Changes due to switch to Data Center

[Perbility]

We recently switched from Jira Server to Jira Data Center. Now I would like to check the newly added plugins and configurations. Do you have a list of which ones were added, dropped or changed during the switch?

[Marc - Devoteam · Accepted solution]

Hi @Perbility 

Welcome to the community.

Jira DC is basically the same as Jira Server, the option that is added based on the license is you can have multiple Jira front-end instances connect to the same backend DB.

This to spread the load, if this is required.

You can also just have a single instance running, with the DC license.

[Radek Dostál]

That plus plugins are generally "compatible" on 1:1 basis with data center, as it uses the same codebase/API behind it.

There are some nuances to this due to the clustered environment, that is partly why apps are tagged as "data center compatible" on the marketplace - an initiative that the plugin developers must take to get approved and ensure none of their code will misbehave in the cluster. For the most part, usually, there isn't really any difference, the main aspect is clustered/background jobs and caching, since previously they would just run once on the server, could be cached in memory and not care about any cluster, but now you could have 2+ individual nodes where such jobs would run, unless the developer makes sure it only runs once on one node only (i.e. "per cluster", rather than "per server"). Same with caches, which now typically should be visible across the cluster, not just a single server.

Entirely dependent on what the individual plugin does and how it works. If you have doubts then just check if your custom apps are all data center compatible, and if not, you can always reach out to their vendor to check with them if there is anything you should be concerned about or if they are planning to get dc compatible. It's entirely plugin-specific.

[Perbility]

Hi.

Thank you very much for your quick reply. It is a single instance.
It's not about plugins that we already have in use. The question is which optional plugins Data Center brings with it compared to the old server version. Also settings that were not available in the server version.
If I have understood this correctly then there is no difference (if only a single instance is operated). Is that correct?

[Radek Dostál]

There are a few "new" bundled apps so to speak if you didn't have them installed on Server before - https://www.atlassian.com/licensing/data-center#are-any-apps-bundled-with-data-center, and there are some extra options available such as field optimizer or rate limiting or user anonymization, all of which is documented one way or another such as here https://confluence.atlassian.com/enterprise/jira-server-and-data-center-feature-comparison-953651628.html

[Perbility]

Thank you a lot. This is what I was looking for :)

[Hans Polder _Devoteam_ · Accepted solution]

Additionally to @Marc - Devoteam 's reply, what could have happened is that in the switch from Server to DC, the admins of the environment also updated the version of Jira itself. If that's the case, you could use https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/upgrade-matrix-966063322.html to see the most prominent features that were added in each version, comparing to a version you might have been using before.