Project import problems

Question

We are currently evaluating jira software, running the server in house. We are nearing the end of our evaluation and starting building the production server. We'd like to import one project from our evaluation install and import isn't going so well.

I am trying to avoid doing a full backup and restore as I'd like to keep a clean database. I don't know what kind of stuff is in the evaluation install and what would need to be cleaned up. But I will resort to this if I have to.

As far as I can tell both servers are the exact same version (8.1.0), no custom apps or plugins installed on either.

On the evaluation install, I went to Settings => System => Backup system

then copied the zip file to the soon to be production server and did the following.

I created a project with the same name and key, then went to Settings => Project Import and selected the project and I get the following error.

The backup project 'Level4Support' requires custom field named 'Story Points' with full key 'com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.customfieldtypes:float'. In the current instance of Jira the plugin is at version '1.0', but this custom field was not installed in the backup data. You may want to create an XML backup with this version of the plugin installed.

I have confirmed that com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.customfieldtypes is the same version (1.0) on both machines.

I even tried setting up a test jira instance and did a full restore, then deleted all the projects and then import the project again and I get the same error.

The person that setup the evaluation machine is no longer with the company. So I can't ask any questions. But it appears he pulled the jira code and built it and set it up under docker. It's kind of a mess so we are building the server again from supported jira installs and want to keep the data for this one project.

I didn't find the following articles particularly helpful:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver081/restoring-a-project-from-backup-970609459.html

and I couldn't make sense of this article as I wasn't exactly sure how to perform some of the actions and wasn't quite sure what the three backups were referring to. 
https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/project-import-error-due-to-required-plugin-custom-field-282169482.html

Tom DeMay · Answer

I solved my own problem:

I backed up both the test and production machine.

I restored the test backup into the production machine and then backed up the production machine again with the test data

Then I restored the first production backup into the production machine

and then imported just the project from the second production machine backup that had the test data.

Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting] · Answer

Welcome to the fun of migrations! :)  There is a reason we do a lot of migrations for our clients.

It's difficult to know what exact issues you will encounter using the Project Import, but here are some basic guidelines that should point you in the right direction.  The feature is intended to be used in the case where you make an XML backup of your instance, delete a Project and then need to restore it from the XML dump. Jira expects that EVERYTHING that was on the source Jira instance that was used by that Project be in the destination instance as well. This includes all Custom Fields, all Users that performed actions, all Workflow Statuses, etc. It also may include any App provided data that was ever used on that Project (even if you deleted the App.)  When you delete a 3rd party App, they don't always clean all data out of the database.  If you are using different database technologies on the two instances, you may also encounter issues with different table constraints.

You might want to consider buying the Botron's Configuration Manager App instead. It allows you to export a Project bundle that contains all data from the Project, and will also bring over Boards, saved Filters and Dashboards. This should make life a lot easier for you, but I would recommend reading the docs on it to familiarize yourself on how it works and what to expect.