Upgrading Jira Data Center
This page describes how to upgrade Jira Data Center. During the upgrade, you'll shut down your Jira instances, and then copy the new version to each node, upgrading them one by one. If you'd rather have your Jira working during the upgrade, we recommend that you use Managing zero downtime upgrades instead.
If you're currently using Jira Software Server, learn more about upgrading to Data Center here.
Before you begin
Before you upgrade Jira, there's a few questions you need to answer.
Is this the right upgrade method for you? | |
Are you eligible to upgrade? |
Tell me more...
To check if software maintenance is current for your license, go to If your support period has expired, follow the prompts to renew your license and reapply it before upgrading. |
| Have our supported platforms changed? | |
| Do you need to make changes to your environment? |
Plan your upgrade
1. Complete the pre-upgrade checks
- Check the Upgrade Notes for the version you plan to upgrade to (and any in between).
Go to
> System > Support Tools, and check the results of the health check. Fix any detected problems.License expired?If the software maintenance period included in your license has expired, you can keep using Jira, but you'll need to renew before you can upgrade.
Go to
> Applications > Versions and licenses, and follow the prompts to renew your license.Go to
> Add-ons, and scroll down to Jira update check to check the compatibility of your add-ons. Choose the version you plan to upgrade to, then hit Check.
2. Upgrade Jira in a test environment
- Create a staging copy of your current production environment.
See Establishing staging server environments for help creating an environment to test your upgrade in. - Follow the steps below to upgrade your test environment.
- Test any unsupported add-ons and customizations before upgrading your production environment.
Upgrade Jira
3. Stop the cluster
You need to stop Jira on all nodes in the cluster. We also recommend that you configure your load balancer to redirect the traffic away from Jira until the upgrade is complete on all nodes.
4. Back up
Back up the following components:
- Jira database. You can use the database native tools to create the backup.
- Jira installation directory. It's enough if you back up only one of the whole cluster.
- Jira shared directory. That's a subdirectory of the home directory that is accessible by all nodes in the cluster.
- Jira home directory on each node.
5. Delete the old add-on cache
Delete the old add-on cache on each node in the cluster, so that it doesn't affect the new version. Go to <home-directory>/plugins/on each node, and delete the contents of this directory.
For major upgrades, you can delete the whole plugins directory. We've found that upgrading without plugins tends to be faster and more reliable.
6. Upgrade the first node
To upgrade the first node:
Download Jira Software or Jira Service Desk Data Center. Choose the
tar.gazor ZIP archive to speed up the process.- Extract the files to a directory (this will be your new installation directory, and must be different to your existing installation directory.)
Go to
<installation-directory>/bin, and edit thesetenv.bat / setenv.shfile. In JIRA_HOME, enter the path to the existing local home directory on that node.You'll find the
JIRA_HOMEparameter at the top of the file. You'll also need to uncomment it.If you're using an Oracle or MySQL database, download the JDBC driver and place it in
<JIRA-installation-directory>/lib.- Oracle: JDBC driver 12.2.0.1
- MySQL: MySQL Connector/J 5.1 driver
<installation-directory>/lib.- Reapply any customizations, like JVM properties, from the old version to the new one.
- Copy the new installation directory. You will later use it as a template to replicate Jira to other nodes.
- Start Jira. During this step, your database will be upgraded.
- When Jira starts for the first time after an upgrade, you'll be presented with an overview of the upgrade. This page will show to the first 10 admins who log in to Jira post upgrade, and only for 14 days. This overview contains information on critical updates to your Jira instance, and it also gives you a dynamic overview of your add-ons and application links. You can access this information at any time by selecting > Latest upgrade report.
- Go to > Add-ons > Manage add-ons, and upgrade your add-ons to the supported versions.
- Rebuild index in Jira. For more info, see Search indexing.
7. Copy Jira to remaining nodes
To replicate Jira to other nodes:
- Copy the installation directory (the template you created before) to the new node.
- If the path to the home directory is different on this node, update it in the
setenv.bat / setenv.shfile. - Change indexes on the new node:
- Go to
<home-directory>/caches/indexes, and delete the contents of this directory. - Start Jira on the new node.
- After Jira is started, verify that the indexes were automatically copied from the first node. If not, you'll need to copy them manually.
- Go to
Repeat this process for each remaining node.
8. (Optional) Update Jira Service Desk
If you're using Jira Service Desk, you can update it directly in the UI, without downloading a separate installer.
- Go to > Applications > Versions and licenses.
- Update Jira Service Desk. This will automatically update Service Desk to a compatible version.
Troubleshooting
Did something go wrong?
Check the resources on our Support page, or raise an issue so we can help you resolve your problem.
If you need to retry the upgrade, you must roll back to your previous setup first. Do not attempt to run an upgrade again, or start the older version of Jira again after an upgrade has failed.