migrate (jira and confluence) users from jira to ad without porting them

Question

hey there,

got some structural problem which is "grown historically".

We currently run Jira and Confluence by using Jira as user directory for both. That's the historical part. That's because there hasn't been any link between our companies user database and Jira, back when i first installed it.

Now, we have an active directory between, which is stuffed with staff by our user database. And now, chief asks, why I don't use that usual way....

However, now I'm told that I must not use the internal user administration but have to connect our Jira (and Confluence, too) directly to this AD. Only thing I've found is to port the internal users into that AD which isn't suitable for us.

As I understood (i beg I'm wrong) similar users from a newly added AD aren't similar to Jira, so it isn't just switching to a pre-filled AD?

If so, what can I do to cleanly migrate to AD? I just had the idea to put another LDAP between them just to allow Jira to migrate users and then switch to our AD system. Would this work?

Jens Rapp · Answer

Hello Andy, if it's that easy, I'll be happy. Basically, our user names should be same but I'll try to make that shure.

Andy Nguyen · Answer

Hey Jens,

This is a complicated stuff and must be handled with care.

Basically, JIRA relies on username to differentiate between users, but it's smart enough to tell if a single user exists in multiple directories with the same username.

So let's say you have this username in JIRA Internal directory now: j.rapp. And in AD, the username is also j.rapp. If so, all you have to do are:

* Connect JIRA to AD
* Move AD to the top position (above Internal)

JIRA will then use j.rapp from AD, keeping all user associations such as reporter, assignee, comments, etc.

However, if your username in AD is different e.g. jens.rapp, and you'd like this username to be used with all j.rapp's user associations, you will need to:

* In JIRA, rename j.rapp to jens.rapp
* Connect JIRA to AD
* Move AD to the top position (above Internal)

This means, there's an extra step before connecting JIRA to AD, and it must be done for every user whose username in Internal is different from that in AD.

And don't connect AD to JIRA before renaming the users. That would cause a big mess in your database as well as in the user associations.

I hope this helps.

Best,

Andy