Moving back to Server

Running Jira Data Center on a single node

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If you no longer need Data Center, you can go back to a Server installation. This will be as easy as updating your license, but be aware that losing the Data Center-only features might affect your Jira instance.

How will the Data Center-only features be affected?

After moving from Data Center to Server, you will lose features exclusive to Data Center. Here’s the summary of how this will affect your current Jira instance:

Feature (non-clustered)Result

Project and issue archiving

Archive projects and issues once they're no longer needed.



  • Archived projects and issues will be restored to their original state
  • You will no longer have access to Archived projects and Archived issues pages
  • You'll need to perform a full re-index to make the restored projects and issues searchable

SAML single sign-on

Use a SAML identity provider for authentication and single-sign on.

  • SAML login won't work i.e. the users will be redirected to a login screen always
  • Users who had a password on their Atlassian account before SAML single sign-on was enabled will use that to log in
  • Users who joined after SAML single sign-on was enabled will need to reset their password for their Atlassian account when they next log in


Custom fields optimizer

Scan and manage custom fields easily to optimize your Jira Software instance's performance.

  • No longer available
  • Custom fields already optimized in Data Center won't be affected


Content Delivery network (CDN) support

Improve geo-performance for distributed teams.

  • No longer available
  • Any API calls related to the feature will be blocked
  • If you've already configured your CDN, then switch back to a Server license, the CDN will continue to work until your Jira instance is restarted


Rate limiting

Control how many external REST API requests users and automations can make and how often they can make them.

  • No longer available
  • Any configured limits that were set up before will become irrelevant and your users will have unlimited external REST API requests the moment the license is downgraded


Before you begin

  • This guide assumes that you’re using a non-clustered (single node) Jira Data Center. If you have a cluster of nodes, go to Moving to a non-clustered Data Center first.

  • We recommend completing this process in a staging environment, and running a set of functional tests, integration tests, and performance tests, before making these changes in production.

Moving back to Server

1. Get a license for Jira Server

You can purchase a Server license or create an evaluation license at my.atlassian.com.

2. Apply the license

  1. Go to Administration (> Applications > Versions and licenses.
  2. Update the license for each of your applications.

After updating the license, your Jira instance will become a Server one, and you’ll immediately lose access to Data Center-only features.

Last modified on May 7, 2021

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