Install Jira after Confluence and connect both

Question

Hi,

we run confluence for a while and now we want also use jira and connect both. I run this combination (confluence/jira) in an other part and it's fantastic. So we want to do it also in the context. In every description is written that it runs only without problems when first install jira and after this install confluence.

Is there a smart possibility to install jira on top of an allready used confluence?

Best Regard

Oliver

Andy Heinzer · Answer

Jira Server installations have the ability to act as a user server for most other Atlassian applications, such as Confluence, Bamboo, Fisheye, etc.

I understand the desire to have a single userbase, and using a single system to manager those users in.  However Confluence does not have the ability to host a user server.   Since you already have all your users in Confluence, you would likely need to find a means to migrate this user information to a single location.

Ideally, it would be easier to have your users in Jira first, but there are other ways to get your users in Confluence over to Jira.   You can look at this thread:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Migrate-users-from-Confluence-to-JIRA/qaq-p/1597

In it Peter cites a link to this documentation: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONF34/Migrating+users+from+Confluence+to+JIRA

This documentation is for a much older version of Confluence, but it still might be worth looking into.

How many users do you have in Confluence right now?  Depending on the answer will determine the best course of action here.

It might be better to use an LDAP instance in order manage the user accounts if possible.  In those cases, it makes it easier to then connect either Jira or Confluence to that LDAP instance to have it add users that way.

Another alternative could be to use Crowd to manage your users.   When using Crowd there are more recent documented methods for importing users from Confluence such as Importing Users from Atlassian Confluence.

Oliver Jäger · Answer

Hi,

thanks for your answer. I have one tomcat for confluence and will have one for jira. I only want to connect jira and confluence. And I want to use the same users, but I only want one system for user administration. In all descriptions is written that I first must install jira an then confluence. When install confluence, I must say "use user administration in jira". My question is: is it possible to install at last jira after install confluence and have only one user administration?

Andy Heinzer · Answer

In short, No.   Both Confluence and Jira need to utilize their own database, each their own tomcat webserver (which is bundled in their installation).  But you should not try to install both applications to the same Tomcat instance.

That said, lots of users will then utilize a reverse proxy in front of both Jira and Confluence that can then be used to help simply the URL/path used to access these applications.  You are not required to, but this tends to be the preferred best practices, especially if your Jira or Confluence instance is publicly available on the internet.

I would recommend checking out Proxying Atlassian server applications with Apache HTTP Server (mod_proxy_http).  It explains how you can set this up with a proxy like Apache.

But before you get to that point, you will probably want to start with Installing Jira to better understand the steps needed to get Jira going.