To configure automated JIRA backups:

1. Log in as a user with the 'JIRA System Administrators' global permission.
2. Select 'Administration' > 'System' > 'Advanced' > 'Services' (tab) to open the 'Services' page, which lists the current services running on this system. By default, there should be at least one 'Mail Queue Service' running, which cannot be deleted.
   Keyboard shortcut: 'g' + 'g' + type 'servi'
   
3. In the 'Add Service' form at the bottom of the page, complete the following fields:
   • 'Name' — a descriptive name for the backup service, such as Backup Service.
   • 'Class' — the appropriate fully-qualified class name for the 'Backup service' using either of the following methods:
     • Select the 'Backup service' from the list of JIRA's 'built-in services'. To do this:
       1. Click the 'Built-in Services' link below the 'Class' field to expand the list of JIRA's built-in service classes.
       2. Click the 'Backup service' link. The 'Class' field will automatically be populated with the following class text string 'com.atlassian.jira.service.services.export.ExportService'
     • Type the fully-qualified class name 'com.atlassian.jira.service.services.export.ExportService' into the 'Class' field.
   • 'Delay' — enter the number of minutes between backups. A good default for this would be 720 minutes (12 hours).
     Please Note: The interval specified in the Backup Service Delay (mins) is the time when the next backup job will run since the last server restart. Backup services cannot be scheduled to run at a specific time of day - please see JRA-1865 for more on this.
4. Click the 'Add Service' button.
   The 'Edit Service' page will be displayed. Fill in the following fields:
   
   • Select the 'Use Default Directory' check box.
      Ensure that you select this check box. If you do not, your backup service may not work correctly. If you upgraded from a version of JIRA prior to 4.2, see note below for more information.
   • For the 'Date format' field, specify the format which JIRA will use to name the individual backup files. This format can be anything that SimpleDateFormat can parse. A good default is 'yyyy-MMM-dd-HHmm', which would generate files named like this: '2007-Mar-05-1322'.
   • For the 'Delay' field, modify the number of minutes between backups if necessary.
5. Click the 'Update' button. Your backup service is now configured. XML backups will be performed according to the schedule you specified in the Delayfield.
   • For every successful backup, a zipped file of your XML backup will be saved in the backup directory.
   • If a scheduled backup fails for any reason, the zipped XML backup file will be saved into the 'corrupted' directory, which is directly under your nominated backup directory. A file explaining the reason for the failure will be written to the 'corrupted' directory. This file will have the same name as the backup file, but with the extension '.failure.txt'.
     JIRA will create the 'corrupted' directory if required - you do not need to create it.

Choosing a custom Backup Directory:

• If you upgraded JIRA with an XML backup from a JIRA version prior to 4.2 and are editing an existing backup service which used a custom directory, you can choose between using that custom directory (which cannot be edited) or the default directory for this backup service. However, once you switch to using the default directory, you can no longer choose the custom directory option.
• The default directory location is the export subdirectory of the JIRA Home Directory.