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Read about the new version - Review the release notes and upgrade notes for the version of JIRA that you are upgrading to. See our Release notes for JIRA Server. If you plan to skip a few JIRA versions during your upgrade, we strongly recommend that you read the upgrade guides for all major versions between your current version and the version to which you are upgrading.
Check your license - Verify that your license support period is still valid.
Check for known issues - Use the JIRA Knowledge Base to search for any issues in the new version that will affect you.
Check for compatibility:
- Confirm that your operating system, database, other applicable platforms and hardware still comply with the requirements for . The End of Support Announcements page also has important information regarding platform support for future versions of JIRA.
- If you have installed JIRA plugins (i.e. not included with JIRA), verify that they will be compatible with the version of JIRA you are upgrading to. You can find a plugin's compatibility information from the plugin's home page on the Atlassian Marketplace.
- Some anti-virus or other Internet security tools may interfere with the JIRA upgrade process and prevent the process from completing successfully. If you experience or anticipate experiencing such an issue with your anti-virus/Internet security tool, disable this tool before proceeding with the JIRA upgrade.
Prestaging and testing your new version of JIRA - We strongly recommend performing your upgrade in a test environment first. Do not upgrade your production JIRA server until you are satisfied that your test environment upgrade has been successful.
- If you have any problems with your test environment upgrade which you cannot resolve, create an issue at our support site so that we can assist you.
- If you have any problems during the upgrade of your production JIRA server, do not allow your users to start using this server. Instead:
  - Continue to use your old JIRA server — this will help ensure that you do not lose production data.
  - Also create an issue at our support site so that we can help you resolve the problems with your upgrade.
  Instructions for prestaging and testing
  
  If you want to use a copy of your production data when you test the upgraded JIRA system, make a copy of your production database using your native database backup tools. See Backing up data. You can alternatively skip this step and use a new database for testing.
  Install the version of JIRA you want to upgrade to onto a system you can use for testing (use either a test server or a separate directory on an exisitng system). This will become your new production system after you complete the upgrade process. Follow the instructions here to install a new version of JIRA: Installing Jira applications.
  Migrate any customizations you use in your production system. Follow the instructions in step 3.4 (Migrate your existing JIRA configurations over to your new JIRA installation) in the "Migrating JIRA to another server" page.
  Connect the new version of JIRA to the copy of the production database (not the existing production database) or a new testing database. See Connecting JIRA to a database.
  Start the new version of JIRA. See this Knowledge Base article about how to test mail settings without accidentally sending notifications to users from the test system: How to Prepare a Development Server's Mail Configuration.
  Install any plugins that you use in your existing production version of JIRA. Some plugins have different compatibility for different JIRA vesions, so this step will ensure that your plugins are updated for this new JIRA version.
  Re-index JIRA so the new plugin information is captured in the index.
  Check out the features and functionality you use in the new version to understand how they behave and how any changes will impact your team. It can be very helpful to have a group of users look at the new system and carry out their usual tasks to make sure they won't run into any issues when the new version is in production.
  When you are ready to begin the process of migrating your production data to this new version, shut down JIRA (for example, by executing either the /bin/stop-jira.sh or \bin\stop-jira.bat file in your Jira application installation directory, or by stopping the JIRA service).

Last modified on Aug 31, 2017

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