Jira Software 8.9.x upgrade notes

Here are some important notes on upgrading to Jira Software 8.9.

For details on the new features and improvements in this release, see the Jira Software 8.9.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 8.9.2

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 8.9.2. 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

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.

New API to help the Versions view load faster

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, will not be used by the releases including and following Jira 7.13.14, 8.5.5, 8.8.1 and 8.9. 

This is not a breaking change. 

Expected changes to incoming mail settings (Jira 8.10)

In response to Google and Microsoft deprecating Basic Authentication, we will soon be adding OAuth 2.0 authentication methods for incoming email (so far using the IMAP and POP3 protocols). We’ll also backport it to the supported Enterprise releases. If you currently use email to create issues and issue comments, you will need to reconfigure your incoming mail settings. 

We treat this work with highest priority and aim to provide the solution ahead of the deadlines set by Google and Microsoft so that you have time to upgrade. 

OAuth 2.0 support will 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

Deprecating Hipchat

We are planning to stop supporting and unbundle the Hipchat plugin from Jira version 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 have not already, make sure you migrate to other chat solutions before Jira 8.11.

 App developers

See Preparing for Jira 8.9 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.