Is there a tool or method to export a project from one instance of Jira (Test) and import the project into another Jira instance (Production)?

[Stephen Stewart]

I have a Jira instance used for testing that we create Jira projects in to verify with business customers. When the business customers are satisfied with the project in our testing Jira, we move the project into the Production jira instance for our business customers to use on a regular basis. Is there some tool or feature that allows you to export a Jira project from one instance and import it into another Jira instance? Is it possible to automate this process so that we can replicate between two environments (Test <-> Prod)? I came across a tool called "Swizzle" that appeared to do what I want, but it seems to be very loosely supported and old.

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

[aarnetadmin]

You would still need to do some manual mappings in case your new project uses configuration elements (issue types, workflows, etc.) not present in the target instance (Production), but once you set it up, the issues are copied with the entire history.

This is still way too clunky and brittle for enterprise use; there's far too much room for user error.

Jira really needs to get proper test, qa and production instance management rolled into the core product. Simple things like being able to detect the base url has changed between instances, or a way to do so that isn't part of some fifteen step process.

[Deleted user]

This is also what we need. The problem is that we are moving one big project from one server to another with many custom schemes/fields/workflows and custom issue types and creating all this manually would take too much time. We are considering a database dump / restore but that would also copy the other projects from our server and we don't want that.

[Harry Chan]

There shouldn't even be a need for base URL. That's a major pain.

[David Feig]

I strongly agree with rob.kearey.

[Wojciech Seliga]

You can export your data from Test JIRA to XML (Administration | Export & Import | Backup System) and then you can import just a selected project using Project Import functionality.

You would still need to do some manual mappings in case your new project uses configuration elements (issue types, workflows, etc.) not present in the target instance (Production), but once you set it up, the issues are copied with the entire history.

The other method could be exporting given project (as a result of Search) to Excel, then to CSV file, then back to JIRA using CSV import. But then you will loose the history and the mapping would be usually more cumbersome as CSV does not keep any field metadata.

[Tina McAninch]

When using the export to XML/Project Import option, what problems, if any, are likely if the source instance is Jira 5 and the target instance is Jira 6?

[Sverre Moe]

I would like to know a respons to this question myself. I am faced with importing a Jira 5.0 project into a different Jira 6.x instance.

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

Follow the advice at https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Restoring+a+Project+from+Backup. There is a section called "JIRA versions do not match" that explains what to do when versions for source and target instances are not the same.

If you combine that with the use of Project Configurator plugin, you save yourself all problems related to mapping the project configuration from the source to the target instance. (I am a developer of that plugin, so maybe I am a bit biased here ;-)

[Eric Tucker]

"then you can import just a selected project using Project Import functionality." Where is this? I see no such option. There's still an open issue with JIRA for adding single project import. Do you know something we don't? Or have a plugin installed that you didn't mention?

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

@Eric, I think Wojciech meant the JIRA Project Import Tool, as described in https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Restoring+a+Project+from+Backup. This functionality is part of standard JIRA. Bear in mind that the "manual mappings in case your new project uses configuration elements" can be automated with the plugin Project Configurator (https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.awnaba.projectconfigurator.projectconfigurator). The whole process for moving a project without any manual task is described at https://awnaba.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PCP/Moving+a+project+to+another+instance

[Akshay K.V.]

@José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]Project Configurator Plugin supported in Jira Data Center 7.3.8 ? We are planning to migrate a number of projects from Standalone instance to Data Center.

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

Hi Akshay,

Yes. It is supported on that version of Data Center Jira.

Cheers!

[Akshay K.V.]

Thanks @José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]. We will give it a try and come back with the results.

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

There is a new plugin in Atlassian Marketplace called "Project Configurator" designed to transfer the configuration of a project from one instance of JIRA to another. It only transfers configuration (custom fields, workflows, schemes, permissions,...) but not issues or attachments. The idea behind the plugin is to cover the use case of a development instance where changes are made, and a production instance where those changes should be applied, once they have been tested.

(Disclaimer: I am involved in the development of this plugin)

[aarnetadmin]

This actually works very well; it's a shame it has to be provided by a third party rather than being core functionality.

