Copying current version for upgrade

[thanstra]

Reading through the Upgrade Guide, there is the suggestion that upgrades be first tested with a non-production version. I fully agree with this, but have the problem that we don't have a test version at the same level as our current production server.

We are running Jira 4.1 on our server right now. Is there a straightforward way for me to copy the current setup, make some changes to the copy, and thus have a test environment at the same version level? I would then proceed to test upgrading that prior to upgrading our production server.

Also, does this process require any special license considerations?

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

Tom Hanstra

[J. Caldwell]

If you are running a licensed version, you should have a "Developer License" under your main license key. I would use that

If you have a seperae install directory from your JIRA_HOME directory, yes. It's pretty easy, and it depends on how worried you want to be. If you have never stood up a test instance, the easiest way I would go about things, to minimize fuss would be to take an XML backup, stand up a new blank instance. Disable mail on that blank instance. Restore the xml into it and replicate attachments over.

If you want to be more hands on, I can make some suggestions as well, but it involves copying over file systems, getting a db backup and then restore and editing several files.