long upgrade process

[Lance Wong]

when upgrading our jira version, we want to do our due diligence and make sure that stuff works in the new version. This would include workflows, custom velocity code, javascript, distr file changes and our own plugins. I can see this becoming a bear of a process to execute. Does anyone have any advice or learning experiences to share on this? We currently have about 10 projects and ~200 active users

[Renjith Pillai]

And most importan, do it in a test system before doing it on production:

1. Backup you home, installation directories, and database
2. Get all those into a new test server
3. Run JIRA config and connect to the backup database
4. Disable email in the setenv.sh in JIRA
5. Start JIRA in test
6. Do the upgrade procedure
7. Copy all the customization over to the new installation path and test

I added installation directory to this since you mentioned you have customized velocity.

[Rahul Aich [Nagra]]

Upgrading Jira is a big activity and can range from anything to anything. I would recommend you follow the general upgrade guide by each step.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Upgrading+JIRA

and then follow the version specific upgrade guide. Say for example you are upgrading fro m4.1 to 5.2 then you need to read each of the individual upgrade guides i.e. 4.2, 4.4 , 4.4.1...5.2. and make sure you follow each of the step.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Production+Releases

Upgrade guides on atlassian site is pretty exhaustive and covers all the activities you will ever need to perform.

If you face any specific question please feel free to post it up here

rahul