Cloning production into test/staging environments

[Gregory Kremer]

We are running JIRA 7.0.10 with PostgreSQL as a DB. Application and DB are running on two different Windows servers. I need to clone Production environment in order to test software and DB upgrade process. Both servers are VMs, so I plan to do a V2V cloning. First, can I do that? Second, what type of re-configuration do I need to do in order to run my test environment? Help/assistance will be greatly appreciated.

[Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting]]

As @Alexey Matveev states, you have 2 options:

You can perform an XML backup from prod, copy that over to dev and load it. You will also need to copy over the "data" and "plugins" directories from Jira's home directory on the production server, as that is where the attachments, avatars, etc are stored on disk.  In this case, you would set up a new empty database and connect the Jira application to it.  When you start up Jira and access the setup wizard in the UI, you will have the option to point to an existing backup. If you go this route, I would recommend running the XML backup under a change control window.  There is some chance that running an XML backup will cause Jira to run out of memory and fall over, so you want to be under a change window if this happens.

The other option is to make an ascii dump of your database and copy that over to the dev database and load it in to the dev database server.  When you start up Jira, it will see the database data and look and feel like production. You also need to copy the "data" and "plugins" directories from the production Jira home directory. This is probably faster than doing the XML method.

Note: Don't copy the dbconfig.xml file from Jira's home directory or you will connect the dev instance to your production database! Also, be sure to set the startup parameters on your dev instance to disable inbound and outbound mail.

[Alexey Matveev]

Hello,

You can take the xml backup from system -> backup system and then restore this on the other system (system -> restore system).

[Gregory Kremer]

Wouldn't it require to install JIRA software on the new machine? And what about the PostgreSQL DB server? I was hoping to make an exact clone of app and DB servers via V2V, change configuration to point to new server names and be done with it. I need to know if it's possible to do.

[Alexey Matveev]

You can also do it your way. Just to copy all files from the Jira Application Server and copy the database. But it would require more work from your side.

[Gregory Kremer]

So if I do it my way, what files are need to be touched in order to point to new DB and App servers?

[Alexey Matveev]

As @Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting] mentioned you need to copy all files from the jira_installation and jira_home directory to the new server. Do not copy the dbconfig.xml or you will get connected to the production database. 

Also you should disable the outgoing mail. You can do it the following way:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Core-questions/Disable-outgoing-emails-after-restore/qaq-p/371671