Connecting JIRA to PostgreSQL

1. Create and configure the PostgreSQL database

1. Create a database user (login role) which JIRA will connect as (e.g. jiradbuser).
   Remember this database user name, as it will be used to configure JIRA's connection to this database in subsequent steps.

2. Create a database for JIRA to store issues in (e.g. jiradb) with Unicode collation.
   Remember this database name, as it will be used to configure JIRA's connection to this database in subsequent steps.

   CREATE DATABASE jiradb WITH ENCODING 'UNICODE';

   Or from the command-line:

   $ createdb -E UNICODE jiradb

3. Ensure that the user has permissions to connect to the database, and to create and write to tables in the database.

2. Copy the PostgreSQL JDBC driver to your application server (JIRA WAR only)

Skip this step if you installed a 'Recommended' distribution of JIRA, which includes the PostgreSQL JDBC driver. The JIRA WAR distribution does not include this driver.

1. Download the PostgreSQL JDBC driver from http://jdbc.postgresql.org/download.html. (Obtain version 9.0 of the JDBC 4 driver.)
2. Add the PostgreSQL JDBC driver jar to the lib/ directory of your application server.

3. Configure your JIRA server to connect to your PostgreSQL database

There are three ways to configure your JIRA server to connect to your PostgreSQL database:

• Using the JIRA setup wizard (not applicable to JIRA WAR) — Use this method, if you have just installed JIRA and are setting it up for the first time. Your settings will be saved to the dbconfig.xml file in your JIRA Home Directory.
• Using the JIRA configuration tool (not applicable to JIRA WAR) — Use this method, if you have an existing JIRA instance. Your settings will be saved to the dbconfig.xml file in your JIRA Home Directory.
• Manually — Only use this method if you have a JIRA WAR instance or you have a console-only connection to your JIRA server. You will be required to manually update the dbconfig.xml file in your JIRA Home Directory.

Instructions for each configuration method

Database connection fields

Sample dbconfig.xml file

For more information about the child elements of <jdbc-datasource/> beginning with pool in the dbconfig.xml file above, see Tuning Database Connections.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<jira-database-config>
  <name>defaultDS</name>
  <delegator-name>default</delegator-name>
  <database-type>postgres72</database-type>
  <schema-name>public</schema-name>
  <jdbc-datasource>
    <url>jdbc:postgresql://dbserver:5432/jiradb</url>
    <driver-class>org.postgresql.Driver</driver-class>
    <username>jiradbuser</username>
    <password>password</password>
    <pool-min-size>20</pool-min-size>
    <pool-max-size>20</pool-max-size>
    <pool-max-wait>30000</pool-max-wait>
    <pool-max-idle>20</pool-max-idle>
    <pool-remove-abandoned>true</pool-remove-abandoned>
    <pool-remove-abandoned-timeout>300</pool-remove-abandoned-timeout>
 
    <validation-query>select version();</validation-query>
    <min-evictable-idle-time-millis>60000</min-evictable-idle-time-millis>
    <time-between-eviction-runs-millis>300000</time-between-eviction-runs-millis>
  
    <pool-test-while-idle>true</pool-test-while-idle>

  </jdbc-datasource>
</jira-database-config>

4. Start JIRA

You should now have JIRA configured to connect to your PostgreSQL database. The next step is to start it up!

• If you are using a 'recommended' distribution of JIRA, start it up and watch the logs for any errors.
• If you are using the JIRA WAR distribution, rebuild and redeploy the webapp in your application server.

Congratulations, you now have JIRA connected to your PostgreSQL database.

Installation notes

Please see JIRA and PostgreSQL for topics related to JIRA and PostgreSQL.