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Make copy of JIRA on a dev server

Russel Rillema

Hello

We are currently running JIRA v4.1.2#531 are looking to upgrade to v6.0.1.

I want to make an identical copy of our live JIRA on a dev server. This will allow me to attempt the update process and make sure everything goes well.

Please could you highlight the steps I must take to make this copy? I presume it is not as easy as installing the same version on the dev box and then simply overwriting all the files in our program files folder?

I have attempted to read up as much as possible regarding this but am very new to JIRA and know very little about it. This makes it difficult for me to understand a lot of what the more advances users are explaining.

Also is there anything to do with licensing that I should know about before running 2 copies of JIRA simultaneously? (Keeping in mind one is temporary for testing purposes only)

Thanks a lot

Russel

Accepted answers

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Septa has covered most of what you need to know, but I'd like to add some quick tips.

The usual process for creating a test system is to copy a production database to test and point your test Jira installation at it. If this is the route you take, then there's a handful of things to worry about:

The licence - as Septa says, move it to a development licence
When you start it up, you should change the "base url" in general configuration as soon as
Email. As it's a copy of live, it will have live email addresses and the connections you've got set up, and it will happily use them as soon as you start it up. You'll want to block that, BEFORE you start the test Jira.
You will need to think about attachments separately - a lot of test systems don't actually need them, and will wokr (mostly) ok if they're missing. But it depends on your dev/test systems.

As well as reading what Septa posted, I'd read this page to cover the stuff I've mentioned. https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Restoring+Data#RestoringData-1.Disablingemailsending/receiving

All comments

Septa Cahyadiputra

Hi Russel,

In regards to cloning or copying your JIRA server. Detail information and guide on how to do this can be review here:

Migrating JIRA to a New Server

Please do let us know whic part that confuse you so we could clarify it for you. In regards to license, you can use developer license for your cloned instance.

Let me know if you have any question on this.

Cheers,
Septa Cahyadiputra

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Septa has covered most of what you need to know, but I'd like to add some quick tips.

The licence - as Septa says, move it to a development licence
When you start it up, you should change the "base url" in general configuration as soon as
Email. As it's a copy of live, it will have live email addresses and the connections you've got set up, and it will happily use them as soon as you start it up. You'll want to block that, BEFORE you start the test Jira.
You will need to think about attachments separately - a lot of test systems don't actually need them, and will wokr (mostly) ok if they're missing. But it depends on your dev/test systems.

Russel Rillema

Thank you both for the fast replies.

The main part that is confusing me slightly is cloning the database.

From what I understand (from the person who explained our setup to me) is our database is incorporated inside of JIRA. Is this possible?

How would I:

1. Clone this database

2. Set the dev instance to use the live db?

Again thank you for the quick and helpful responses!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Ok, I'm going to answer this backwards.

2. Never, never, never point two Jira installations at the same database. By all means, copy it and run it somewhere else, but do not use a single instance. (You wouldn't want your test data polluting live anyway)

1. Depends on the database you are using. I'm afraid that's a bit circular, but the fact is, we don't know your setup.

Your setup person saying "incorporated inside Jira" is a bit of a worry though. That suggests that you're using HSQL. This is a file/memory database that is distributed with some Jira installations so that you can run up a dev/test copy without a real database. It's fine for that, but it's prone to complete, catastrophic failure. You can lose the whole lot, without warning or even indication that something is about to fail.

For a production Jira, you REALLY need to be using a proper database (ideally one of the four supported DBs, and in my experience, although MS is supported, it's bad, compared with Oracle, MySQL and PostGres).

I think we need to establish what you're using at the moment. Go to Admin -> System information, and that will tell you. (If you don't understand it, copy and paste the text around the "database" section here and we should be able to explain it)

Russel Rillema

Ahhh, I see...

Yes, we are using HSQL Database Engine Driver 1.8.0

I presume we should change this then.

I would like to do this over two steps (preferably upgrade first).

So is it possible, and if so, how can I clone this database while cloning the JIRA instance?

Once on version 6.01 I will make another dev copy and work on how to swap over to a 'proper' database

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