Jira Software 8.8.x upgrade notes
Here are some important notes on upgrading to Jira Software 8.8.
For details on the new features and improvements in this release, see the Jira Software 8.8.x release notes.
Upgrade notes
Increase pool-max-size on upgrade
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.
New API to help the Versions view load faster
Available from Jira 8.8.1
To help the Versions view in project settings load faster and avoid possible timeouts on large instances, we have changed the endpoint it called.
Now, instead of .../release/allversions we use GET /rest/projects/1.0/project/<project_key>/release/allversions-nodetails to return the list of all project versions together with their data such as their name, status, or description (except the progress data). Archived versions are also returned.
We also changed the way the information about the number of issues in each status category (To do, In progress, Done) related to each version is returned. This data, collectively known as Progress, is now lazy-loaded as the page is scrolled and uses a separate new endpoint.
The old endpoint is still working however, will not be used by the releases including and following Jira 7.13.14, 8.5.5, 8.8.1 and 8.9.
| New endpoint | Data it retrieves |
|---|---|
GET
| List of project versions and their data |
POST /rest/projects/1.0/project/<project_key>/release/details/progress | Progress for each version |
This is not a breaking change.
Fetching updates to be fixed for Jira in version 8.8.2
If you use Jira with other Atlassian products such as Bamboo, Bitbucket or Fisheye/Crucible, you might have experienced it getting stuck paging over issue updates. This happens when the collective number of results to fetch is bigger than 50. We have worked on a fix and will bundle it in Jira version 8.8.2. Make sure you upgrade to this version for Jira to update without further issues.
G1 GC enabled by default for Java 11
If you’re running Jira with Java 11, Garbage First Garbage Collection (G1 GC) will be enabled by default. We’ve already been recommending this method when tuning garbage collection, so now you’ll get it out of the box. G1 GC is more efficient and improves performance, especially in environments with large Java heap.
| Java version | Default GC | Recommended GC |
|---|---|---|
| Java 11 | G1 GC |
|
| Java 8 | ParallelGC | ParallelGC |
*Our performance tests have shown that you might benefit from ParallelGC if you have a relatively small Java heap. The difference is not big, but you can consider switching back to ParallelGC if you’re having problems with performance.
All mail handlers supported
In Jira 8.6 we decided to deprecate two email handlers that do not use regex: ”Add a comment from the non-quoted email body” and ”Create a new issue or add a comment to an existing issue” (see the announcement). We advised users to switch to the handlers which use regular expressions to get rid of unwanted content such as email footers or signatures.
Since then, we’ve received important feedback on our deprecation statement and, as a result, we decided to revert it.
We will not be deprecating the two mail handlers and instead will work on adding regular expression to the existing handlers to help admins manage the unwanted content added to Jira issues via email.
New API endpoints
As a result of introducing the Advanced auditing feature, we've added new REST endpoints. For more information, see here.
Audit log migration
The improved audit log we’re introducing in Jira 8.8 requires us to migrate your existing audit log (up to 10 million records) on upgrade.
We migrate the existing events to the database.
Migration will run on Jira startup
The migration will run on startup for regular upgrades, and in the background for the Data Center ZDU upgrades. If you need to keep Jira operational, we recommend that you use a ZDU upgrade. Depending on the database you’re using and the size of your current audit log, it might take up to several hours to migrate all the data.
Limiting the number of migrated entries
To speed up the migration, you can limit the number of migrated entries or turn off the migration altogether. If you decide to turn it off, your new audit log will only show the events that happen after the upgrade.
To apply the limit, add the following line to your setenv.sh/.bat file. This example would limit the migration to only 10 entries.
JVM_SUPPORT_RECOMMENDED_ARGS="-Djira.advanced.audit.log.migration.limit=10"While migration is happening, the new events are buffered and when the migration is complete, the buffer is released. Before the migration, we also run an additional health check to see if you have enough extra free disk space (on the Jira-home partition) to accommodate the new audit log.
Expected changes to incoming mail settings (Jira 8.10)
In response to Google and Microsoft deprecating Basic Authentication, we will soon be adding OAuth 2.0 authentication methods for incoming email (so far using the IMAP and POP3 protocols). We’ll also backport it to the supported Enterprise releases. If you currently use email to create issues and issue comments, you will need to reconfigure your incoming mail settings.
We treat this work with highest priority and aim to provide the solution ahead of the deadlines set by Google and Microsoft so that you have time to upgrade.
OAuth 2.0 support will mean changes in to the incoming mail settings and the way you configure the incoming email server. It's a good idea to plan to take the time after your upgrade to review the changes so that your instance's email handlers keep working.
End of support announcements
End of support
In Jira 8.8, we're making the following changes:
We're stopping the support for the following platforms:
SQL Server 2012
PostgreSQL 9.4
Solaris
Oracle 12c R1
PostgreSQL 9.5
For more details, see End of support announcements.
Deprecating Hipchat
We are planning to stop supporting and unbundle the Hipchat plugin from Jira version 8.11 and later.
The reason for this is that Hipchat Cloud reached the end of life in Feb 2019, HipChat Data Center in Sep 2019, and Hipchat Server is due in June 2020.
If you have not already, make sure you migrate to other chat solutions before Jira 8.11.
App developers
See Preparing for Jira 8.8 for any important changes regarding apps.
Upgrade procedure
Upgrading from a Jira version 8.x.x?
See Upgrading Jira applications for complete upgrade procedures, including all available upgrade methods and pre-upgrade steps. For a more tailored upgrade, go to 
> Applications > Plan your upgrade. We’ll recommend a version to upgrade to, run pre-upgrade checks, and provide you with a custom upgrade guide with step-by-step instructions.
As the result of introducing the Advanced auditing feature, we'll be migrating your old audit log (up to 10 million records) on upgrade. Depending on the platform you're using and the size of your audit log, the migration might take up to several hours.
If you migrate with ZDU, your migration task will run in the background, and Jira will still be accessible to users.
You can use the jira.advanced.audit.log.migration.limit flag in the Jira properties file to limit the number of events you want to migrate or to turn off the migration altogether. In that case, you will only see the new events in your upgraded Audit log view, and the past events will remain invisible until you have performed the migration.