JIRA 8.12 MySQL / XML backups questions

[Gabriel Meyer]

Old server:  CentOS 5.6/MySQL 5.6/JIRA 8.12/JDBC 5.1.jar

New server:  CentOS 7.9/MySQL community 5.7/JIRA 8.20/JDBC 5.1.jar

I've looked and, while technically 8.20 supports 5.7/8.0, could I technically get away with using MySQL 5.6?  I'm not talking about MariaDB 5 that's installed on some distros.

I tried for weeks to simply use a MySQL dump from the running 8.12 instance on the 8.20 instance, to restore the server, but didn't work.  The only thing that seems to work is exporting the XML file on 8.12 and importing it. 

I am being asked to upgrade our 8.12 server to 8.20, in order to get an XML backup to import on a new 8.20 machine. 

Is this step necessary to migrate from an 8.12 installation to a new machine running 8.20?

I was told there are some idiosyncrasies that an XML backup/restore from different versions would introduce.  If this is the case - what are the problems I'll encounter if I do this?  I'm wondering if I'm being asked to do more stuff than is really needed in order to bring up this new server.  Our time is valuable, and if it's better spent elsewhere, then that's where it needs to be.  I do not want to waste our team's time on this when there's so much else to do.  I was hopeful an XML import of 8.12 on the new server was good enough.  How do I check for plugins on the old server to get those on the new one, or will all of that be transferred in the import?

Thank you for any guidance.

[Vishwas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Gabriel Meyer 

Lets start from basic. Were you able to connect MYSQL 5.7 successfully to Jira 8.20. Everything is good on vanilla 8.20 system?

Ideally you can take a XML backup(It's recommended to take backup when there is no activity going on jira application while doing on production applications) of Jira 8.12 version and restore on 8.20 version, there shouldn't be any issue as far as I see since these versions belong to main release 8.x the restore should work(even I haven't tried but it might work)

Also XML backup will contain the plugin data. But you need to install the same plugins on the new server. To find plugins on the old jira you can navigate to Administration(cog wheel) --> Apps --> Manage apps. There you will need to find the User installed apps and make list of them along with versions. In the same page you can check "Plan for upgrade" provide 8.20 in the dropdown. See what all plugins are compatible, which needs upgrade version to be installed on new server. You can make note of that and try to install similar version of plugins in new Jira.

So when your new jira has these plugins setup ready you can take a xml backup from old jira and restore.

PS: Ideally plugin data will be there anytime in XML, this means that you can install add-ons after restore also. But I would recommend to setup plugins on New Jira 8.20 and then try a restore.

I would strongly suggest you to try this activity on Test/Dev server first.

Coming to issues that might arise during restore. So it depends on the type of errors we get in logs. One cannot anticipate and guide to KB on the known issues. If you get any errors you can post it in community and we can suggest you on the fixes.

Hope this helps on the queries you had.

Let us also take community inputs and expertise on this too..

Regards,

Vishwas

[Gabriel Meyer]

Yes, I have a new 8.20.2 installation running fine on the new server.  I have already tried the XML restore and it worked with no problem.  I decided to nuke the db on the new/test server just in case I was missing something.  Management is worried that some data will not be translated to the new version.

I looked at JIRA_HOME/plugins/installed-plugins on the old server and there *are* ones there that are not on the new server, so I will make sure those are installed prior to the import.

MySQL 5.6 isn't technically supported on the 8.20.2 version, so I wonder if there's the need migrate from 5.6 to 5.7 or 8, or if we could upgrade the old server to 8.20 running MySQL 5.6.  I haven't found it in the documentation anywhere.

Regards,

Gabriel

[Gabriel Meyer]

In the event they still want the old box upgraded to 8.20, do we have to use MySQL 5.7 or will JIRA unofficially run on MySQL 5.6? 

Regards,

Gabriel

[Vishwas]

Hi @Gabriel Meyer 

That's great, Data won't get lost nothing to worry unless if something goes wrong in XML backup itself, which is very unlikely.

Yes go ahead and install the plugins as it is in the old server.

Coming to MySQL part, logically speaking we can just take a XML backup from 5.6 version and restore on jira which is connected to 5.7 MySQL DB. But I would suggest please test this thoroughly on dev server. If everything works bingo!. In this link scenario 3 it says about XML backup, please have a look https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver0820/switching-databases-1095776553.html

Also for Jira 8.20.x -> MySQL 5.6 isn't supported I'm afraid even though we try to connect and bring up the installation steps it wont go further. It's always recommended to connect Jira to supported DB versions.

Hope this helps !!

Regards,

Vishwas

[Gabriel Meyer]

It helps tremendously!  Now I know where to go moving forward. 

Very much appreciated!

[Vishwas]

You are welcome @Gabriel Meyer . Good luck !!