Configuring Marketplace Connectivity

For some deployments, the Atlassian application must operate behind a firewall that blocks its ability to access the Internet. This may be the case, for example, as a result of security policies for the data center. For such cases, you can switch UPM to offline mode. In this mode, UPM does not connect to the Internet, and features that rely on the connection are disabled in the UPM interface. 

In offline mode, the following features for managing plugins remain available:

• Managing existing plugins.
• Uploading plugin a plugin JAR from a local server.
• Audit logging.

Alternatively, you can configure the firewall to permit connections between UPM and Atlassian Marketplace.

What information UPM collects and transmits to Marketplace

To perform certain functions, such as plugin update availability checks, UPM needs to collect and send information to Atlassian Marketplace. It also collects and transmits information for analytics purposes.  

UPM transmits this information whenever an administrator visits the 'Manage Plugins' page and expands the details view for an individual plugin (from the installed list or from the find plugins page). In addition, a background task that runs every 24 hours sends the same information.

The information that UPM transmits includes: 

• The type and version of the currently running application (e.g., JIRA 5.1)
• The plugin key and version of every installed plugin (e.g., "com.zenfoundation" "1.0")
• The UPM version

You can suppress the transmission of this information by switching UPM to offline mode.

If analytic information collection is enabled, the following information is also sent to Marketplace: 

• Support Entitlement Number and Server ID (from the app license)
• The maximum number of users for the license
• The application license type (such as an evaluation license)

In addition, UPM sends analytics information for certain usage events, for example, if you uninstall a plugin or if a user requests a plugin. Optionally, you can disable the transmission of analytics information.

Configuring your firewall for UPM connectivity

When you open a page for administering plugins, such as the 'Find Plugins' page, the UPM attempts to contact the Marketplace website. If it cannot connect to Marketplace, due to a firewall or other network connection issue, it displays the following message:

To enable certain UPM features to work, you may need to modify your firewall configuration to permit communication between UPM and the Atlassian Marketplace.

Atlassian recommends that you configure your firewall policies based on the hostname of the sites UPM attempts to contact, rather than by their numeric IP address. The IP addresses used by Atlassian servers are subject to change. If you need to use IP addresses in your firewall whitelists, we suggest that you use the ping command to determine the current IP address for the Atlassian servers.

UPM connects to the following website to find plugins, check for plugin updates, check application update compatibility, and perform other functions (other than installing plugins):

• https://marketplace.atlassian.com
  

The Marketplace website does not actually host the plugin files themselves. If you attempt to install a plugin through UPM, UPM attempts to retrieve the plugin JAR file from a remote hosted location. For Atlassian-provided plugins, such as Greenhopper or Bonfire, that location is:

• https://maven.atlassian.com

Therefore, to enable installation of Atlassian plugins, you need to permit access to the Maven Atlassian website.

Third-party plugins are not hosted on Atlassian servers. They are hosted on servers controlled by the plugin provider, which varies by plugin. Therefore, if you attempt to install a third-party plugin from UPM, the firewall may block the connection. To work around this, it is recommended that you download the plugin and upload it manually.

Switching UPM to offline mode

To disable the UPM connection to the Marketplace:

1. Open the Manage Plugins page.
2. Click the Disable communication with the Atlassian Marketplace at the bottom of the page.
3. Confirm the change when prompted.

The change takes effect immediately. The link changes to Enable communication with the Atlassian Marketplace, which you can click to reconnect UPM to the Internet.

In offline mode, features that rely on Internet connectivity are removed from the user interface. 

Disabling analytics information sharing

Atlassian collects license related information from UPM. You can disable the transmission of analytic data from UPM by setting the Java system property "atlassian.upm.server.data.disable=true". This disables only the transmission of license information. Other UPM features that rely on communication with the Marketplace will continue to work. Optionally, you can disable this type of information as well.

For details on how to set system properties for your application, see the documentation for that application.