Novemeber 2022. However, will we still be able to edit the resources (Knowledge Base) on our QnA Maker Page?

Yes, Starting 1st October 2022 you will not be able to create new QnAMaker resources. Existing resource created prior to this date will remain active. You will be able to use the functionality of these existing resources as-is until the actual service retirement in 2025. Any changes in this timeline or functionality will be published in the documentation and the resource or subscription owner will be notified via email.

How does the migration work? Does the newer version also work the same as the old QnA Maker?

The migration steps details the procedure for migration to the newer resource. You could try to create a new language resource and try the migration or create a test KB in existing qnamaker portal and try to migrate and check if the functionality works as expected. The newer service also works in a similar way but the endpoints and request details might differ. For example with the existing QnAMaker 5.0 preview API the uses GenerateAnswer but the language resource uses GetAnswers with a slight difference in the request details and response.

For the migration, can we upload the same recources(from the old QnA Maker Knowledge Base) to the newer version? Any new updates for the KB formatting (For example: Multi-turn, etc…) >Other concerns that we should be acknowledged?

The migration should take care of this scenario instead of uploading the KB again to the newer resource. You can always export the KB as a backup and try to create a new KB with the language resource.

I hope this helps!!

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