Automate cloning of production instance to dev instance

[Software Licenses Virtamed]

Hi there,

in order to be able to quickly test stuff in a dev environment we would like to be able to script the creation of a dev instance.

Anybody having experience with it?

The plan would be to have one / a couple scripts to do that with least possible effort.

I would use some VM orchestration tool to clone the VM. Then assign a new hostname, changed base URIs, disable / change email notifications.

Apply dev licenses of Jira and Plugins, I think we need to?

Same I would like to do with the Confluence instance.

Thanks

David

[Boris Berenberg - Atlas Authority]

We wrote some content on this topic at https://atlasauthority.com/blog/automating-jira-staging-environment-pt1/

[Daniel Ebers]

Hi David,
you mentioned the relevant parts that you need to consider when writing a script that clones your production environment and adapts several settings afterwards - making it a "test system"/"non-production"-environment.

There are a few steps worth considering additionally, like you said, disabling the sending of mails from the non-production environment is a very good idea and, if you like to, you could adjust the colors and the announcement banner so everyone can see easily that it is a non-production site.
Applying developer licenses can be easily automated during this process, too.

All those steps could be put into a script that will apply all necessary changes to your non-production environment before you start Jira the first time after a copy over.

You could use tools provided you already know - I also heard of some admins who automate the process using Apps. I haven't tried it with Apps, though.

The doing is quite easy. Keeping both environments in sync - as well as the database is not an issue. The process itself can be complicated, though.
When cloning only by request there is a risk that users will consider the non-production environment not as "non-production" forever and start asking where their precious data is gone suddenly (simply forgetting about the non-production status after a while).
When cloning using a defined schedule (for example every Monday morning) the time frame might be too short for users to finish complex tests or ideas they want to deploy on non-production.

Cheers,
Daniel

[Software Licenses Virtamed]

Hi Daniel,

All right, I will then get to work and try and get this done with scripting. I'll also try to add VM orchestration to directly deploy the VM in first place.

This might come at a later stage maybe...first and more important is the cloning to a dev instance.

Edit: Any experience on how to get the staging licenses in an automated manner from my.atlassian.com?

Thanks, best

David

[Software Licenses Virtamed]

As the test instance could be re-reployed easily and automatically if my plans work, couldn't I just strip all the license information from plugins/jira and have it run in trial? That way there would be no need to get the dev license ID's from our profile page.

The thing is: I don't want to only clone the DB but also the whole VM.

This would make a test more realistic.

Any more ideas here?

[Daniel Ebers]

Common setups I know use the developer license which comes valid for the same timeframe the commercial license is valid. As this only changes one time a year I do not have any advise for automated pull of licenses from my.atlassian.com. I remember that there is an API for Marketplace but there seems not to be anything (official) for the my.atlassian.com portal.

Cheers,
Daniel