Upgrading JIRA version 4.0.2 to latest version 6.2

[Mohin Uddin]

Hi expert,

I would like to upgrade my jira version 4.0.2 to lastes 6.2. without losing any data because a large volume of data exists in my system and for this upgradtion which upgrade process should I need to follow.

My current Database Statistics are given below:

Issues:115286

Projects:473

Custom Fields:1277

Workflows:200

Users:2126

Groups:159

I have no experience to jira upgrade.

Could you please inform me proper guideline with any resource link?

I would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks

Mohin

[Tarun Sapra]

Hi Mohin,

First of all take backup of your data, also if you are using lot of plugins and their customization in your JIRA then it's a very high chance that you run into compatibilty issues as JIRA 6.x has very diff. APIs and design guidelines as compared to 4.x, thus while installaing the jira 6.x choose the upgrade option and test thoroughly that all data has been migrated.

Custom fields and customized scripts(if using scrip runner) can also give some pain.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Oh, and the nastiest one - have you any custom javascript? Get rid of it now if you can, but any you can't dump will need to be re-written from the ground up. (Probably on almost every upgrade or even plugin install/change, which I is why I avoid it like the plague)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Start with the obvious - read the Atlassian documentation for upgrading Jira. https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Upgrading+JIRA It's short, but links to a lot more detail.

The numbers you've given imply that you need to do some housekeeping and look at your business processes (1277 custom fields and 200 workflows is often a big red flag that things are disorganised), but they don't cause any upgrade related concerns.

I also highly recommend reading all the release notes for major/minor releases (skim the bugfix/point releases), so you'd want to read 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.0, 5.1 etc

[Tarun Sapra]

Hi Nic,

As you have stated -

The numbers you've given imply that you need to do some housekeeping and look at your business processes (1277 custom fields and 200 workflows is often a big red flag that things are disorganised), but they don't cause any upgrade related concerns

I completely agree with you, but at the same time I am curious to know any "green" flag benchmark statistics out there about large JIRA installations

thanks

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Depends on the size, but I'd worry about any installation with more than 200 custom fields or 20ish workflows (That excludes Agile "simplified workflows" though. If you're hand-designing 200 different processes, you're doing something very wrong).

I'm not sure there are any positive greens - it depends on what the system is being used for before you can say stuff like "lots of projects good" or "small handful of projects good"

[Mohin Uddin]

HiRichie,

Thanks a lot for your help.

BR,

Mohin

[richie_gee]

Basically Nic got much of it covered, but just to share my personal advise normally I have given to customers:

1. Check for Supported Platforms https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Supported+Platformson Jira version that you are going to upgrade to, make neccessary installation before you conduct the upgrade.
2. IMPORTANT: Conduct an upgrade on a test environment with the similar plugins and settings to get yourself familiarize the upgrade process and verify the successful upgrade. Contact us if you encounter problem on the test environment.
3. You can validate functionality best by the conducting default operation of Jira, such as create issue, workflow transition, notification handling, and the usual way of using Jira.
4. If you want, you can also get yourself familiarize with roll back the upgrade https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Rolling+Back+a+JIRA+Upgradebefore upgrading the production instance.
5. If your instance is having external user management prior to 4.4, you will need to go through this link, https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+4.3+Upgrade+Guide#JIRA4.3UpgradeGuide-ChangestousermanagementinJIRAand understand the requirements.

Cheers!

[Mohin Uddin]

Hi Tarun and Nic,

Thank you for your quick response.I can backup jira data in a portable XML format but attachment will not backed up and I need to do this in manually.

Can you please tell me where all attachments are store in jira installation directory or which folder should I need to backup for attachments backup?

Thanks

Mohin

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Attachments are in "jira home"/attachments. You can copy the whole directory tree from that point downwards, exactly as it is (literally "cp -R attachments <target>")

[Tarun Sapra]

I won't suggest you to do XML format backup, full DB backup and restore should be done for production. XML backups are generally done for some lightweight testing wherein data consistency isn't of extremly high priority.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You should use whatever database backup tools are appropriate for your database server, and if there's more than one, use the one you are most comfortable/familiar with.

All you need is the ability to take a copy of the Jira database and be able to reload it on another database. (Plus, a copy of the attachments of course)

[Mohin Uddin]

Hi Tarun,

Which backup format do you recommand and how?

Thanks again

[Mohin Uddin]

Hi Nic,

Thanks for your reply.

I have a query regarding plugin.I already using a third party plugin "JIRA Suite Utilities - 0.7.0" for additional set of workflow conditions, validators.If I upgrade from 4.0.2 to latest then do I need to install this plugin again to upgrade version?

Thanks

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You'll need to read the release notes for ALL your plugins, as they will ALL need upgrading for that sort of a jump. For smaller jumps, some of them won't need updating, but 4.x -> 6.x is a very large step. (Some may also be removed or become useless to you, you'll need to read up to find out which)