Need to migrate projects from a Jira Software Instance (Version 6.x ) ; what is the best strategy?

[Vinay Sharma]

We need to migrate Jira projects from a Jira Software Instance (Version 6.x ) to a new  instance. What is the best strategy?

a) Should we create a new target instance at Version 6.x and migrate projects using plugin (i.e., Configuration Manager) and then upgrade to a target version? or

b) Upgrade the existing version to the latest/target version in the source instance and create the new target instance with same version as source instance then migrate the projects via plugin (i.e., Configuration Manager) or

Any other suggested way (Atlassian Best Practice)?

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

Both your options work, you just have to decide if you want to do the upgrade work on the source instance or do the migration and then do the upgrade on the target instance. Does the source instance need to be available for your users while you do the upgrade? When I was on Server the way I did it was standing up the new environment using the same version as the source instance, create a XML backup of the source, import it on the new instance and verify that everything is working. Then I ran the upgrade to get the the desired version.

[Anita Szabo]

Hi @Mikael Sandberg , I'm dealing with  a similar scenario where on Jira Server where the origin Jira Software instance is version 7.1x and the new instance is already created but it's the new version of 9.x. If I do XML backup in the old version and import it in the new one, would that still work? Are there any pitfalls/ issues to look out for please? Thank you.

[Mikael Sandberg]

@Anita Szabo This should be it's own question, but it is always recommended that when you restore that you do that on the same major version number. There are database changes that have been made between 7.x.x and 9.x.x so there are no guarantees that the restore will work.