question on requirement to copy /opt and /var directories during JIRA migration

[Girish Shenoy]

Hi All,

We have planned migration of our JIRA instance from US to India. We use JIRA Software on-premise installation.

Ver: 7.13.8

we have /opt/atlassian, /var/atlassian/ and /var/attachment directory mounted on the JIRA server.

Since we have over 3.5. TB of attachment directory, we have decided to make attachment directory read-only form the application and do rsync from US to India NetApp filer.

However, not sure if we need to perform an rsync on /opt and /var directories as we are not making any config changes. Idea is to copy the /var and /opt storage flat into our India server and then start the services in India.

we have performed this in QA environment where we have taken /opt and /var backups from US and restored to India on a X date and copied the attachment directory on a Y date. when we turned on the service everything is working fine. just curious if we have to take backup of /var and /opt post shutdown of services in US and then migrate or we can migrate /opt and /var ahead of the cutover period to save some time. 

we have several GB of data in /var and /opt that we want to copy in advance. Any advice and recommendation is highly appreciated.

[Tinker Fadoua · Accepted solution]

@Girish Shenoy 

You always need to:

• Create a DB dump
• Create an XML backup
• Backup both your Home and Install Directories

Many times everything goes smooth in test environment but when you go to Production there could be some surprises because of the security.

Backup everything so that you have peace in mind.

Not sure though I worked with 2 different Infrastructure Admins they never let me install anything in var directory. Both my Home and Install directories are sitting in opt.

Please let us know how your migration goes, I am crossing my fingers here for you.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Best,

Fadoua

[Girish Shenoy]

Hi @fad 

Thank you for your response. I am aware of the fact on what to backup. My question was do I need to wait till the cutover date to take /var and /opt or I can proceed before the cutover time to save plenty of downtime during the migration period.

[Tinker Fadoua]

@Girish Shenoy  Definitely you should wait until you stop the applications. So any changes made to the configuration files through the application or any other changes won't be missed.

Best,

Fadoua

[Girish Shenoy]

What if I am not making any changes to file in /opt and /var specially dbconfig, server.xml, etc. hope this wokrs fine? idea is not to wait to move /opt and /var until the cutover date as we have large volume of data.

[Tinker Fadoua]

I am definitely not anticipating that you will be making changes to those 2 files but there are other important files beside dbconfig.xml and server.xml.

There is jpm.xml, jira-application.properties,...

Here is the link to learn more about important files and directories:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/jira-application-installation-directory-938847745.html

I totally get your point, myself I am doing an upgrade tomorrow night. I will have to wait for the access to application to be stopped before I backup both directories.

Best,

Fadoua