Migrating from JIRA Cloud to JIRA Server

Migrating JIRA to Another Server

On this page

Still need help?

The Atlassian Community is here for you.

Ask the community

This page is for people who are currently using a JIRA Cloud site and wish to move to a JIRA site that is hosted on their own servers. If you want to move a project, not your entire site, then see Restoring a Project from Backup (note, the instructions on that page take into account the version mismatch between JIRA Server and JIRA Cloud).

Summary

You will need to download and install the latest production release of JIRA Server. Please check https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download for the latest version. Once you have installed the latest production version, you then move your data from your hosted JIRA Cloud site into your new JIRA Server site.

On this page:

Before you begin

JIRA Cloud is regularly updated with the absolute latest features and improvements — it is essentially running on the most up to date version of JIRA. If you want to migrate from JIRA Cloud to a site installed from the latest JIRA Server download, please be aware of the following information before you begin:

Known issues

Read the following known issues before you start your migration:

  • Tempo data loss: If you have made changes to the Tempo scheduler in JIRA Cloud after March 24 (JIRA 6.3-OD-01 upgrade), these changes will be lost when you migrate to a JIRA Server instance. This is due to changes that we have made to the scheduler data in JIRA Cloud that are not available in JIRA 6.2.x. To address this issue, choose one of the following options:
    • Do not make changes to the Tempo scheduler in JIRA Cloud after March 24. Wait until you have migrated to JIRA Server before making changes.
    • Keep a record of any changes that you make to the Tempo scheduler in JIRA Cloud after March 24 and make those same changes in Tempo after you migrate to JIRA Server.
    • (Not for production sites) Migrate to a JIRA 6.3 EAP instance.
  • Changes to Time Zones: If your JIRA Server system time zone is different to the JIRA Cloud system time zone, there may be a mismatch when the instance is restored. Please see  JRA-26039 - Getting issue details... STATUS  for the workaround to this.

Feature loss

If you migrate from JIRA Cloud to a site installed from the standard JIRA Server download, you will likely find a few features missing. This is because we have introduced features from the upcoming JIRA Server version into JIRA Cloud. For example, the latest JIRA Server production release for download is JIRA 6.2.x.  JIRA 6.3 is currently under development. Some of the JIRA 6.3 features have been made available in JIRA Cloud, but will not become available for JIRA Server until the final JIRA 6.3 version is released.

JIRA license

Your Atlassian Ondemand license cannot be used in a site installed from the standard JIRA Server download. You will need to generate a new "JIRA" license from https://my.atlassian.com for your site installed from the standard JIRA Server download.

You can reuse your licenses for plugins in your site installed from the standard JIRA Server download. The licenses for Atlassian plugins and Gliffy for JIRA can be viewed on https://my.atlassian.com. You will need to contact your vendor for the licenses for all other third-party plugins.

Migrating other Cloud applications

The instructions on this page only apply to JIRA. If you are migrating other Cloud applications (e.g. Confluence Cloud to a site installed from the standard Confluence Server download), please see this page: Backing up and exporting data.

Note, if you are migrating JIRA Cloud and other applications (e.g. Confluence Cloud) to a site hosted on your own servers, you will also lose a number of integration features that are native to Cloud (e.g. Creating Links). These can be re-enabled by configuring application links between your applications. See Configuring Application Links for instructions.

Instructions

1. Generate a backup of your JIRA Cloud data

  1. Log in to your JIRA Cloud site as an administrator.
  2. Generate an XML export from your JIRA Cloud data by following the instructions in Exporting issues. This includes instructions on how to back up your attachments.
    Note, the export process will strip your Cloud license and plugin licenses out of the XML, they will not be available when importing into the installed site, but they will remain available in JIRA Cloud.
  3. Download the backup file from your Cloud WebDAV directory (also described in Exporting issues).

2. Install JIRA Server from a standard download

You must use the latest version of JIRA Server.

  1. Download the latest version of JIRA Server here: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download.
  2. Follow the instructions in Installing JIRA until you are instructed to run the setup wizard, then see step 4 below.

3. Import your JIRA Cloud data into your JIRA Server installation

Follow the instructions in Running the Setup Wizard until you have configured a database (described in step 1 of Running the Setup Wizard). We recommend that you use PostgreSQL for your database, although you can use any of the supported databases. If you already have some data in your JIRA Server installation, this step will overwrite it. See Restoring Data for more information.

For instances with large backups (2Gigabyte and up), we recommend importing the attachments separate from the Issue and user data. To do this:

  1. Unzip the backup file.
  2. Compress the activeobjects.xml and the entities.xml files only.
  3. Import that compressed file.

4. Copy across attachments

If you included your attachments in the export:

  1. Extract the backup file that was downloaded.
  2. Copy across the contents of the attachments folder to the $JIRA_HOME/data/attachments directory for the JIRA Server version.

5. Change the system administrator password

  1. Log in to your new JIRA Server site, using the following credentials: 
    • Username: sysadmin
    • Password: sysadmin
  2. Change the password immediately after logging in.

6. Check which plugins are installed on your JIRA Cloud site

Any plugins that you are currently using with JIRA Cloud will need to be installed in your JIRA Server installation. For example, JIRA Agile, Tempo, etc. 

Choose > Add-ons. The 'Find add-ons' screen shows add-ons available via the Atlassian Marketplace. Choose Manage Add-ons to view the plugins currently installed on your JIRA site. Choose Manage Add-ons and note the plugins listed under the User-installed Plugins section. You will need to note the plugin names and versions.

7. Install plugins (add-ons)

For each plugin that you noted in the previous step, install it in your JIRA Server installation. You must install a version of the plugin that is equal to or later than the plugin version that was installed on JIRA Cloud. Atlassian does not provide support for data that is downgraded as a result of installing an older version of a plugin.

See Managing Add-ons for instructions on how to install a plugin. You will need to manually add the plugin license keys.

The Support Tools Plugin that comes bundled with JIRA will get disabled after completion of the migration. Look it up under "All add-ons" in the Manage add-ons section to re-enable it.

Version matrix for imports

The following table tells you which version of JIRA Server to use, when migrating from JIRA Cloud. The version number is dependent on when you exported your data from JIRA Cloud.

(info) We recommend that you use the latest JIRA Server version unless otherwise specified below. Only use the versions listed below if you cannot use the latest JIRA Server version.

Date when export was madeVersion of JIRA Server to use
Prior to 3 Dec 2012Contact support for assistance
3 Dec 2012 — 16 Dec 20125.2.1
17 Dec 2012 — 20 Jan 20135.2.2
21 Jan 2013 — 6 Feb 20135.2.5
7 Feb 2013 — currentUse the latest version available

 

 

Last modified on Dec 1, 2015

Was this helpful?

Yes
No
Provide feedback about this article
Powered by Confluence and Scroll Viewport.