Hello community,
I searched for similar topics, but I could not really find all the answers I am searching for.
I hope that this topic will be useful for someone later, also.
Long story short:
Very old JIRA server (EOL reached) needs to be upgraded to the latest version. Server is CentOS with MySQL, virtualized.
Current JIRA version: 4.0.1 , build number 471
I know that, because of compatibility issues, I need to do upgrade this way:
Jira 4.0 >> Jira 4.4.5 >> Jira 5.1 >> Jira 6.4 >> Jira 7.0 >> finally upgrade to Jira 8.6.0
I do not have any experience upgrading old instances like this one, and, according to JIRA 4.0 documentation, there are two possible ways upgrading it:
"XML backup/restore" method (recommended)
"Connect JIRA to a copy of your old database" method
I would go with recommended solution (XML backup/restore), so this is what needs to be done:
"With this method, you back up your data as an XML file from your existing JIRA instance, back up your attachments, and then restore that data into the new JIRA instance. The new JIRA will create the database structure (tables and indexes) before importing the data."
So far, on recent upgrades with newer versions (Jira 7+), I used to download new version in tar.gz form, replace old installation directory with new installation directory, modify required files (server.xml, etc) to reflect changes from old installation, and that would be it.
In the end, my question will be:
Is this really the only way to go: Install totally new server on separate VM, install newer JIRA 4.4.5, connect blank MySQL DB and do XML backup/restore? Repeat these steps for every upgrade hop.
Would be also thankful if someone who experienced similar situation write recommendations, tips or anything that could be useful.
Thanks in advance.
