Purpose

To help provide a detailed guide to help with the upgrade process of large scale and business critical Jira environments to Jira 7.6.latest. Other methods for upgrade also exist, see here: Upgrading JIRA applications

Preparation

Testing

We strongly recommend performing your upgrade in a test environment first. Do not upgrade your production Jira server until you are satisfied that your test environment upgrade has been successful. If you have any problems with your test environment upgrade which you cannot resolve, create an issue at our support site so that we can assist you.

Details: Establishing staging server environments for JIRA applications.

Upgrade Steps for Jira Software

Upgrading to Jira Software 7.6.latest

1. Stop the current Jira instance.
2. Make a copy of the Jira database to a new database.
3. Make a copy of the Jira_HOME to a new location.
4. Remove the plugins/ folder located in the new Jira_HOME.
   1. Performing the upgrade without plugins has been found to be more reliable and faster.
   2. If you run Jira Data Center, also remove (and backup) the <Shared>/plugins/ folder.
5. Modify the dbconfig.xml file in the newly copied Jira_HOME.
   1. Configure the file to point to the newly copied database.
6. Download Jira Software 7.6.latest Archive version.
7. Extract your Jira Software 7.6.latest to a new target Jira_INSTALL folder.
8. Configure your Jira Home folder path and point to the newly copied Jira_HOME.

9. Copy memory allocation settings and any other custom parameters you deem necessary from the previous installation to the new one, as described in Setting properties and options on startup.

10. Start Jira and review the logs to ensure the upgrade completes successfully.
11. If using Service Management, navigate to Cog Icon > Applications > Version & Licenses.
    1. Update/Install the Jira Service Management application to the latest version.
12. Re-install plugins via file the Cog Icon > Add-ons > Find new add-ons.
    
    1. If preferred, upload the add-ons manually via Cog Icon > Add-ons > Manage add-ons > Upload add-on.
        Not all plugins are compatible with Jira 7.6.latest. Ensure to verify compatibility first!
       
13. Test and ensure that the instance is functioning to satisfaction.
14. Restart Jira.
15. Perform a Lock Jira and rebuild index.

Known Problems

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