Jira version support

Question

Hello,

We are currently using the server version of Jira and we received following notification when logging in :

JIRA version 7.13 reached End of Life on Nov 28, 2020. To ensure you're still fully supported, please upgrade JIRA to a supported version.

Ideally, we would like to update the version, but we don't have anyone who could do the upgrading task internally, and my questions are:

- Can we continue to use Jira even when the version is not supported?

- Will there be a possibility that Jira won't be accessible at all if we don't upgrade?

If you could kindly let us know that would be great.

Thanks!

Mei

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted Answer

The short answer is:  Don't panic

You will not lose functionality, you do not need to upgrade (but it would be a good idea), and, most importantly, you will not lose any data.

Server licences are, in Atlassian's words, "perpetual".   You buy one, add it to your server install, and that's it.  For the first year, you have

* a completely functional Jira system,
* full support from Atlassian 
* the option to upgrade to any newer release.

After it expires, you have

* a completely functional Jira system

To try to avoid a long essay on older "perpetual licence" systems and examples, I'll use a real-world case.  Since lockdown in the UK (in March), I've been asked about Jira 3.x systems once a fortnight.  All of them are way out of licence, past end of life, insecure, needing upgrading and and and.  But they were all working.

Your "perpetual" licence will eventually lose support and upgrades.  But you will never lose access to your system or any data.