Migrate from Jira 6.3.4 to 7.9

[Thomas Günter]

Hi everyone,

I am new to Jira and Confluence. How ever, I got the task to bring Jira 6.3.4 to 7.9.
Right now there is a Standalone instance and the maintenance has ended long ago.

To get more familiar with Jira I already created a new standalone instance with 7.9.0 on a different server using a trial license (I am waiting for the new licence to "arrive").

Unfortunatelly I cannot import the exported XML, since the gap between the two versions is too large.

What would be the best approach to migrate the data and to finish the task?

1. Update the existing 6.3.4 to 6.4.x (Possible without active maintenance?), then export the XML and import it to the new Instance.
2. Renew the maintenance (after something like 3 years) and update in several steps to 7.9.0
3. Install a 6.4.x Jira (Using trial) in between and export/import XML from 6.3.4 to 6.4 to 7.9.
4. An other, much easier way I dont know? :-)

[Danyal Iqbal]

Your only real option is option 2. make sure the license support period has not expired.

option 1 is not possible, 3 is not wise and 4 is a magical unicorn, we are still searching for it :)

Create a test instance by cloning v6.3 machine.

Perform the upgrade there and study the changes before actually changing your production environment to it.

You need to perform regular upgrades as a best practice.

[Thomas Günter]

So, we need to renew our software maintenance. I guess this is possible even after three years without?

[Danyal Iqbal]

Yes. This should not be a problem. I would ask the nice folks at atlassian for a new support license.

[Thomas Günter]

Ok, so thank you for your help :-)