Jira Server migration to Data Center (expired license)

Question

Hi everyone!

We are planning to migrate our Jira Server instance to Data Center (Not clustered - self-hosted).
Our license has been expired so we'd like to know what is the best path we should follow in order us to migrate from server to DC.
Jira version: 7.9.2
Should we upgrade our instance with a temp license at first and then add the DC license?
Thanks!

Daniel Eads · Answer

Hi @Iro Karavasili ,

Just some additional context - it looks like the server license you're mentioning ended its support maintenance in Nov 2019. This makes the latest version of Jira that you can upgrade to on the expired license Jira 8.5.1 (8.5 is a Long-Term Support version, but you cannot upgrade to the latest 8.5.x release on this license without renewing).

The process to convert Jira from a Server instance to a Single-Node Data Center instance was simplified in Jira 8.8. From this version and up, all that's needed is to paste a valid Data Center license into Jira, and the application will take care of the rest of the technical configuration. (You will still need to ensure any Marketplace Apps you have installed are Data Center compatible, and relicense those apps also).

My suggestion would be:

* Ensure your existing apps are Data Center compatible
* Re-license the apps with a Data Center license - you can do this before upgrading Jira
* Purchase a Jira Data Center license
* Upgrade Jira to 8.8 or above, using an upgrade guide and ensuring you are on a supported database version both now and for the version of Jira you are upgrading to
* When Jira starts after the upgrade, it will notify you that the previous Server license is not valid for that version of Jira. At this point, you can paste in the Data Center license and the application will convert itself to a single-node Data Center instance.

If possible, do this in a test environment first. This path has a simplified configuration, compared to converting to Data Center while still on Jira 7.9 (the single-node Data Center setup is more complicated in versions prior to Jira 8.8).

Cheers,
Daniel

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

You can do the licence change before or after upgrade.

However, you can't upgrade to a version released after the end of your server licence.