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

Version 2.0 of Project Configurator for JIRA, released a few days ago, goes one step beyond and now offers an integrated way to export or import a complete project (that is, not only its configuration, but also issues and attachments)

[Sri]

Does it import the Agile Boards in JIRA 6.4.x ?

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

@Srikanth Not yet. That feature will be released next November.

[Piyush_Annadate]

that's great but what about the SPRINTS ? XML/CSV export does not cover the Sprint details !!!

Still - what about SPRINT - anyone to help about this?

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

Starting with JIRA 7.0 sprint data is recovered when importing project data as explained in this page, in the section called "Project import restrictions". As Project Configurator uses this part of JIRA internally, this should solve the import of sprints.

I know this will not make users of JIRA 6 & JIRA Agile quite happy, but at least it is a starting point.

[David Skreiner]

Cool! I think you're the only plugin salesman on here I've ever seen stating that they work for that plugin. Usually, they just answer "you need my plugin, here's the Marketplace link" even if there's other workarounds. 

[venkatasai_pulluri]

We have two different versions of instances.

old 6.2.7 standalone version

new 7.3 datacenter model

Do you think this plugin can help to migrate all configurations and issues ?

Just want to make sure before we try it. We dont have test env for old JIRA

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It will, but you may need to upgrade 6.2 to 7.3 to move everything cleanly.  (Standalone and Data Centre differences won't affect this process)

[venkatasai_pulluri]

We will not be able to upgrade the old one. That is the reason i want to find out if this plugin works without any compatibility issues.

What could be possible issues ?

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

Hi,

You can use an intermediate instance, as explained here, so you would not have to upgrade the original source instance.

Cheers!

[Loli_ola]

will this plugin work for 7.10 to 8.6 Jira server?

[Arun_Thundyill_Saseendran]

Now a new tool called Configration Manager for JIRA (https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.botronsoft.jira.configurationmanager) is available. It does pretty good in copying configurations from one JIRA instance to the other.

For data transfer, export as Excel and import as CSV or XML back up and import will be fine.

For attachment transfer, create a file by querying all weblinks and issues key. The you can run a small REST app to pull the attachment from the source instance and post it to the target.

However, it is a real shame that JIRA does not have the options for these out of the box.

[Brijesh Jain]

Thanks for that link. Unfortunately it only works for JIRA 6.0 and above. But good to know it exists now..

[AntonioP]

Yeah, I Agree. This kind of functionality is very useful and should be out-of-the-box. But I would rather use for this, Project Configurator (https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.awnaba.projectconfigurator.projectconfigurator). It is more popular, supports filters and dashboards and has a far better price. It even has versions for JIRA 5.X! We've being using it for two years, with a fantastic support. It's very reliable!

[Karla Bernal]

what if i don't have a budget to buy it? is there any way to do it by free?

[Ligia Merciu]

Hi guys,

If the scope is to move a project configuration, without any issue, from one JIRA instance (i.e. a test environment) to another JIRA instance (i.e. production environment) the most useful tool is https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.keplerrominfo.jira.plugins.kiwi/server/overview

If you already are somehow familiar to SIL (Simple Issue Language provided by https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.keplerrominfo.jira.plugins.jjupin/server/overview) you can also use the Pre-Import and Post-Import files feature to create the project on the destination instance and to associate it with its schemes. However, the schemes have to be manually configured before, if they do not exist on the destination instance. All the rest the project implies (workflows - doesn't matter how complicated they are, screens, customfields, customfields contexts - that meeans all the entities associated with a workflow) KIWI is able to handle successfuly.

Note that KIWI does not export/import the issues between instances.

Hope this help!

[Markus Egg]

Is there no kind of "Save/Load" functionality, with which I can save a complete project in a file and load this project from that file later on (without manual mapping or editing)?

[David Skreiner]

It's possible to export workflows ... but if your JIRA instance A has a different setup than JIRA instance B, the workflow will be utterly unusable because it'll use wrong statuses.

