Introducing the Jira Data Center Migration App

[#1]

Update: After December 17, 2021, we will end support of the Jira Data Center Migration app and installations will no longer be possible. For more information and resources, you can read this Community post. 

---

We’re pleased to introduce our new Jira Data Center Migration App. This new Marketplace app helps you migrate your Jira instance to clustered Data Center infrastructure on AWS. It’s optimized for up to Large-sized Jira instances, and it automates two of the most complicated migration tasks:

• Deploying well-configured and secure clustered infrastructure for Jira Data Center

• Migrating the majority of your Jira data to this new instance

Note: At present, the app is only compatible with Jira Software 7.13.0 (and later) instances that use a supported PostgreSQL database.

How it works

The Jira Data Center Migration App uses our fully-supported AWS Quick Start templates for Jira to deploy optimal infrastructure. These templates help you customize Jira Data Center for the unique needs of your enterprise while applying best-practice defaults on critical settings.

Once the app deploys your new infrastructure, it will migrate the following Jira components:

• application home directory

• PostgreSQL database

You’ll still need to perform some manual tasks after migration, such as:

• a full Jira re-index

• re-integrating third-party services (for example, SAML SSO)

• migrating custom apps (if needed)

The Jira Data Center Migration App performs all of its tasks in a self-contained manner, which means the app won’t affect your instance’s existing data. As such, you can review and test the new deployment with your data before applying it on production. This lets you safely test the app's deployment and data transfer multiple times without risking data loss or corruption.

Requirements

The app sets up clustered infrastructure on AWS and migrates your Jira data to it. Clustering is only supported on a Jira Data Center license. So you’ll need a Data Center license in order to continue using your new Jira instance on AWS.

You’ll also need an AWS account, as the app will use your AWS credentials to provision infrastructure.

Support

The Jira Data Center Migration App is free to all Jira users and fully supported by Atlassian.

More information

For more detailed information on how to use the app, see How to use the Data Center Migration app to migrate Jira to an AWS cluster.

To learn more about how to run and manage your new Jira Data Center cluster, see:

• Getting started with Jira Data Center on AWS

• Administering Jira Data Center on AWS

• Upgrading Jira Data Center on AWS

If you’re interested in migrating to Jira Cloud instead, we’ve also got an app for that! Learn more about our Jira Cloud Migration Assistant.

[Sachin]

Nice! Thanks for the post @ddomingo , are there any plans in the future to develop a similar app that support Jira Server to Server migrations! ? 

[ddomingo]

Hi @Sachin ! As far as I'm aware, we have no plans to develop an app for that migration path. :-( 

To migrate Jira Server data to another Jira Server instance, you'll have to do it manually. For more information, see:

Migrating Jira applications to another server

[Sachin]

No worries @ddomingo , it was worth asking! 

[rodolfo]

Is the following statement on the deployment guide [1] still valid if using this method?

As such, for production environments, we recommend a second method, where you copy the Quick Start templates into your own S3 bucket. Then, launch them directly from there. Launching from your own templates lets you control when to apply our latest changes to your environment.​

Thank you.

[1] https://aws-quickstart.s3.amazonaws.com/quickstart-atlassian-jira/doc/jira-software-data-center-on-the-aws-cloud.pdf

[ddomingo]

Good question, @rodolfo [Clearvision] ! The simple answer is: no.

To clarify: for this initial release, the Jira Data Center Migration App won't let you use templates from custom S3 buckets. The app will always use the templates hosted from the same bucket. As such, any changes we make to the templates will affect your environment the next time you update your stack.

However, we are diligently testing every change we apply to the templates to make sure that they're always compatible with existing deployments. This will help ensure that while you can't fully control when to apply updates to the templates, those updates won't break your environment.

[rodolfo]

Thank you for you reply.

Also, is encryption at rest for EBS and EFS supported?

[Matt Doar]

What about migration to Azure?

[ddomingo]

Hi @Matt Doar , we know that Data Center customers use a wide variety of cloud vendors to deploy Jira Data Center, and we are continuously looking for ways to enhance that experience. However, enhancing the Jira Data Center Migration App to target Azure is not currently on our roadmap at this time.

[ddomingo]

Hi @rodolfo [Clearvision] , we're still working on adding the ability to enable Encryption-at-Rest via the Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket Quick Starts on AWS. 

[Taranjeet Singh]

@ddomingo Thanks for sharing this new app by Atlassian. Though it sounds limited in its functionality and coverage of various Cloud vendors for JIRA DC deployment, still it can be very useful for the users that want to deploy a new JIRA DC on AWS and migrate their data to it.

[Mike Ni]

@rodolfo [Clearvision] Hi, we are now looking into the case you mentioned but need more inputs from you to fully decide how important it is and is this a road blocker for your team to migrate to DC. Can you reach out to me via mni@atlassian.com?  Thanks

[Mike Ni]

@Taranjeet Singh  Thanks for letting us know. Would it be possible that you share your thoughts on what are the potential improvements we shall build for this tool in the future. BTW, i am the product manager for the tool, keen to understand how useful it is and how we can iterate on it.

[Mike Ni]

Version 1.1.1 • Jira Server 7.13.0 - 8.11.0 • Released 2020-08-13

Summary

Now supports Jira 7.13.0 (and later), applied several improvements and fixes

Details

With this update, the app is now supported on Jira 7.13.0 and all later versions. This update also delivers several improvements and fixes, most notably:

• When you cancel a migration, the app can now reliably delete all unnecessary resources.
• The app's reporting mechanism can now detect and highlight fatal errors better.
• We fixed several bugs that prevented retries during certain recoverable errors.We also improved the app's reliability in migrating larger Jira data sets.

[Alex Janes]

Hey Atlassian Team! This tool is awesome. I don't suppose you have something in the works for those of us who potentially plan to migrate to Azure?

[Carlos Corredor]

Hi @Alex Janes! 

Thanks for reaching out. Expanding the Jira Data Center Migration App to target Azure is not currently on our roadmap at this time. However, I've created a feature request https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SCALE-39 to start gathering interest. 

Thanks,

Carlos

[Rebecca Faisst]

Hi Atlassian Team! We'd like to migrate Confluence and Jira from server to data center and have to ensure that the data and audit trail are migrated as well (Data from Comalatech and an e-signature plug-in are also in scope). What would be your advice? What kind of automated approach do you have in place? 

Thanks and best regards,

Rebecca  

[James Conway]

Hello @Rebecca Faisst 

To upgrade Comalatech apps from Server to Data Center simply requires you to update your license code in the 'Manage Apps' screen.

If you have any questions about Comalatech apps you can reach out to our friendly Customer Success team at https://support.comalatech.com anytime

All the best

James