Upgrading Jira Server from 7.x to 8.13

 If you're upgrading from Jira 7.x, you'll be upgrading your Jira Server manually by using the tar.gz / zip archive.

[Unit] 
Description=Atlassian Jira
After=network.target

[Service] 
Type=forking
User=jira
PIDFile=/opt/atlassian/jira/work/catalina.pid
ExecStart=/opt/atlassian/jira/bin/start-jira.sh
ExecStop=/opt/atlassian/jira/bin/stop-jira.sh

[Install] 
WantedBy=multi-user.target 

Download Jira

Download one of the Jira applications from our website. Choose the tar.gz or zip archive.

• • Jira Software
  • Jira Service Desk (only tar.gz archive)

Extract the files

Extract the archive you've downloaded.

1. Extract (unzip) the files to a directory (this is your new installation directory, and must be different to your existing installation directory). 

2. Point Jira to your existing Jira home directory.

Install the database driver

If you're using an Oracle or MySQL database, download a new JDBC driver. For other databases, you can omit this step. For more info on supported drivers, see Supported platforms.

1. Download one of the following drivers:
   
   
   • Oracle: JDBC driver 19.3 (ojdbc8)
   • MySQL: MySQL Connector/J 5.1 driver
     
     
2. Place it in <installation-directory>/lib.

Re-apply custom changes and increase pool-max-size

While using Jira, you’ve probably added some custom modifications to Jira files. These may include connection details, settings related to memory allocation, or other JVM arguments. Usually, these are the files that contain custom changes: 

• • server.xml

    Upgrading from Jira 7.6?

    You need to add some extra config properties to your new server.xml file. See this article for more info. Make sure you do not copy the entire old file to the new one in your upgraded Jira.

  • dbconfig.xml
  • jira-config.properties
  • setenv.sh / setenv.bat (memory allocation and other JVM arguments)
  • for more, see Important files in Jira. 

If you've made changes to the following files:
- <jira-home-directory>/atlassian-jira/ directory
- <jira-home-directory>/conf/server.xml
- <jira-home-directory>/bin/setenv.sh

then we'll automatically copy the changes over during upgrade. However, if the changes have been made to other files, you need to re-apply your custom changes to your respective new Jira files by copying them from your backups.

Pool-max-size

If you're upgrading from Jira 7.x to Jira 8.x we recommend changing the pool-max-size parameter to 40 in your dbconfig.xml before the upgrade. Leaving the default of 20 can sometimes lead to “ResultSet Closed” errors during re-indexing on 8.x. For information on implementing the change, see Tuning database connections.

Disable automatic reindex

Because of the changes to indexes that we've introduced in Jira 8.0, your old index is incompatible with the new version. To create a new one, Jira will trigger an automatic reindex right after you start it. To avoid reindexing twice (after startup and after upgrading your apps), you can disable the automatic reindex, and run the second one later, whenever you’re ready.

1. Edit or create the following file: 

   <jira-home-directory>/jira-config.properties

2. Add the following line, and save the file: 

   upgrade.reindex.allowed=false

Start Jira for the first time

Start your new Jira version.

1. Go to <installation-directory>/bin, and run one of the following files:
   
   
   • Windows:  start-jira.bat
   • Linux:  start-jira.sh 


2. Open Jira in your browser.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the setup.

Post-upgrade landing page

After a successful upgrade, you should see the post-upgrade landing page. It has some useful information about the new version, as shown below.

1. Need to know: A list of new features that might affect your work as an admin.
2. User apps: Status of your apps after the upgrade.
3. Application links: Status of your application links.
4. Release notes: Link to release notes where you can see more detailed information about the version you've upgraded to.

Post-upgrade steps

Your Jira instance has been upgraded. Below you can learn how to upgrade Service Desk, if you have it, and how to upgrade your apps.

(Optional) Update Jira Service Desk

If you're using Jira Service Desk, you can update it directly in the UI, without downloading a separate installer.

1. Go to  > Applications > Versions and licenses.
2. Update Jira Service Desk. This will automatically update Service Desk to a compatible version.

Upgrade/ install compatible apps (add-ons)

Now, it's the time to work with your apps. If you have decided to disable the apps or if you successfully upgraded your Compatible once both are updated apps in your test environment, this is the time to do it in production. 

1. Go to > Manage apps > Manage apps.
2. Upgrade your apps to the supported versions.
3. Once the apps are upgraded, you can enable the apps. 

If you need more information about the statuses and apps in general, see Preparing for the upgrade.

If you have removed all apps, now you can install the compatible versions of the apps. 

Rebuild index

Since your old index is incompatible, reindex Jira to rebuild it. This step might take some time, depending on how many issues and apps you have.

Go to  > Indexing, and run Full re-index.

Well done!

You've upgraded Jira to a new version.