Migrating JIRA by using JIRA XML Export

[Leonardo Martinez]

We are currently using a JIRA solution with a hosting provider and are unable to get them to give us a backup of our JIRA installation. We don't have administrative access to either, so access to your backup feature is out of the question. To work around this problem we have decided to export all ISSUES using the XML Export feature available in the Search section of JIRA. We maped all the data in the XML file with the proper categories/database fields available in the database. I've spent a good part of 2 weeks getting everything ready and have litterally reversed-engineered the XML Export file. If we do this, what kind of problems will we encounter? Is it even possible to do?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

It is possible, but it sounds like a heck of a lot of work.

I'd be very disappointed in your hosting provider if they weren't willing to provide either a proper xml backup file or (better) a copy of the database. (I could be quite rude here and ask who they are, just so I can avoid them. I would never want to use a provider who wouldn't give me at least a raw database dump of my own data)

Anyway, despite your mapping of all the fields, I still think you might struggle. Your XML is only the issues, so you still need to create all the project and configuration data structures in which to import them into. I'm not sure an XML -> SQL process is really going to work here. I'd be strongly tempted to try transforming the XML into either a jelly script or a set of REST commands, firing that into a development Jira install and then exporting it all (actually, I'd recommend an intermediate dev install of Jira if you do it with SQL - if the dev copy works, you know you've got decent data!)

[Leonardo Martinez]

Thank you for your input. Maybe I'm being to rough on the hosting provider. They will provide us with a backup, but at an extreemly exagerated price. Totalling $10,000+ for two or three of them.

I already created a dev install of JIRA and will attempt to populate the database with the proper configuration data. If after all that the process fails, I will attempt your second option by using REST commands. I will keep you posted on the progress.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Wow, that's a lot of money for "here's a copy of last night's backup of data you own"... Oh well. :-)