Upgrading psql 9.5 to 9.6 for Jira

[Kyle Manel]

I am unfamiliar with steps to follow when upgrading a database from 9.5 to 9.6, but I am operating a test environment until I understand the process.  I admin Bamboo, Bitbucket, Confluence and Jira servers.

Can anyone step me through the process?

Should the database just be upgraded from 9.5 to 9.6, with no additional changes to the data?

Should the databases be exported from 9.5 and imported into a 9.6 server?

Does data require modification to be compatible with the applications;

export from 9.5, modify, import to 9.6?

Thank-you in advance for assistance provided.

[Andy Heinzer]

Hi Kyle,

Each database can have a slightly different way to upgrade it.  I recall in my MS SQL administration days, that you could just take a database backup from say SQL2005 and restore it inside a then new 2008 SQL version and SQL would take care if the changes for you.  Most database vendors have some means to upgrade your data to their latest version, but not necessarily downgrade, so make a backup first.

I would also check to make sure that your Jira version supports the newer 9.6 database version.  You can check this in the corresponding Supported platforms page.  Honestly, I think you should be fine there, at least all the currently supported versions of Jira 7.4 and higher support Postgresql 9.6.x.

In the case of Postgresql, there are 3 different methods for updating your database.  Check out https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/upgrading.html for more details.

The method I see most people interested in is actually the 2nd one, Upgrading Data via pg_upgrade.  Which has it's own documentation on how to use it in https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/pgupgrade.html

There are a number of steps there, but it does try to offer step-by-step instructions on how you can upgrade your postgresql database.   I would like to add that it's very important to make sure that you stop Jira before trying any of these database upgrade steps.   Once the database it upgraded, you can then start Jira again.  Provided the database server is at the same address and the database has the same name, Jira should be good to go from there.

I hope this helps.

Andy