How to change JIRA_HOME consistently when using Atlassian´s Docker Image for JIRA

[Christian Schlaefcke]

Hi,

when deploying Atlassian tools I am using docker images for a while but always created my own custom docker images. For improving and simplifying maintenance I want to switch to the docker images provided by Atlassian now - I like the idea of configuring the whole system with just a few environment variables.

The Jira image provided by Atlassian is using /var/atlassian/atlassian-data/jira as JIRA_HOME by default and the same directory is being used as Current Working Directory, jira.path.attachments and user.home (found in Administration > System > System Information).

My own image has used /opt/atlassian-home as JIRA_HOME so far - I only have one Atlassian tool per docker container and my system is heavily dependent on this path. I also checked this Atlassian KB article (Setting your Jira application home directory).

I assumed that this could be changed easily just by setting the JIRA_HOME to the desired path in my docker-compose.yml in the environment section: 

services:
  jira:
    container_name: my-jira
    image: atlassian/jira-software:8.20.27
    environment:
      - JIRA_HOME=/opt/atlassian-home
      - JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY=6g
      - JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY=10g
    ...

But unfortunately this is only affecting the JIRA_HOME setting itself and not the Current Working Directory, jira.path.attachments and user.home variables - they stick to /var/atlassian/atlassian-data/jira which is causing quite bad problems to my scripting and other customizations that rely on the path /opt/atlassian-home

I checked the docs of the Atlassian docker image but cannot find any solution to my problem. Any hint on how to fix this would be very appreciated!

Best, Christian

[Artur Moura]

Hi @Christian Schlaefcke

I believe you can't change the home path if you don't have a customized image. However, I would recommend you use this Jira Docker - Advanced Configuration to create a customized image based on the Atlassian Image as a source of your customized image.

I'm mentioning this because the JIRA_HOME variable is defined in the Dockerfile, and even defining the variable in docker-compose will have no effect.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Best, Artur