Documentation for JIRA 5.2. Documentation for other versions of JIRA is available too.

The instructions on this page apply to JIRA 5.2.6 and earlier versions. If you are using JIRA 5.2.7 or later, please see Running the Setup Wizard instead.

The JIRA Setup Wizard helps you configure the basic settings for your new JIRA server. These include the server language, database, license key, administrator accounts and mail notifications.

To get started, access your new JIRA server in a browser, after you have installed JIRA. Your server will be available at the following URL, if you are using the default port:  http://<jira-server-name>:8080.

(info) The JIRA Setup Wizard will only display the first time after you install JIRA. Once you have completed it, you cannot run it again. However, every setting configured in the Setup Wizard can be configured via the JIRA administration console.

On this page:

Step 1 of 4: Database Configuration

The first page of the Setup Wizard is shown below.

Choose the language you would like the JIRA user interface to appear in by selecting the preferred Server Language.

(info) Please Note:

  • As soon as you choose a language from the Server Language dropdown list, the JIRA user interface will switch to that language.
  • Be aware that some languages may have more comprehensive translations than others.

On this page you can choose between connecting JIRA to:

  • The Internal database — used for evaluating JIRA only or
  • An External database — used for running JIRA in a production environment.

Connecting to an External Database

If you choose to connect JIRA to an external database (by clicking the External radio button), you will be presented with a number of database configuration options.

(info) Your external database must be a newly-created (or empty) database. For more information on creating a database, refer to step 2 (for creating/configuring a database) of the appropriate documentation for your database:

To configure your external database connection:

  1. Choose the type of database server (running your new JIRA database) in the Database Type field. Your database configuration options will change depending on your chosen Database Type.
  2. The fields on this page of the Setup Wizard are identical to those on the JIRA Configuration Tool (included with all JIRA distributions except JIRA WAR) when configuring your database connection. For details on configuring these fields for your external database, refer to step 3 of section 4.1 (Using the JIRA Configuration Tool) of the appropriate documentation:

(warning) Please Note:

  • In the Setup Wizard, JIRA expects that the external database it connects to is empty. You will not be able to proceed if JIRA detects that your external database contains any existing data.
  • You cannot configure your database connection pool size through the Setup Wizard. You can do this subsequently using the JIRA Configuration Tool (included with all JIRA distributions except JIRA WAR) or by manually configuring your database connection (described on each specific database configuration guide). See Connecting JIRA to a Database for details.
  • The MySQL driver is not bundled with JIRA. You need to copy the driver into the lib folder of your JIRA installation and restart JIRA/JIRA service before completing the Setup Wizard. See Connecting JIRA with MySQL for instructions.

Step 2 of 4: Application Properties

On this page you can configure some of JIRA's settings and enter your license key. For more details on the settings and what they mean, see Configuring JIRA Options.

JIRA will store your automated backups, file attachments and indexes within your JIRA Home Directory.

(info) If you have an existing XML backup of a JIRA site, you can import it into your new JIRA installation at this point by clicking the top import your existing data link. If you choose this option, please note the following points:

  • Your XML backup file must be located in the import subdirectory of your JIRA Home Directory.
  • Your existing JIRA license details will be restored from your XML backup file, unless you specify different one in the License field of the Import Existing Data page.
  • See Restoring Data for more details on using this feature.

License Key

You are required to enter a JIRA license key before you can use JIRA, evaluators can obtain an evaluation license key which will allow JIRA to run unrestricted for 30 days. To use an existing license key or obtain a new license key, follow the steps below:

  1. Do either of the following:
    • If you are a new user/customer evaluating JIRA click the Generate an evaluation key for me.
      (info) New users will need to sign up for a My Atlassian account.
      OR
    • If you are an existing customer and have an existing JIRA license, click the Retrieve my existing license link.
  2. Once you have either created an account or logged in with an existing account, the Licenses page will appear.
    (info) If you logged in with an existing account, a list of your existing Atlassian product licenses will be shown. If you do not have any existing JIRA licenses, generate a new one by:
    • Clicking on the New Evaluation License link,
    • Selecting JIRA for the 'Product' field,
    • Completing the remaining fields and
    • Clicking the Generate License button to generate your new evaluation license.
      You will be taken back to the License page again.
  3. On the Licenses page, copy the new evaluation license key to your clipboard and paste it into the License Key field of the Setup Wizard.

Step 3 of 4: Administrator Account

After completing the second step, the third page of the wizard sets up an administrator account.

Once this initial administrator account is created, that administrator can then create other administrators.

Step 4 of 4: Email Notification

The last page of the Setup Wizard allows you to configure the outgoing emails from JIRA.

To enable or disable email notifications (you can always enable them later), select the respective Enable or Disable radio buttons.

If you enable email notifications, you will need to set up a connection to a mail server, as indicated in the following screenshot.

You're done!

Once you complete step 4, JIRA will be ready for use. The Welcome screen will lead you through creating a project for your new JIRA installation, or you can opt to set it up yourself.

For more information on getting started with JIRA, please refer to the following guides: