Preventing user access during XML database backups in Jira Service Management
If you perform an XML backup (for example, when upgrading Jira applications or migrating them to another server), you can use one of the methods described on this page to prevent users from accessing Jira applications and minimize inconsistencies in the backup file.
For production use, it is strongly recommended that for regular backups, you use native database backup tools instead of the Jira application XML backup service.
When Jira applications are in use, XML backups are not guaranteed to be consistent as the database may be updated during the backup process. Jira applications do not report any warnings or error messages when an XML backup is generated with inconsistencies and such XML backups will fail during the restore process. Native database backup tools offer a much more consistent and reliable means of storing (and restoring) data.
Before you begin
Whichever method you choose, we recommend setting an announcement banner to warn your users that Jira applications will be unavailable for a period of time.
Recommended method
If you have an Apache or other web/proxy server sitting in front of Jira applications, then you can stop Apache from proxying to Jira applications, and serve a static HTML page with a nice message along the lines of "Jira applications are undergoing maintenance". Note:
- The administrator must be able to access Jira applications directly (not through Apache) to perform the XML backup.
- This method does not require Jira applications to be restarted.
Alternative method 1
Shut down all Jira applications, configure them to listen on a different port, and restart. Do this by editing the
server.xmlfile. Change the following section:<Connector port="8080" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192" maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75" useBodyEncodingForURI="true" enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100" connectionTimeout="20000" disableUploadTimeout="true" />If you have enabled HTTPS, then you would need to edit the
HTTPS Connectorsection as well.- Restart all Jira applications and do the XML backup.
- Shut down all Jira applications, change all the settings back, then re-start the applications.
Alternative method 2
If you have a firewall in front of your Jira applications, you could stop requests from getting through or change the port number that it uses.
- The administrator will need to log into your Jira applications on the temporary port number (or access it from behind the firewall), to perform the XML backup.
- This method does not require Jira applications to be restarted.