Jira Administration -- Versions & licenses

[JesseSilverman]

On recent versions of JIRA where Software and Core became separately licensed products, I find something a bit confusing on the Versions & Licenses section of Administration --> Applications

All of my licenses are for JIRA Software users, none are licensed for "just Core".

For customers like us, it is logical to me that here I see all the info about my JIRA Software license, e.g. version installed, # users and # used, expiration, SEN, License type, Org Name and license key, and option to Uninstall.

However, I also see an ""Ad" for JIRA Core 7.8.0 now being available, with an option to Add JIRA Core users, a place to paste a license and a  button for Download.

So what I don't understand is why the availability of JIRA Core is merrily announced and so easy to download, but not the JIRA Software installation that I actually support for all my users.  I already got lured into clicking the Download once, then realized that JIRA Core is not the same install as JIRA Software.

I imagine that there are three kinds of installations -- all users Core, installations split between Software and Core users, and all users licensed for Software.

I suppose those admins who continue to have all their users licensed for Software should just totally ignore the JIRA Core section and its offers of downloads?  Was my understanding of a mixed Jira Software / Jira Core environment as a single install with just mixed categories of two types of users (Software, can do everything, Core -- limited functionality) confused?

Even in a mixed environment wouldn't it be normal to have a single install of JIRA Software only?  The JIRA Core download would only be used for those running a completely separate instance of Core or a customer who had only Core licenses and none for Software, right?

[Andy Heinzer]

Lots of Jira admins are confused by the changes to Jira 7.  In this case, I'm going to call my own number to explain a little background and details from a previous thread.  Please see https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Use-only-Jira-server-not-jira-core/qaq-p/662102

All installations of Jira 7 have Jira Core installed.  You won't be able to remove Jira Core.  It's actually required to use Jira, Jira Software, and/or Jira Service Desk.  You don't have to license Jira Core though in all situations. For example, if you have applied a Jira Software or a Jira Service Desk license to the instance, that will suffice to give you that products features and still access Jira Core.   But if you do not have a Jira Software or Jira Service Desk license applied, then you would need to apply a Jira Core license to the system to be able to use it.  

As such you cannot just install Jira Software without Core.

We have seen customers that would rather have separate installations for Jira Software, Jira Core, and Jira Service Desk.  But to do this, you would have to have a separate database, separate website, and in turn these installations would each have separate user bases.  Some admins want that so in those cases, it might make sense to place only a single license on each installation you have.

But in order to leverage some licensing benefits of having both Jira Core and another license, such as using Core/Software users in a Service Desk project as collaborators, you need to have both licenses activated on the same Jira installation.

So what I don't understand is why the availability of JIRA Core is merrily announced and so easy to download, but not the JIRA Software installation that I actually support for all my users.

This is because in order to install or update Jira Core, you have to actually stop the Tomcat container running Jira.  This means the entire site is stopped as you run the .bin, .exe, or upgrade by creating a new .zip/targz installation.  This kind of upgrade could update all sorts of files in the installation directory including but not limited to the version of Apache Tomcat that hosts the Jira site, system plugins, a bundled Java JRE, etc.  These files simply cannot be updated on the fly, Jira has to be stopped to achieve this kind of update.

Whereas it is sometimes possible to update Jira Software or Jira Service Desk without stopping Jira.  In those cases, you can have this licenses & Versions page prompt you with a version that is compatible with your current Jira core version.   This was very common to see in Jira Core versions 7.0.x through 7.2.x.  If you see this hear it is because your Jira instance has contacted our marketplace site and it did a lookup of the version history pages to determine there is a newer version that is compatible with your current installation.

However starting with mid 7.2.x Jira Core release, I believe that both Service Desk and Software teams started utilizing a 1:1 release cycle with Jira Core.  This means it's actually very unlikely that this page will be able to prompt you to upgrade either JSW or JSD in more recent versions because in order to use those versions Jira Core has to be updated first (or at the same time via a Jira Upgrade).

Apologies for the long response, please let me know if this helps clarify things a bit, or if you have any follow up concerns.

Cheers,

Andy

[JesseSilverman]

It clarifies things a lot, however, the bit almost at the end leaves things a bit fuzzy.  If both Service Desk and Software are utilizing a 1:1 release cycle with Jira Core, then where you imply that Jira Core could safely be updated first (and possibly have a version number higher than the other components for at least a little while) it raises questions again.

The description suggests that both Service Desk and Software include 100% of core, plus some other functionality and data presumably implemented in additional jars, tables in the database, etc.

Additionally, there are licensing checks to make sure that any individual user is actually authorized to make use of that additional functionality and data.

For those who have only Jira Software or Service Desk users, and none "Core Only", it seemed to me that it would always be a mistake to select and run a download of the latest version of the Core product, and if I complained at all, it was that it would be too easy to make that mistake.

If someone accepts the download of a newer version of core and attempts to use that to upgrade their Jira Software / Service Desk instance, is that something that will always, sometimes, or never be okay?  If the answer is never, it is a little too easy to do by mistake.

[Andy Heinzer]

It's not the never option.  Upgrading Jira is okay.  Just understand that when you upgrade Core, it's always possible that your plugins to Jira (both 3rd party and Atlassian made) could possibly require an update in order to continue to provide their function in the system.

The same applies to Jira Software and Jira Service Desk.  When you upgrade Core, you are probably going to need to update those if you are using them as well.  

Many time you can do this directly in the web interface for Jira, either via that Versions & License page, OR for other plugins in the Cog Icon -> Add-ons -> Manage Add-ons page.  Sometimes Jira will not start because of an incompatible plugin.  In those cases, you might have to navigate to the $JIRAHOME/plugins/installed-plugins/ to remove this .jar file from that folder and restart Jira in order to get Jira to at least start up correctly.  From there you can then use the UPM in Jira to install/update a newer version of that plugin. 

[JesseSilverman]

"The same applies to Jira Software and Jira Service Desk.  When you upgrade Core, you are probably going to need to update those if you are using them as well. "

So, it would seem that this fact, taken together with the fact that the Service Desk or Software updates will basically include all of the updates found in the Core install anyway, does indeed mean that the simplest approach for Admins who have only Software or Service Desk users, is to ignore updates of Core -- they will get these when they update Software or Service Desk.

My original fear was that taking a Core update distribution and running that to upgrade with would lose access to functionality in Software or Service Desk regardless of licenses and user types.  Even if that can't happen, it seems there is no reason for the admin not to just think of update possibilities simply as a target version of Software or Service Desk, ignoring all notifications about Core, unless one supports Core-only user types.

Thanks for your patient explications.

[Andy Heinzer]

... the simplest approach for Admins who have only Software or Service Desk users, is to ignore updates of Core -- they will get these when they update Software or Service Desk.

I would tend to agree with this statement in a general sense, provided that you are following one of the upgrade methods in Upgrading JIRA applications.  

There can be confusion over this point though, and I want to explain why once more just to try to be as clear as possible.  It is because as I stated previously, there were some versions of Jira that would allow admins to just update Jira Software or just Service desk via this Versions & Licenses page in the web browser.  In those cases, Core is not getting updated when you update these plugins/applications.

[JesseSilverman]

I appreciate all your time and attention taken to explain the non-trivial, time-varying relationship between the lifecycles of the separate components.