Backing up the database

Use native database backup tools

Most databases come with built-in backup and restore tools. We strongly recommend these tools over the built-in Jira backup utility as they:

• ensure the integrity of the database by taking the backup at a single point in time
• are much faster and less resource-intensive than Jira's XML backup
• integrate with existing backup strategies (for example, by allowing one backup run for all database apps)
• may allow for incremental backups, saving disk space
• avoid character encoding and format issues resulting from Jira's use of XML as a backup format

For more information on how to set up periodic database backups, see the documentation for your database. This typically involves a cron job or a Windows scheduled task invoking a command-line tool like mysqldump or pg_dump.

Use the built-in Jira backup utility

You can use the built-in Jira backup utility to take a one-off snapshot of your database in XML format.

Before you begin

Make sure that Jira has the necessary file system permissions to write to the <jira-home>/export/backups directory, where <jira-home> is the Jira [shared] home directory.

Steps

To back up your database with the built-in utility:

1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration ()> System. 
2. In the side panel, under Import and export, select Backup system.
3. In the File name field, enter a name for the backup file.
4. Select Backup and wait until your Jira data is backed up. Jira will save your XML backup inside a zipped archive file under <jira-local-home-dir>/export/backups.
   When the backup is complete, you’ll see a message confirming that Jira has written the contents of the database to the file you specified.