Jira Software 8.10.x upgrade notes

Here are some important notes on upgrading to Jira Software 8.10.

For details on the new features and improvements in this release, see the Jira Software 8.10.x release notes. 

 Upgrade notes

Known issue: Too many warning messages about RequestCache in the log file

In Jira 8.9.1, we introduced additional logging messages to track the use of RequestCache without the context. For some instances, this resulted in a huge number of warning messages in the log file, similar to the one below:

[c.a.j.cache.request.RequestCacheImpl] From Jira 9.0 version creation/usage of RequestCacheImpl will throw the IllegalStateException.

If you’re having this problem, you can work around it by changing the logging for RequestCache to ERROR. At the same time, we’re working on a fix for this issue. You can read more about it here.

Changing the logging level for RequestCache

Temporary (will no longer work after restarting Jira)

1. In Jira, go to Administration > System > Logging and profiling.
2. Scroll down to Default Loggers > Configure logging level for another package.
3. Add the com.atlassian.jira.cache.request.RequestCacheImpl package with the ERROR level.

Permanent

1. Edit the <JIRA_INSTALLATION>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties file.

2. Add the following lines at the bottom of the file, and save it: 

   log4j.logger.com.atlassian.jira.cache.request.RequestCacheImpl = ERROR, filelog
   log4j.additivity.com.atlassian.jira.cache.request.RequestCacheImpl = false

3. Restart Jira.

Fetching updates to be fixed for Jira in version 8.10.1

If you use Jira with other Atlassian products such as Bamboo, Bitbucket or Fisheye/Crucible, you might have experienced it getting stuck paging over issue updates. This happens when the collective number of results to fetch is bigger than 50. We have worked on a fix and will bundle it in Jira version 8.10.1. Make sure you upgrade to this version for Jira to update without further issues.

A bug in Tomcat causing issues on upgrade

Tomcat started to use double-quotes as of version 8.5.48 as a result of Expansion of JAVA_OPTS in catalina.sh containing '*' stops startup on linux bug. That's why when you upgrade to Jira 8.9 and set parameters in setenv.sh or setenv.bat, make sure that you:

• Don't remove the double-quotes in the catalina.sh
• Set all your parameters in one line without any new line in setenv.sh or setenv.bat

Otherwise you might experience issues starting up Jira. 

Increase your pool-max-size before upgrade

If you're upgrading from Jira 7.x to Jira 8.x we recommend changing the pool-max-size parameter to 40 in your dbconfig.xml before the upgrade. Leaving the default of 20 can sometimes lead to “ResultSet Closed” errors during re-indexing on 8.x. For information on implementing the change, see Tuning database connections.

Licensing improvements

Now getting a new Jira licence comes with new user experience. To make it an easy flow, we've introduced the following changes:

• You can now transition seamlessly from a Server licensed system to a DC licensed Single Node Data Center
• You can add two licenses at the same time, and when it's a Data Center or a Jira Software licens, we remove Jira Core license for you. 
• When you upgrade your license, we help you remember to upgrade your apps to Data Center- approved app versions.  

Improved custom fields' indexing DATA CENTER

Large number of custom fields can negatively impact performance and indexing time in Jira. To minimise this impact, we’re introducing a new optimization that reduces the number of called field indexers. 
Now, we won’t be storing sorting markers for custom fields when values don’t exist for a particular issue. Additionally, indexers will be executed only when custom field's values exist for a particular issue and the custom field is visible and has scope scope assigned for that issue. 

For now, all these improvements affect only Jira built-in custom fields. We’re also opening an experimental API to help you leverage these improvements (more details will soon be published on the Developer Community).
This is a complex change in the core functionality of Jira. In case you observe unpredicted behaviour around custom fields, contact customer support and or disable this functionality by using system properties (jira.cfv.driven.indexing.disabled, jira.local.context.indexing.disabled, jira.skip.indexing.null.disabled).

To benefit from this change, a full reindex needs to be performed.

For details, see here.

Changes to incoming mail settings 

In response to Google and Microsoft deprecating Basic Authentication, we are adding OAuth 2.0 authentication methods for incoming email (so far using the IMAP and POP3 protocols). If you currently use email to create issues and issue comments, you will need to reconfigure your incoming mail settings. 

OAuth 2.0 support mean changes in to the incoming mail settings and the way you configure the incoming email server. It's a good idea to plan to take the time after your upgrade to review the changes so that your instance's email handlers keep working. 

 End of support announcements

There are no changes in this release.

• Advance notice: Deprecating Hipchat
  We're planning to stop supporting and unbundle the Hipchat plugin from Jira 8.11 and later. The reason for this is that Hipchat Cloud reached the end of life in Feb 2019, Hipchat Data Center in Sep 2019, and Hipchat Server is due in June 2020. If you haven't already, make sure you migrate to other chat solutions before Jira 8.11.

For more details, see End of support announcements.

 App developers

See Preparing for Jira 8.10 for any important changes regarding apps.

 Upgrade procedure

Upgrading from a Jira version 8.x.x? 

See Upgrading Jira applications for complete upgrade procedures, including all available upgrade methods and pre-upgrade steps. For a more tailored upgrade, go to  > Applications > Plan your upgrade. We’ll recommend a version to upgrade to, run pre-upgrade checks, and provide you with a custom upgrade guide with step-by-step instructions.