Redirect while re-index

[Radgalf]

Today I made a typical Jira admin mistake and sent an instance for a full re-index, without any user warnings.
When users accessed the instance, they received a page about reindexing, did not understand anything and called me.
In this regard, an idea appeared:
My Jira is configured as a reverse proxy via Nginx
What if, at the time of indexing, all requests to the Jira address are sent to another pre-prepared page, for example "Technical work is in progress. Please wait."
Is Jira sludge not accessing itself over HTTP during indexing period? Because if he does, it will be a failure.

Thanks for reading. I hope for an answer.

[Daniel Ebers]

@Radgalf When you say, you already have a reverse proxy in place the easiest option indeed seems to redirect to a maintenance page. Like Nic said other approaches would imply changing files of the Jira installation.

Using the approach via reverse proxy a static HTML page providing maintenance info should be a thing of minutes - I had something in place in the past, also. It works well - it did not break re-indexing by Jira not being able reaching itself or such.

On the other hand (but please feel free to ignore this part) I'd question why a re-index takes place during office hours. From my opinion the maintenance page is less a problem than people interrupted from work.

With Jira Data Center however re-indexing a single node won't stop others (=users being able to continue to work).

Regards,
Daniel

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

When your people visit your Jira while it is re-indexing, what error message do they see?

I get one that tells me Jira is not available because it is re-indexing, it seems perfectly clear to me.  Instead of messing about with a proxy page, could you suggest better text than what your people are seeing?

[Radgalf]

The simplest thing is simply "Maintenance is being carried out, administrators know everything, this is the norm", because my users do not know what "re-index" is.
Unfortunately, I do not remember the text verbatim, but it mentions "NOTIFY YOUR ADMINISTRATOR", which makes people think "something is not working", and they report it :)
In the option with a redirect, I can control what users see and I can tell them:
- approximate recovery time
- what can they do now while Jira is not working (re-read the instructions on Confluence for example)
- and everything else that will be needed.
Unfortunately, this functionality is not in the box, but in fact it would be very convenient.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, it is clear the messaging built in is not working for you.  I would be nice to be able to define your own (more clear) message, I'd guess Atlassian haven't done it because most of their client base is ok with the current messaging.

However, you are on a Server version of Jira, which means it's running on hardware you own and you (well, your organisation at lease) has full access to all the code that is running.

If the messaging you are seeing is not working for your organisation, I'd happily recommend hacking the text! 

It should be as simple as unpacking the language file, writing your own better words for it, re-zipping it up and sticking it back on the server, then (probably) restarting Jira so it reads the new version.  Strictly speaking, this leaves you out of support, as Atlassian have a clause in the agreement saying "we won't help you with custom code", but if you just keep a copy of the file you've amended, you can always put it back if you do need support.