Jira Software 8.18.x upgrade notes

Here are some important notes on upgrading to Jira Software 8.18.

 Upgrade notes

Here's some important information you should know about:

8.18.1: Bundled JRE disables secure connections to MySQL Community Edition 5.7.27 or older over TLS versions 1 and 1.1

Jira Software 8.18.1 binary installers are bundled with the AdoptOpenJDK 8u291 JRE, which ships with TLS versions 1 and 1.1 disabled by default. This prevents secure connections with MySQL Community Edition 5.7.27 or older compiled with yaSSL.

To ensure that Jira can establish a secure connection with your MySQL database after the upgrade, switch to a version of MySQL Community Edition that supports TLS 1.2. You can choose one of the following solutions:

Recommended solution: Upgrade to MySQL Community Edition 5.7.28 or newer

Because the binary distributions of MySQL Community Edition 5.7.27 and older are compiled with yaSSL, they do not support TLS 1.2 by default. We recommend that you upgrade to MySQL Community Edition 5.7.28 or newer (this version uses the OpenSSL library), and then allow secure connections over TLS 1.2 by either:

• Upgrading the MySQL Connector/J driver to version 8.0.19 or newer.
• Adding the enabledTLSProtocols=TLSv1.2 parameter to the MySQL JDBC connection string in dbconfig.xml.

For more information, see:

• MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual — 2.11 Upgrading MySQL
• 2023-03-06_08-25-28_Connecting Jira applications to MySQL 5.7

Solution 2: Recompile MySQL Community Edition 5.7.27 or older with OpenSSL

Alternatively, you can recompile version MySQL Community Edition 5.7.27 or older with OpenSSL, and then allow secure connections over TLS 1.2 by either:

• Upgrading the MySQL Connector/J driver to version 8.0.19 or newer.
• Adding the enabledTLSProtocols=TLSv1.2 parameter to the MySQL JDBC connection string in dbconfig.xml.

For more information, see:

• MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual — 2.9.6 Configuring SSL Library Support
• 2023-03-06_08-25-28_Connecting Jira applications to MySQL 5.7

Solution 3: Re-enable TLS 1 and 1.1 in Java

If required, you can re-enable support for TLS 1 and TLS 1.1 in Java by removing the TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 entries from the jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms property in <JAVA_HOME>/lib/security/java.security.

Disable the PacClient

Use this temporary workaround only if you installed Jira Software 8.18.0. This problem has been fixed in 8.18.1.

Jira Software 8.18.0 had a known issue that affected Universal Plugin Manager (UPM) cache invalidation and rendered Jira unresponsive after a few hours since startup.

To prevent Jira from becoming unresponsive, disconnect it from the Atlassian Marketplace:

1. Select Administration () > Manage apps.
2. At the bottom of the page, select Settings.
3. Clear the Connect to the Atlassian Marketplace checkbox and select Apply.

In clustered Data Center configurations, the change is propagated to all nodes in the cluster.

Alternatively, you can restart Jira with the -Dupm.pac.disable=true startup option enabled. See Setting properties and options on startup. If you’re running Jira Data Center in a cluster, repeat this step on each node.

H2 database upgrade

In this release we've upgraded the embedded H2 database, which is often used when evaluating Jira. This is a significant upgrade which contains some breaking changes. 

If you attempt to upgrade Jira running on the embedded H2 database, follow this procedure:

1. Create XML backup from the instance to be upgraded.
2. Remove h2db.mv.db file (from ${jira_home}/database).
3. Run the new Jira instance.
4. Restore XML backup

Migrate your data to a supported database

If you are using H2 in production, you will need to migrate to a supported external database before upgrading your instance. 

See Switching databases for a step by step guide.

 App developers

See Preparing for Jira 8.18 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 Jira administration > 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.