Now available: Jira Software 9.12 and Jira Service Management 5.12 Long Term Support (LTS) releases

[#1]

Hello Community!

We know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting the next Jira Server and Data Center Long Term Support (LTS) releases. We’re excited to announce that Jira Software 9.12 Long Term Support Release and Jira Service Management 5.12 Long Term Support Release are now available!

Jira Software 9.12 and Jira Service Management 5.12 are the final versions that support our server offering. If you have a server license, understand your options for upgrading.

Why choose a Long Term Support release?

Upgrading to a Long Term Support release provides you with continued access to critical security, stability, data integrity and performance fixes for the full two years before this version reaches its end of life. It enables you to move quickly when a high-impact bug fix, or security fix is ported over and released for upgrading.

What to look forward to in Jira Software 9.12 and Jira Service Management 5.12

Jira Software 9.12 and Jira Service Management 5.12 bring the familiar security and performance advantages typically associated with LTS releases. They also introduce robust functionalities aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of both admins and end-users. Check out the range of new features now available!

Improve productivity with streamlined workflows and automation

These LTS releases include several new benefits to empower admins and end-users to work faster and more efficiently. With features designed to reduce repetitive tasks, self-service more quickly, and cut the clutter that can slow end-users down, Jira Software 9.12 and Jira Service Management 5.12 help teams complete more work, faster. We have also added core accessibility improvements for screen reader and keyboard-only users to ensure that your whole team can do their best work.

Jira Platform (Jira Software + Jira Service Management)

• Search for projects and issue types in custom field contexts (JSW) (JSM)

• Updated Jira automation (JSW) (JSM)

• Comment sorting updates and an improved commenting experience (JSW) (JSM)

• Reorder project shortcuts (JSW) (JSM)

• Single-click to add linked issues to existing issues (JSW) (JSM)

Jira Software	Jira Service Management
Auto-managed sprints Pin comments in Jira issues Disable smart query in the quick search Displayed version start and release dates Notifications about active sprints when deleting boards	Share requests with groups Clone queues Enhance your approvals with comments Enhance your approvals with attachments Identify request types by groups Link multiple Confluence spaces to a single portal New editor in Assets Improved search experience on the Customers page Comments on approvals are now supported in Jira Service Management for Mobile Get data for any time slice

Easily manage growing instances

These LTS releases also include several features designed to ensure your Jira instance remains performant and easy to manage. With simplified workflows and better visibility, administrators' productivity will improve, enabling them to focus on other activities and give back precious time in their day.

Jira Platform

• In-product diagnostics updates (JSW) (JSM)

• Jira Temporary Directory Cleaner (JSW) (JSM)

• Amazon S3 avatar storage (JSW) (JSM)

• Audit log improvements (JSW) (JSM)

• Improvements to the support zip creation (JSW) (JSM)

• Show or hide empty fields in the issue view (JSW) (JSM)

• New design and enhanced functionality for configuring contexts for custom fields (JSW) (JSM)

Jira Software

Jira Service Management

Updated layout in the table with custom field contexts Fixed validation for required custom fields of the Select list (cascading) type Health check for email performance One-click index snapshots Crowd membership changes batched during full and incremental directory syncs

Improved email filtering Customer Request Type field available in dashboard gadgets Run imports on dedicated nodes and track the progress of the operations Performance improvements to the AQL connectedTickets() method Performance improvements in Assets View Assets objects in the Jira Data Center and Server mobile app Changes to the login-free portal signup flow Auditing improvements for the customer portal and Assets

Strengthen security and platform improvements

We know you rely on long-term support releases for improvements to the security and performance of your software. These releases include technical updates to boost Jira performance, strengthen instance stability, and protect your data.

Jira Platform features to help admins strengthen your team’s security posture

• Masking secret keys in your automation rules (JSW) (JSM)

• Project permissions get extended configuration (JSW) (JSM)

• Select issue watchers only from users with access to a project (JSW) (JSM)

• Allowlist in Jira automation enabled by default (JSW) (JSM)

Platform updates to keep you running your best Jira Data Center Instance

• Support for Java 17

• The Backbone library upgraded to the recent versions

• Log4j upgraded to version 2.17.2

• An embedded H2 database upgrade from 1.4.200 to 2.1.x

• JMX blocklist deserialization filter implemented to block fabricated data from getting into your instance through malicious requests.

