Jira Administration -- Versions & licenses

Question

On recent versions of JIRA where Software and Core became separately licensed products, I find something a bit confusing on the Versions & Licenses section of Administration --> Applications

All of my licenses are for JIRA Software users, none are licensed for "just Core".

For customers like us, it is logical to me that here I see all the info about my JIRA Software license, e.g. version installed, # users and # used, expiration, SEN, License type, Org Name and license key, and option to Uninstall.

However, I also see an ""Ad" for JIRA Core 7.8.0 now being available, with an option to Add JIRA Core users, a place to paste a license and a  button for Download.

So what I don't understand is why the availability of JIRA Core is merrily announced and so easy to download, but not the JIRA Software installation that I actually support for all my users.  I already got lured into clicking the Download once, then realized that JIRA Core is not the same install as JIRA Software.

I imagine that there are three kinds of installations -- all users Core, installations split between Software and Core users, and all users licensed for Software.

I suppose those admins who continue to have all their users licensed for Software should just totally ignore the JIRA Core section and its offers of downloads?  Was my understanding of a mixed Jira Software / Jira Core environment as a single install with just mixed categories of two types of users (Software, can do everything, Core -- limited functionality) confused?

Even in a mixed environment wouldn't it be normal to have a single install of JIRA Software only?  The JIRA Core download would only be used for those running a completely separate instance of Core or a customer who had only Core licenses and none for Software, right?

JesseSilverman · Answer

I appreciate all your time and attention taken to explain the non-trivial, time-varying relationship between the lifecycles of the separate components.

Andy Heinzer · Answer

... the simplest approach for Admins who have only Software or Service Desk users, is to ignore updates of Core -- they will get these when they update Software or Service Desk.

I would tend to agree with this statement in a general sense, provided that you are following one of the upgrade methods in Upgrading JIRA applications.

There can be confusion over this point though, and I want to explain why once more just to try to be as clear as possible.  It is because as I stated previously, there were some versions of Jira that would allow admins to just update Jira Software or just Service desk via this Versions & Licenses page in the web browser.  In those cases, Core is not getting updated when you update these plugins/applications.

JesseSilverman · Answer

"The same applies to Jira Software and Jira Service Desk.  When you upgrade Core, you are probably going to need to update those if you are using them as well. "

So, it would seem that this fact, taken together with the fact that the Service Desk or Software updates will basically include all of the updates found in the Core install anyway, does indeed mean that the simplest approach for Admins who have only Software or Service Desk users, is to ignore updates of Core -- they will get these when they update Software or Service Desk.

My original fear was that taking a Core update distribution and running that to upgrade with would lose access to functionality in Software or Service Desk regardless of licenses and user types.  Even if that can't happen, it seems there is no reason for the admin not to just think of update possibilities simply as a target version of Software or Service Desk, ignoring all notifications about Core, unless one supports Core-only user types.

Thanks for your patient explications.