jira migration from 8.20 to 10.3

[Reneesh Kottakkalathil]

Has anyone successfully migrated Jira software from 8.20 to LTS 10.3.5 directly without doing a step upgrade from 8.20 to 9.17 then to 10.3.5?

[Brant Schroeder]

@Reneesh Kottakkalathil 

The upgrade documentation for version 10.3.x does not explicitly state that an upgrade from version 8.x.x is possible.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftware/jira-software-10-3-x-upgrade-notes-1472791008.html

I would advise against attempting a direct upgrade, bypassing the major release version 9.x.x. Instead, consider upgrading in stages.

Some platforms you might be using with version 8.2.2 may have lost support in releases prior to 10.3.0 or will no longer be supported with 10.3.0. You should plan to upgrade your platform components accordingly.

The 10.3.0 upgrade notes list numerous "breaking" changes. There may also have been significant breaking changes between versions 8.2.2 and 10.3.0.

Whether you decide to upgrade in stages or directly, I strongly recommend setting up a replica test environment that mirrors your production environment and testing the upgrade(s) there first.

[Reneesh Kottakkalathil]

Thank you for the feedback. Yes. I'm testing the upgrade steps on a test environment first. I will do a staged upgrade for now from 8.20 to 9.17. The 9.17 version is EOL June 2026. I'll upgrade from 9.17 to 10.3 sometime early next year.