• The Rich Text gadget substitutes the deprecated Text gadget

• Microsoft Graph API integration for incoming mail (JSW)

• New Guardrails available (JSM)

• Read-only access to Assets information for Confluence users (JSM)

• New settings for Groovy scripts in Assets (JSM)

Planning your upgrade

As a reminder for those of you who are currently on Jira Software 8.20 or Jira Service Management 4.20: the end of life (EOL) for these versions is January 31, 2024.

For the best experience, we encourage you to upgrade as soon as possible. Atlassian will continue to provide assistance if you encounter issues related to upgrading from your EOL version to a supported version.

We understand upgrades can take some planning, so here’s a round-up of resources to help you prepare:

• Pre-upgrade planning tool

• Jira Software 9.12 Release Notes

• Jira Software 9.12 Upgrade Notes

• Jira Service Management 5.12 Release Notes

• Jira Service Management 5.12 Upgrade Notes

Feel free to share any questions or comments below!

Thank you!

The Jira Product team

[Maksim Zazeka]

🎉🎉🎉

[Reese]

According to the report, there's performance regression in 9.12.x compared with 9.4.12? 

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/performance-and-scale-testing-965568707.html

Jira Server 9.12.0 vs. Jira Server 9.4.12

All response times in ms.

Data dimension	Response time (Jira 9.4.12)	Response time (Jira 9.12.0)
Baseline	512	535
Agile boards	523	522
Custom fields	548	557
Issues	560	571
Attachments	535	544
Projects	562	559
Permissions & security levels	525	536
Users & groups	533	539
Comments	530	541
All datasets	537	544

Jira Data Center 9.12.0 vs. Jira Data Center 9.4.12 (2 nodes)

All response times in ms.

Data dimension	Response time (Jira 9.4.12)	Response time (Jira 9.12.0)
Baseline	533	543
Agile boards	533	540
Custom fields	561	576
Issues	576	583
Attachments	552	567
Projects	576	587
Permissions & security levels	544	549
Users & groups	543	548
Comments	541	545
All datasets	551	559

Hmmm... performance improvements?

[John Dunkelberg]

Dose anyone know if you can find the pinned comment for an issue via the API?

[Marcin Walerianczyk]

@Joh There is a REST API for getting pinned comments. 

https://docs.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/api/REST/9.12.0/#api/2/issue-getPinnedComments 

[Gonchik Tsymzhitov]

Thank you! 

[Anna Scisłowska]

Hi @Reese thank you for your comment. We appreciate your ongoing commitment to our software so I'd like to provide some clarity on Jira Software’s performance.

The degradation you shared is a known, but critical, trade-off we made to enhance Jira’s security and accessibility features. These improvements are essential for safeguarding data and ensuring a more inclusive user experience. The decision to prioritize security and accessibility was a strategic one, and while it may have minorly affected performance, it was made with the long-term well-being of our users in mind.

I want to assure you that we remain committed to providing a high-quality software experience. In addition to the security and accessibility enhancements, this release includes several features designed to improve overall efficiency, such as enhanced automation capabilities, updates to custom fields, and a more powerful search functionality. We believe that these additions will contribute to a more streamlined workflow for your team and increase the speed at which work can be done at scale.

Thank you for your patience as we work to balance various considerations in our ongoing efforts to deliver the best possible software experience.

[Gita Meskauskas]

We are facing several issues after upgrade JSM to 5.12.0, spesial with power script and custom fields in portal. Did someone else have issues too?

[Amelie Winkler _Appfire_]

@Gita Meskauskas – Hi there, Amelie from the Power Scripts team here! We're not aware of any issues related to the upgrade to JSM 5.12.0. Could you please open a ticket with our support team so they can investigate and help you resolve it? 

[Gita Meskauskas]

Hei @Amelie Winkler _Appfire_ 

I was confirmed that this issue exist and I am very disappointed that it will not be fix any time soon: "I'm afraid there are technical challenges to fixing this specific issue with Select Lists on the Customer Portal not getting activated with Live Fields.
Our team has analyzed it, seen the problem, and confirmed that a solution will not be developed any time soon."

Regards Gita

[Amelie Winkler _Appfire_]

Hi @Gita Meskauskas – I just checked back with the team and have good news! They confirmed there was a misunderstanding, and the issue you're mentioning is prioritized with our team.

You will receive an update on your original support ticket soon! Thank you so much for your patience while we work on the fix.