Can I link Service Desk server to Jira software cloud?

Question

Hi folks,

We are running Jira Service Desk inside our AWS instance, for various security reasons that I won't bore you with here.

Our Jira software is a cloud instance.

I'd like to be able to create tickets in Jira software, based on incidents logged in Jira Service Desk. Such that anybody using SD would be able to see the status of the Jira Software task that is addressing the issue.

From the Atlassian documentation it all looks possible using Application Links; my question is: is there anything in particular I need to be ready for, when I do this? And are there any limitations to what information the link can handle?

Thanks!

Stefaan Quackels · Answer

Hi @Jim Strange ,

You could also just use a synchronization app.

The main advantage over the Application link is that you can get handy automations like status changes in SD whenever the status is changed in your Jira Software instance. You can also set up automatic commenting (with the fix version being mentioned) whenever the issue is resolved in Jira Software.

We’re the developers of the Exalate issue sync app.

You'll be able to synchronize/auto-create any issue data you choose between your instances.

This will happen in real-time. That way, you'll always be in the loop on progress status, comments, attachments and even work-logs or change history (if that’s what you want).

You'll be able to easily customize exactly what you'd like to sync and who you'd like to sync it with.

One of our teammates recently published an article on a similar use case (although there a service desk was connected to multiple development projects):
How to sync issues Jira Service Desk with multiple Jira Projects . This article has a video, demonstrating how Exalate can solve the use case.

If you want to know more, I can show you exactly how it would work for your use case through a one-on-one demo. You can book one here if you like: Book A Demo.

Cheers,
Stefaan

unknown · Answer

Hi @Jim Strange ,

as @Jimmy Van (GLiNTECH) already answered you can use an application link for this. This is a good solution for you as long as you are the owner of both instances. Otherwise organizational borders might make it harder for you to establish such a link.

Since you mentioned you want to "create tickets", another alternative would be to use an app/add-on to achieve that issues are created in your Jira Software project(s) based on incidents reported in your Jira Service Desk. This is possible by using one of the issue sync apps from the Atlassian marketplace. For example, you could say as soon as an incident gets a certain label, e.g. "report as software issue", the incident data is synchronized as a new issue to your Jira Software project and then the new issue and existing incident are "linked" together. One big advantage of this approach compared to the application link above: you are quite flexible in deciding what you actually want to synchronize (or "copy") between both sides. For example, you can explicitly decide which issue/incident fields you want to share with each instance, like Summary, Description, but also Comments, Attachments, etc. Let me know if you'd like to have more information on this. :-)

Note: I'm a bit biased since I'm working for the team behind Backbone Issue Sync, one of the issue sync apps, hence I'm mentioning this alternative here. However, we do have a get started article available about how to connect a Jira Server instance with a Jira Cloud instance as well as how to synchronize a Jira Service Desk with a Jira Software project.

Cheers,

Sebastian

Jimmy Van (GLiNTECH) · Answer

Hi Jim,

You can absolutely do this. From https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/link-to-server-products-from-cloud-744721656.html

you need to have administrator permissions on both the cloud and server products. You should also make sure you meet the following requirements:

* The product must be accessible via the ports specified in the Functional differences in Atlassian Cloud page.
* Check that the Base URL for the server product is set correctly.
* If you want to use SSL, you need to use a valid certificate (not a self-signed certificate).
* Your server needs to be reachable by the Atlassian Cloud IP range. See Atlassian Cloud IP ranges and domains for details on the IP range used by Atlassian Cloud.
* The URL for the product must fulfill the RFC 1738 URL standards.

All the best