It's possible to create a workflow on a JIRA A, export it, and import it to JIRA B, if your two JIRA servers use the exact same screens and statuses. (e.g. if you have  a Staging JIRA that's a copy of your live server).

[Justin Alex Paramanandan]

I actually worked on a small project to perform such a mammoth task before. You can attempt to view the steps here: Migrating Certain Projects from JIRA.

Give this a shot, and see whether it fits your requirements.

[Richard Cross]

Dead link

[Karla Bernal]

hi, the link is not available anymore :(

[Cristian _Southend_]

plug-in https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.awnaba.projectconfigurator.projectconfigurator

[diego bowen]

What about all the attachments associated with the projects using the XML project export/import tool. Our attachments are on the filesystem and are not being copied over. Thanks

[C Olson]

Yes - I have the same question about extracting attachments.

Were you able to figure this out? If so, please advise

thanks

[Karla Bernal]

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Migrating+JIRA+to+Another+Server backup attachments and index directories (if located outside jira home directory)

[Renjith Pillai]

This is tricky if you have customfields, worflows etc getting created for each project. Could you please explain why the tests itself happen on the production instance (may be with limited access) and make it with appropriate permissions once the testing is over?

You can also just copy a project within the instance easily with Jamie's script runner so that the customers can start with a clean instance once they want to switch over to production. So start with a project key like TST-<<based on customer>> and then once testing is over, copy project to the actual project key.

Once done you can delete the old project.

https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/wiki/display/GRV/Built-In+Scripts#Built-InScripts-CopyProject

[Gregory Kneller]

It is hard for service desk projects and data from some add-on. You would rather create a TEST project in production instance, then in a separate test instance.  

[Martin Hošek]

Hi Stephen,

the best option would be a synchronisation app from Atlassian marketplace. 

I personally use the J2J Issue Sync app which works great for me:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1215323/j2j-issue-sync?hosting=server&tab=overview

It can synchronise projects, issues and fields between two or even more Jira instances. You can try it free before buy so you can test if it meets your requirements. 

Martin

[K. Yamamoto]

For cloud instance, try the procedure on How to merge two different JIRA Cloud applications together.

In a nutshell, merge projects on JIRA Server and put the merged projects back to Cloud.

[Andriy Yakovlev _Atlassian_]

Please see updated KB: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAKB/How+to+merge+JIRA+applications+instances

[siddha1990]

This add on is not available on cloud..Any suggestions?

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

If you are moving your project from the Cloud, you can always make a backup and restore it into a Server instance. Then you export from this instance. If you want to merge Cloud instances, copy them to server instances, merge there and upload the result to the Cloud. This process would be good also for moving projects from Server to Cloud.

See process explained in the URL mentioned by @Kenta Yamamoto below and in another comment above this one.

[K. Yamamoto]

We can merge Cloud projects, too.

Refer https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/how-to-merge-two-different-jira-cloud-applications-together-779160767.html.

[José Marañón [Awnaba Software S.L.]]

Hi  @Kenta Yamamoto,

Yes, your comment is very accurate and actually we have references of customers working with projects from JIRA Cloud with the process you outlined, I will update my previous comment.

[diego bowen]

What about all the attachments associated with the projects using the XML project export/import tool. Our attachments are on the filesystem and are not being copied over. Thanks

[Gregory Kneller]

Project Import Tool is the only thing provided by Altassian. You need to make sure that all custome fields, issue types, issue security levels, resolutions and permissions that you have in the source instance, exist in the target (production as you say). If you use workflows, export them before. If the workflows use screens, you need to patch XML files and change screen ids. I have moved about 40 projects from one very messy instance to another one, so I am pretty sure that it is possible in general case. But it requires sorting out many things, that is sometimes possible only through direct changes in the databases.

[Gregory Kneller]

If you use MySQL or Oracle database for your JIRA, you may create SQL patches to apply over production database, that will create the project with workflows and security schemes. It requires however good knowledge of JIRA database and SQL, and attention to the values of primary keys. Alternatively you may pay with Jelly scripting, but it has very limited functionality.

[Al Sko]

if you can create the required project, users ,etc manually, then you can use Task Adapter to transfer tasks between two Jira instances.