Jira and large file attachments

[Matt Wilson]

I'm in the process of absorbing multiple small Jira instance into one big jira instance.  One of our smaller site has been allowing very large file attachments (currently 100MB, but they'd like to go even bigger).  Our other sites are all running the default 10MB max attachment option.

My personal preference is to see large files stored on a system that is designed/optimized for file transfer (i.e. a file share, or something like Artifactory/nexus). 

Is there a good way to pull this off in Jira, i.e. linking my Jira application to a file sharing service.  I know I could do something with web links, but I'd like to see something a little nicer.  Something along the lines of how you can see Bitbucket activities related to the ticket.  Any plugins out there I should be looking at?

[umairjabbar]

I was assuming there would be an external plugin in place for this, seemed like a common use-case to me but I haven't found anything. We have attachments that can go upto multiple Gigabytes so we want an integrated fileshare option which is seamless.

[rohit agarwal]

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver0713/configuring-file-attachments-964984146.html

I found a suggestion on this page to create a symbolic link from default path to the path where files can be stored (on a mounted NFS location) the page above. What it doesn't give information on is: whether or not the JIRA supports this configuration. 

@Earl McCutcheon would you be in a position to confirm if creating such a configuration is supported by JIRA? 

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hi @rohit agarwal ,

The mention of the symbolic link in the article you referenced falls under a customization noting the section title "Choosing a custom Attachment Path" and within Jira customizations are not covered under Atlassian Support Offerings. So, this material is provided as an optional configuration for your information only and that you use the configuration at your own risk. 

The only supported configuration is the files stored locally in the default attachment path, but the risks are relatively low in most cases when setting up the files in a configuration like this as the risk scenarios would be like the example given in my initial reply where the attachment referance in the database could become disconnected from the files referance location if any communication disruption occurs to the linked location where the file is stored. 

So, if there are constant network issues the risk goes up, but on stable networks the risk is low, however there is always a chance that the files can become detached and require manual maintenance to rebuild the references.  Having a manual maintenance requirement contingent on external factors is why this is not a supported configuration.

Regards,
Earl

[rohit agarwal]

Thanks Earl for your response.

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hi Matt,

This can be done by remapping the attachments folder inside the $jira-home/data directory.

Details can be seen in the KB "How to change the attachments directory on JIRA".

However this does come with a warning where if the remote file storage system goes down or experiences a connection issue the attachments can become disconnected and flagged as missing in the Jira database if the files are attempted to be accessed on the front end while the error is occuring requiring some additional recovery steps if you ever encounter a disconnection issue details on recovering images in a scenario like this is covered in "Resolve Missing Attachments in JIRA"

Regards,
Earl

[Matt Wilson]

Hi Earl,

I think you misunderstood my question.  I'm not looking to change anything about my attachment setup.  I've currently got my attachments on a separate NFS drive with lots of space and good IO.  I'm wondering if there is a way to integrate or link Jira to another service that would host these large files.  

My concern with the large files is that users will be downloading these files on a fairly regular basis to examine the files locally and will that place undo strain on my Jira service.  

Has Atlassian done any testing on large file attachments?  Is there a sweet spot size wise?  I know it can handle very large files, but is it recommended?

cheers

Matt

[rohit agarwal]

Hi Matt, did you find an alternative? I'm just checking because I'm having to solve a similar issue for my JIRA instance. 

Especially around integration with a non-JIRA. nFS/FTP storage. 

[matt.wilson]

Hi Rohit,

Sorry no.  No alternate solution was discovered.  That said, I believe some processes where changed to minimize the size of the uploaded files...

good luck on your hunt.

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hi @Matt Wilson ,

Sorry for the delayed reply, for some reason I never received a notification that you replied back in June, and I wanted to follow up on your additional questions:

Has Atlassian done any testing on large file attachments?  Is there a sweet spot size wise?  I know it can handle very large files, but is it recommended?

This one is a bit of a Yes and a No.  Performance and increasing performance is always a top priority for the Atlassian toolsets, however Jira is not designed as a file storage system as the primary goal. 

And while Regular testing and performance improvements are always rolling out with every version and data plus attachment sizes do have a big impact on that the particular data size amounts do not have any dedicated sweet spot or dedicated tipping point and are more fluid in capabilities that come back to individualized performance tuning for the instance.

We have some guides that go over things you can do locally to fine tune performance and discuss how attachments can impact the performance, but ultimately its going to come down to identifying which elements are causing slowdown based on the environment variables and adjust settings an processes to adapt to how the system is reacting:

But please do take a look at the following Documentation sections and sub pages for additional info on what to look for to increase application performance:

• Performance and scaling 
• Troubleshoot performance issues in Jira server

Regards,
Earl