Jira Software 7.13.x upgrade notes

Here are some important notes on upgrading to Jira Software 7.13. For details of the new features and improvements in this release, see the Jira Software 7.13.x release notes. 

Upgrade notes

Jira administrators

New API to help the Versions view load faster

Available from Jira 7.13.14

To help the Versions view in project settings load faster and avoid possible timeouts on large instances, we have changed the endpoint it called. 

Now, instead of .../release/allversions we use GET /rest/projects/1.0/project/<project_key>/release/allversions-nodetails to return the list of all project versions together with their data such as their name, status, or description (except the progress data). Archived versions are also returned. 

We also changed the way the information about the number of issues in each status category (To do, In progress, Done) related to each version is returned. This data, collectively known as Progress, is now lazy-loaded as the page is scrolled and uses a separate new endpoint. 

The old endpoint is still working however, is not used by the releases after and including Jira 7.13. 

This is not a breaking change. 

Reduced logging to the catalina.out file

Available from Jira 7.13.1

Jira applications used to mirror the application log output (atlassian-jira.log) in the Tomcat log file, catalina.out. Since the catalina.out file couldn’t be rotated by Jira using the Log4j configuration (like it happens with the application log), the file grew significantly and didn’t really contain any unique or useful events from Jira. Jira admins could work around this issue by using log-rotation scripts at the OS level, but that complicated the setup.

To fix this issue, we’ve removed mirroring the log output to catalina.out (process Stdout), leaving only the following basic events that are useful for our Support teams:

log4j.logger.com.atlassian.jira.(upgrade|startup|config.database)

We’ll keep logging all events into the atlassian-jira.log file, like it was before. Also, we’ve increased the number of atlassian-jira.log rotated files from 5 to 10.

Running Jira on AdoptOpenJDK

You can run Jira on AdoptOpenJDK 8. There are no special requirements you have to meet, just make sure you switch JAVA_HOME to your new OpenJDK after you install it. Here's a little guide on Installing Java.

Apache Tomcat upgrade

We've upgraded Apache Tomcat to version 8.5.32, which requires that you make changes to the server.xml file.

What's the problem?

The Apache Tomcat server is filtering out requests that contain special characters, making them fail. That's because Tomcat is using a different encoding and URI standard than most browsers (details here). The problem is most visible when searching with JQL as you’d use a number of special characters when doing it (e.g. []<>), but it can also affect other pages in Jira. 

Steps to take:

To solve the problem, edit the server.xml file, and add properties that make Tomcat accept special characters in the requests.

1. Go to <Jira-installation-directory>/conf, and edit the server.xml file.
2. Find all connectors your application is using. Just search for Connector in the file, or look at the example below.

3. Add relaxedPathChars="[]|" relaxedQueryChars="[]|{}^\`"<>" to the connector properties in server.xml. For example:

   <Connector port="8080" relaxedPathChars="[]|" relaxedQueryChars="[]|{}^&#x5c;&#x60;&quot;&lt;&gt;" maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" connectionTimeout="20000" enableLookups="false" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192" protocol="HTTP/1.1" useBodyEncodingForURI="true" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100" disableUploadTimeout="true" bindOnInit="false"/>

4. Restart Jira.
5. (Data Center) Repeat these steps on each node.

New diagnostics info coming soon

After upgrading to Jira 7.13, you may see some new messages in your application log, and a new atlassian-diagnostics.log file, which is also included in support zips.

This is related to new diagnostic information we're working on. As a first step we will be introducing additional information about JQLs. Complex, heavy or just slow JQLs are among top contributors towards Jira instability. It will help us detect faster the problematic JQL and avoid downtime. No action is required for these messages for now.

We plan to fine-tune the thresholds and provide a UI for this diagnostic information in future Jira releases.

New properties for configuring the JVM code cache

We've added properties for configuring the JVM code cache to the setenv.sh /.bat file. No actions are required, as the default configuration should be optimal for most Jira instances. We've made these changes to solve problems with the code cache (used by Jira to load installed apps) getting full. Learn more

This is what it looks like in the setenv.sh / .bat file:

JVM_CODE_CACHE_ARGS=-XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=32m;-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512m

PostgreSQL 9.3 deprecated

Jira 7.12 and 7.13 have deprecated the use of PostgreSQL 9.3. In Jira 8.0, we'll be permanently removing the support for PostgreSQL 9.3. For more info, see End of support announcements.

Upgrade to the DVCS plugin

If your Jira Software Server or Data Center instance is connected to Bitbucket Cloud, it’s through the Jira DVCS connector plugin.

Due to GDPR regulations and the personal data protection they require, we've needed to make some changes to the API's that Bitbucket Cloud has available. 

What you need to do as a result is to upgrade your Jira Software instance or upgrade your Jira DVCS connector plugin to the relevant version. For more information, see Jira KB. 

Plugin developers

See Preparing for Jira 7.13 for any important changes regarding plugins.

Upgrade procedure

Note: Upgrade to a test environment first. Test your upgrades in your test environment before rolling them into production.

If you're already running a version of Jira, please follow these instructions to upgrade to the latest version:

1. Before you upgrade, we strongly recommend that you back up your installation directory, home directory, and database.
2. Read the release notes and upgrade notes for all releases between your version and the latest version.
3. Download the latest version of Jira.
4. Follow the instructions in the Upgrade Guide.

Upgrading from earlier versions?

• 7.0, or later
  Take a look at the upgrade matrix. It lists known issues you should be aware of when upgrading between multiple versions.
  
  
• Earlier than 7.0
  Consult the Migration hub. The Jira 7.0 release introduced significant changes. You must first upgrade to Jira 7.0 (we recommend the latest bugfix release, in this case 7.0.11) before upgrading to later versions.