Upgrade 7.1 to 7.12

[wajih zouaoui]

Hi,

we have actually the 7.1 release installed in our own server and we are trying to schedule an upgrade to 7.12 Asap.

We want to know if we must take in note all the features added from the 7.2 to the 7.12 ?

And what critical changes must be ware about it for this migration ?

We are using Windows server 2012 R2 and MS SQL server 2017.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

[kris · Accepted solution]

These pages are going to be the most beneficial for you to get started on your upgrade:

1) Jira Upgrade path
https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/upgrading-jira-applications-using-the-installer-938846937.html

2) Release notes for each version between 7.1.x - 7.12.x https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftware/jira-software-release-notes-776821069.html

3) Supported platforms - making sure you're using the correct versions of all backend applications before upgrading -https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver070/supported-platforms-749382629.html

Another piece you're going to have to watch out for is if you're plugins are going to be compatible during the upgrade process.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/upm/checking-add-on-compatibility-with-application-updates-273875705.html 

The biggest piece of your upgrade effort should be cloning production to test and testing the upgrade while building a run book for the production change and having your users UAT it.

Hope this helps!

[wajih zouaoui]

Hi Kristopher, 

Many thanks for your efforts.

Best Regards,

[wajih zouaoui]

Hi @kris,

i'm sorry but the link for plugins checkup is not working: https://confluence.atlassian.com/upm/checking-add-on-compatibility-with-application-updates-273875705.html 

Can i list the Add-ons that we have and ask the support team about the compatibility ?

Thanks in adavance.

Best regards,

Wajih

[Kha Hoang]

I had never done any Jira upgrade before and I am super nervous now to upgrade it because I have quite a bit of setting in Jira and afraid that I will lose them or have to redo them manually again after the upgrade.  How difficult is it? Is there any good document out there that I can confidently follow?  For my case,  I have the following:

1. RedHat Linux 7 with Jira Data Center Version 7.5.0
2. SAML Authentication, SSL Certs for Authentication, Mail, etc.
3. Apache + Proxy setup to redirect https with no port
4. Quite a bit of Add-on plugins (Structure, Portfolio, ScriptRunner, etc.)
5. BitBucket & Jira Integration (again with all the SSL Certs and other Certs sync up)
6. System Dashboard custom HTML page
7. Custom Logo
8. etc.

Will I have to redo all those above manually? what do I need to do to be able to maintain them the same with minimum works to do after the upgrade? 

[kris]

Hi @Kha Hoang,

The articles that I posted above are your best starting point.

Unfortunately, there is no straight forward upgrade article I can have you go to that will help you seamlessly upgrade the application. Each system is going to have its own set of problems to face because no two systems are going to have the same configuration.

The version of your RHEL doesn't matter much, neither does your Apache LB configuration from the versions your upgrading from/to. It's possible that the upgrade will wipe out any SSL certs you have trusted in your install directory, so your app links might have to be re-added post upgrade. Your mail should be fine.  I have seen problems before with SAML and other times no problem at all.  You'll have to disable your unsupported add-ons pre-upgrade, re-enable and upgrade your add-ons post-upgrade and remove any of those that are incompatible.

The most valuable piece of your upgrade is going to be configuring a test environment that is exactly the same as production. From there you can run through all your upgrade steps and have users UAT the new version and see what is broken. Creating a step by step run book of your entire upgrade process so that you can replicate it into production. Along with having backups of your system incase you need to rollback due to unforeseen issues.

I work for Praecipio Consulting and we do offer consulting for Jira Upgrades. If you want to explore this path I can get you in contact with our sales team.

[kris]

Sorry @wajih zouaoui.  Hyperlink was messed up in my last message:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/upm/checking-add-on-compatibility-with-application-updates-273875705.html

You can check your add-on compatibility straight from your Jira UI.

[wajih zouaoui]

Thanks a lot @kris.