Can we upgrade directly from JIRA Server 7.2.9 to JIRA Server 9.3?

[Beverly McBride]

We are currently running JIRA Server v7.2.9 (along with Fisheye 4.4 and ConnectAll 2.10).  Would we be able to upgrade our JIRA Server software directly from 7.2.9 to the latest v9.3... OR.. would we need to first upgrade to v8.1 /8.5, then upgrade to the v9.3?   Thank you!

[Trudy Claspill]

Review the Supported Platform information on this page to determine if the platform/db you are using currently is still supported for v9.3. If it is not then you need to determine if you can first upgrade your current platform/db to versions that are supported by v9.3. If that is not possible then you may need to do an intermediate upgrade to a version that will allow you to upgrade your platform/db to a 9.3 supported environment, and then upgrade Jira to 9.3.

[Beverly McBride]

Thank you Trudy.  Yes, we plan to also upgrade our server hardware (Windows Server 2019) for housing the upgraded JIRA 9.3 (and the compatible ConnectAll integration tool and hopefully our add-ons).  This will most likely be where the existing v7.2.9 JIRA app server software will be pushed over to the Windows Server 2019.. and then upgraded to the v9.3..  Do you see where this will work as a valid path.. for upgrading directly to 9.3 once on the supported Win2019 vm server?

[Trudy Claspill]

I haven't tried that upgrade path myself. I don't know if a direct upgrade will work or if there are problems that will need to be resolved.

I have not found any information so far (posts or documents) that specifically talk about trying to upgrade from 7.x directly to 9.x.

If you are going to try this on your own, at the very least I would recommend that you set up a replica test environment and try it there first.

You may want to engage an Atlassian Partner to assist you with the upgrade.

(Disclosure: I work for an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner.)

[Beverly McBride]

Thank you Trudy!  Yes, we are definitely onboard with testing our upgrade process in Non-Prod environments.  Appreciate your input as we start this full upgrade project!

[Richard Murry]

@Beverly McBride did you ever have any luck upgrading from Jira 7 to 9? If so, what was the general approach you took?

[Beverly McBride]

Hi Richard -  Actually we are working now with resources for moving forward with the full upgrade project, and are currently in assessment stage.  Thank you for your follow up.

[Richard Murry]

@Beverly McBride we're looking to upgrade from 7.12 to 9.4 and I stumbled across this post. Our 7.12 instances is connected a SQL 2014 box, which lost support with 8.12. Today we hashed out a tentative plan to upgrade by installing a parallel instance of 7.12 connected to SQL 2016, then exporting the data from the current instance to the new instance. We would then upgrade 7.12 to 8.XX as a method to verify the v7 to v8 upgrade went smoothly, which we've already experienced elsewhere. This would also give us a fallback point in case the upgrade to v9 goes poorly. Then we will upgrade to 9.4. Version 9.4 also supports SQL 2016 so there's no additional work required there.

I'd be interested to hear your approach.