Jira server / version upgrade

[Monika Goel]

Hi, We have a really old version of jira (7.3) which is in our data centre. We are looking to upgrade both jira (to 8.13) and the app/ database servers. 

Now, can someone suggest the best approach to do this please? its a non-standard product so a lot of add ons etc. I see below two options :

1) We do a fresh install of 8.13 on new app server and point it to 7.3 database. Not sure if installer will upgrade the database while doing this. 

2) We install 7.3 on new app server first and then upgrade it to 8.13. We might run into windows compatibility issues etc while doing this. 

Any guidance is much appreciated. 

Many Thanks. 

[Alex · Accepted solution]

Hi @Monika Goel and welcome to the Atlassian community!

Option #1 will certainly run into issues due to changes in database structure from version 7.3 to 8.13, not only from Jira itself but with apps as well. So don't do it.

Since your use case includes not only Jira version upgrade but also, database change, I would suggest you perform one at each time:

Option #2 sounds like a reasonable approach if you install 7.3 fresh on a new server infra and a new database and restore from the old installation an XML backup. After validating that the database change has been successful, then move forward with the Jira upgrade using Jira's  Plan your upgrade feature.

I hope it helps.

Cheers

Alex

[Monika Goel]

Thanks for the reply Alex- much appreciated. 

[Reneesh Kottakkalathil]

Hi @Monika Goel 

Back in June, I migrated Jira 7 to Jira 8 on completely a new hardware(App server and database).

1. Stood up the new app server and database server [ followed the supported platform document for jira8]

2.Installed Jia 8.5 on the new app server

3.Migrated attachments, avatars and plugins from Jira 7 to Jira 8 app server

4. Export and Import of db xml file

5.Complete the post migration steps

And, finally first try these steps on a non-production environment first :). Let me know if you have any questions