How do I renew my starter license

Question

I'm afraid the licensing on my installation of Jira has gotten very confused. I've had it for a long time (going back to at least 2012). In that time the Jira Server (+/- Agile) and Jira Core have all changed how they work. I recently tried "upgrading" to Jira Core, but a bunch of things didn't work (the upgrade of the Agile stuff, which I'm not even using, didn't jump versions properly). That's mostly, I think, moot, but I mention it in case it's relevant.

My current installation has a valid license and SEN number. On the "manage licenses" page, this is listed as having support expire on 22 October 2019, more than a year from now. However, I've started getting alerts within Jira that say my support is expiring.

On the "versions & licenses" page in my Jira installation, it says that maintenance expires on 21 October 2018 (next month). The license key appears to match the one listed for my SEN-### that lists the support expiration in 2019.

More confusingly, the same "versions & licenses" page in my Jira installation that has the 2018 expiration date, also says "Jira Software is licensed but not currently installed". It also lists Jira Core 7.12.0, I believe from my attempts to get Core working. But I don't think that was actually completed. And the Jira Core section of the "versions & licenses" page doesn't list any license key at all. I don't understand how it's working, or how to keep it working and retain access to updates.

I'd like to continue using my Jira installation for <= 10 users with my "starter" license. I'd like to continue access to maintenance/updates.

This seems like a question for Atlassian, but they've abandoned all support for their inexpensive licenses, even ones about how to renew those licenses, and I was directed here. Can someone help me with this?

Thank you.

Daniel Eads · Answer

Hey Brian,

I apologize for the delay in responding as I've been out on parental leave. You definitely can migrate to Cloud! That's a good compromise as it offloads all the server administration overhead to us while retaining all your projects, issues, and comments.

To make things easy on you, I've opened a support ticket on your behalf so our team can help guide you through the migration process. Be on the lookout for an email from our support system shortly with more info.

Cheers,
Daniel

Brian Casey · Answer

Thank you for the detail. It's taken me a while to get through things here (too busy trying to close actual issues instead of messing around with Jira). I've updated the license key in my Jira installation using the current value at my.atlassian.com which expires in October 2019. This now shows on the Versions & licenses page -- it has the new key, and it properly lists the maintenance as expiring in October 2019.

However, the Jira system now has a top-of-the-page banner that reads:

JIRA Software is currently unavailable. This might be because an upgrade task has failed to run or has not yet completed.

In looking at the log my guess is that the problem is with the GreenHopper plugin. When that tries to start, I get errors including "Upgrade failed: this version of JIRA Agile requires a minimum build number of #45 in order to proceed. The latest upgrade task to have been successfully completed is #40. You must uninstall this version of JIRA Agile and attempt an upgrade via an intermediary version".

I've already gone through the whole incremental upgrade by intermediary versions. It was a horrible process that still didn't work and I had to fall back to what I had before, with the added mess of the confusion of Jira Software and Jira Core described above. I cannot try this again.

How can I tell Jira (or JIRA) to disable/turn-off GreenHopper. I never used it in the past. I can't find any reference to it in the administration pages.

Alternatively, how else do I get Jira to stop showing me the failed-upgrade banner?

For what it's worth, the software seems to be working. I can edit issues and such. I haven't tried everything, so I don't know if there's some function that won't operate.

Thank you to anyone who can provide assistance.

As an addendum - perhaps I should just move everything to an Atlassian/cloud hosted instance instead of running the software myself. It's been a bit of a pain from the beginning. Is it possible to migrate an existing configuration over to Jira Cloud, keeping all the projects, issues, and comments?

Daniel Eads · Answer

Hi Brian!

Let's see if we can un-confuse things :)

Jira Agile (Jira Server + Jira Agile plugin) is now just called Jira Software. I've had a look at your account and this is the license you have. So far so good! You can use the Core features too if you want - it's basically akin to what used to be Jira Server without the Agile plugin. But since you have access to Jira Software, it's fine to just continue using the Software features if you like them. The differences are highlighted here if you want some background reading. Since you've got a Starter license, it's $10 regardless so might as well just use all the Jira Software features and call it a day.

Sorry to hear your upgrade didn't go smoothly. Were you able to get all your data in your 7.12 install either through an upgrade or by importing/exporting?

In terms of Core vs Server installation - if you used the Core installer, you should be in this situation here where Jira sees your Software license but wants to you "install" the application on the Versions & licenses page. Go ahead and hit that Install button - it should download for a bit and then enable the Software functionality.

As for your license, let's make super sure that your renewed license is applied:

* Log in to https://my.atlassian.com
* Expand out your Jira Software license and click View License to get the full license key. Copy this to your clipboard (Despite the SEN and Server ID being the same, the key will update when renewed)
* In Jira, head over to the Versions & licenses page. Now that Software is installed, you should see a small pencil icon next to the License key (before installing Software, all you'll see is a trash can icon). Go ahead and click the pencil to edit and paste in the license you copied from my.atlassian.com

Once the new license is applied, it should show the updated expiration date in 2019.

Let me know if that gets you squared away and if there's anything else we can assist with!

Cheers,
Daniel