Mysql supporting features introduced in 5.7 for JIRA/Confluence latest version

Question

I am using JIRA application which is connected to Mysql 5.6. Planned to upgrade to latest and read release notes mysql 5.6 is deprecated.

I would like to know what are the new features provided in Mysql 5.7 respect to Jira / Confluence. That helps to create upgrade plan.

General Mysql5.6 to 5.7 has only password and few data query mechanism changed. But would like to know changes made in JIra/Confluence ? Do I need to take precaution when migrating from 5.6 to 5.7 ?

Daniel Ebers · Answer

You can always compare on MySQL homepage. The deprecation of version is not always a deep technical consideration - it can be but this does not apply to every minor version number.
We had this consideration here lately.

You will probably not lose anything by technical means - but support requests could be affected by that. In case you want to have proper support you always should be on a supported database version - as the software is only tested against those versions.

Pandiyan M · Answer

@Daniel Ebers Appreciate your reply, I am looking what are major changes happened between Mysql 5.6 to 5.7 or 8. Because Jira confluence support to mysql 5.6 is deprecated.

Currently I have upgraded to 7.4 confluence, but as per atlassian its deprecated. So would like to what are things i will lose support with 5.6

Daniel Ebers · Answer

Hi Pandiyan,

I understand your question is a way if there are some new features in MySQL 5.7 which could be beneficial for Jira or Confluence.
As we did this upgrade I must admit there is nothing we have encountered (either positive nor negative).

There is one culprit - absolutetely needed to consider otherwise strange errors are guaranteed:

When using MySQL 5.7 you must grant the Jira user the REFERENCES permission.

Further explanation and information is to be found here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/connecting-jira-applications-to-mysql-5-7-966063305.html

A more general precaution is always to do backups (in this case probably using MySQL owns tooling like mysqldump).

Cheers,
Daniel