My server-id changed during SSL config. Please help

[Deleted user]

Hi,

I need help resetting my SD license since the server-id changed while adding a parameter to the database URL in dbconfig.xml. This effectively destroyed my configuration and made Jira now prompting for a new license key, which I can't create since the my account page won't allow me to change it by myself. (which feels correct, imho).

I installed the server, Jira and then applied the license. When that was done, I decided to configure SSL... Bad idea apparently.

Please help. Thanks

[Daniel Eads]

Hi Pontus,

It sounds like there are two things at play:

1. Modifications to dbconfig.xml that resulted in the Jira Configuration wizard running again (as if you were installing Jira for the first time)
2. Trouble with SSL configuration

I'm going to address those individually:

dbconfig.xml modifications

I would suggest reverting to a backup of the dbconfig.xml file if possible (hopefully you backed it up before modifying it). If Jira can't read the file or it's missing from the filesystem, it will launch the configuration wizard to get database details from you and create a new dbconfig.xml. Restoring the file to its last working state would be best.

If that's not possible, some more details about modifications you were making to the file would be helpful. What were you changing? What database type do you have? Do you still have the database name and credentials from the original install available?

It's possible that if you have the correct information, we can start from an example and simply write the correct information into a new dbconfig.xml (assuming you are unable to restore the old one). The Server ID is stored in the database, which is presumably why you're having trouble with the license if you've created a new database.

SSL configuration

If I've read your description correctly, it sounds like your Jira instance is not currently running, and you're stuck trying to apply a license in the configuration wizard. Is that correct?

I'd like to understand what you've done so far in trying to set up SSL. Were you following the guide in Atlassian's documentation for setting up SSL directly from Jira?

Once the startup problems are resolved, I would suggest using a reverse proxy instead of serving SSL directly from Tomcat (Jira's application server). nginx in particular has better performance in serving SSL/TLS than Tomcat. On top of that, it's easier to configure. We've got a guide for setting up nginx with Jira and serving SSL/TLS here. The guide assumes you already have nginx installed (almost all linux distributions have it in their package managers) but should be fairly straightforward to follow.

Finally, I'd just like to note that most people looking to answer questions on Community are looking for unanswered questions. It looks like you may have inadvertently deterred some would-be helpers by replying to your question. From the feed of questions, even a reply/answer on your own question appears that you might have been helped already as it shows "1 reply". In the future, waiting a little longer or asking again are more likely to attract an answerer.

As an answerer on this question, I'll get email notifications for any replies you make. Go ahead and reply to this answer to keep things threaded. I'm hoping we can work out your database configuration and then move on to SSL!

Cheers,
Daniel

[Deleted user]

Hello and thanks for responding,

Point taken regarding unanswered questions. I guess I was a little impatient and am sorry for that.

1. This Jira and it's database does not contain any data since newly installed and concidered testing atm. Because of that I did not back up the file unfortunately. Also still running in the built-in database. While waiting I also requested a new trial license which I am now "running", no important data in it though. The change I made initially was adding the text in bold below in the file '/var/atlassian/application-data/jira/dbconfig.xml':

<jdbc-datasource>
<url>jdbc:h2:file:/var/atlassian/application-data/jira/database/h2db?ssl=true</url>

That change is now undone & Jira restarted. After logging in I have no menus, etc for creating anything. Also, in what would be the activity stream there is an error "gadget.common.error.500".

If you mean Jira credentials, those are changed. If for the DB, no particular ones were set for the H2 database, so should be as before.

Thanks, Pontus

[Deleted user]

Hi,

having corrected the misconfigured account, I now have a working Jira, using SSH (did not change anything) and the license expires 2022 which is about right. Really peculiar, but nice of course. Only thing left not working is the "gadget.common.error.500" error. Googling talks about a certificate not being correct. As SSL seems to work now... ?

Trying to create a dashboard revieled that the gadgets (which works at all) have peculiar names, starting and ending with underscore and punctuation in between. Surely not as should be. Same for some of the options in some gadgets I could actually add.

Where should I start looking for clues?

Thanks

[Daniel Eads]

Super, progress!

The most common cause for dashboard problems is the base URL configured in the application not being the same URL that Jira is actually serving itself from. If you're serving SSL now, that's probably the cause.

First, can you check your server.xml file to see what URL you're serving Jira from? If you configured a proxy URL, it should be the proxyName parameter.

Then in Jira, go to the General Configuration page in the administration. You need to make sure the Base URL field is the same URL that you've got configured in your server.xml file, and it needs to start with https:// (documentation for this here). A common cause for this error is having http instead of https in the base URL field.

If you're still seeing issues after that, it's possible that the Java runtime doesn't trust the certificate you're using. This might happen if you used a self-signed certificate or one from a certificate authority that isn't in Java's default keystore. If this is the case, you can use these instructions to import your SSL certificate into Java's keystore or let me know if you need help with this section.

Cheers,
Daniel

[Deleted user]

Hi,

yes, things are looking up a bit :) At the time of writing this the Jira is down due to a network outage, but wanted to respond nevertheless.

Since Jira came up nicely, I did not configure the proxy, but saved the instructions for next time - though hoping it'll take a long time. But next challenge will be to change the H2 into something else, so never know.

In the server.xml file, within the Engine (Catalina) block, I found the parameter

<Host name="localhost"

Would that be what I should set to same as base URL?

Thanks

[Deleted user]

According to Atlassian, who refused to help me, said this place should be full of qualified experts as well as Atlassian staff happy to help out...

Have I bricked my license??

Anyone?

[Deleted user]

No one ?