Re-directing JIRA URL for Disaster Recovery Server

[Saneth Kumar]

We're setting up a Disaster Recovery (DR) Server for JIRA Standalone. We use JIRA internally and our Base URL is something like http://<ip_address>:8080. In case our LIVE Server goes down, users need to be able to log in to the DR server using the same URL.

Would any changes need to to be to JIRA or Apache, or is this totally dependent on our DNS? How exactly would I be able to implement this?

Thanks,

Saneth

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

The most easy solution is the DNS change.

You could do this with Apache rewrites, but it would be a pain, and not fully functional because Jira will still think it's running on the old URL and it'll tell people about it.

The important thing for Jira is that it has a single "base url" which it refers to in emails and gadget configs and so-on. It can only have one of these, so it's best to stick with it as much as you can. Although you can change it, it's a pain in the neck, especially for external stuff that people have bookmarked/documented etc. A DNS switch on failover really is the most simple way to handle this!

[Saneth Kumar]

Thank you Nic,

From your answer I understand that the best (and simplest) method would be to use the same "Base URL" on both the JIRA servers and perform a DNS switch when a failover takes place.

Am I right?

Saneth

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Correct. That's what we've got here, and it works fine.

[Saneth Kumar]

Thanks Nic!

When you set this up, how did you sync your databases?

Thanks,

Saneth

[Saneth Kumar]

Thank you Norman :)

[Norman Abramovitz]

Please see Beth's answer in this question.

https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/15984/can-we-run-jira-on-multiple-application-servers

[Norman Abramovitz]

The solution should be defined by the cluster software being used on what happens on failures. Nic is correct that the DNS change would be solution in an active-passive cluster. With an active-active cluster no change would be necessary.