JIRA DB - How can I externally connect to JIRA DB?

Question

Hi - I am relatively new to JIRA. In the past I have used HP QC.

Can someone please help me with the following questions on JIRA DB:

- What type of DB does JIRA use?

- Is it possible to connect to this DB via an external tool - such as Sqlserver or even MS Excel (via a database connection)?

My aim to establish a read-only connection to JIRA DB to draw some analytics.

Thanks,

JT

Thomas Schlegel · Answer

Hi JT,

you can find the supported databases here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver071/supported-platforms-802592168.html

Of course, you can read data out of the Jira-database from other clients too, but in general, it is not easy to create reasonable reports from the plain jira database. You need a deep understanding of the relations in the Jira database. I would also advice to create reports on a copy of your database, so you don't edit or delete some data accidentally...

There are several reporting plugins for Jira that can help you. Search for "reporting" on the Atlassian marketplace.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

The database behind it could be anything - it will run on any database that supports a jdbc connection, but you will find almost all installations will be on PostGres, MySQL/Maria, Oracle or MS SQL Server, as those are the only supported databases.

You can connect to it like any other database, but, don't.

That is a fantastically bad idea - database access to JIRA is the single worst approach to reporting from it.

The database is not designed for reporting at all.  To take a simple example, "read all the data from an issue" could require joins with 40 different tables, many of them 2-3 layers deep and many of them done multiple times.

You run the risk of running queries which will put such a drag on the server, it affects performance.

Please, use the REST API to get data, or get one of the proper reporting add-ons, the ones that intrinsically understand the JIRA database and have a proper data model for it.