Upgrading from 9.4.14 to 9.12.19 - Prep Questions

[Kirk Friedman]

We are looking to upgrade our Jira Datacenter version from 9.4.14 to 9.12.19 (latest LTS version).  Have a couple of quick questions as we prepare for the upgrade.

OS - Server 2019
Database - SQL Server 2017

1.  Type of install - Previous sys admin used manual install.  Any benefit or pro/cons with doing manual over using the installer?

2.  Java version is currently Java 8.  What is the requirement for Java version at 9.12.19?

3.  "Plan Your Upgrade" feature within Jira recommends 9.11.  Any issue going further to the latest LTS of 9.12.19?

4.  Log4J upgrade?  I believe Log4J2 is a requirement at this point?  Are there good instructions for this process?  Anything to be prepared for and should I do this ahead of upgrade?

5.  Utilize LDAP auth, but looking to move to Okta.  Any need for changes before upgrade?

6.  Backups - We have a test env to run this through before Prod.  Anything outside of Jira directory and database backups to be considered?

7.  Scriptrunner workflows - I'm assuming if changing Java versions the scriptrunner scripts will need to be updated.  Any feedback here would be appreciated!

I believe that's all for now.  I appreciate any feedback and guidance.

Thank you!

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_ · Accepted solution]

Firstly, check into what is stopping you doing a migration to Jira Cloud. It's where Jira is going eventually. Lots of people who can help with all of this at https://partnerdirectory.atlassian.com/

1.  Type of install - Previous sys admin used manual install.  Any benefit or pro/cons with doing manual over using the installer?

No great advantage one way or the other. Either way you will need to look at changes in the bin directory files to see if things have changed there in the latest version

2.  Java version is currently Java 8.  What is the requirement for Java version at 9.12.19?

See https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver0912/supported-platforms-1346046805.html
I would go for Java 17 myself

3.  "Plan Your Upgrade" feature within Jira recommends 9.11.  Any issue going further to the latest LTS of 9.12.19?

I recommend using the latest LTS version, but check that all your plugins support that version before upgrading

4.  Log4J upgrade?  I believe Log4J2 is a requirement at this point?  Are there good instructions for this process?  Anything to be prepared for and should I do this ahead of upgrade?

I don't think you should need to do anything explicit here?

5.  Utilize LDAP auth, but looking to move to Okta.  Any need for changes before upgrade?

Make sure you record all the SSO info before you start the upgrade. You will need to log in with a locally defined admin user to reconfigure those settings after the upgrade

6.  Backups - We have a test env to run this through before Prod.  Anything outside of Jira directory and database backups to be considered?

Check your Sys Info page for all modified files and record why they were changed

Upgrade your plugins to their latest compatible version and test those carefully too

Disable all notifications scheme in all projects in the test instance to avoid confusing emails

Change the color of the top bar in your test instance so people don't get confused

7.  Scriptrunner workflows - I'm assuming if changing Java versions the scriptrunner scripts will need to be updated.  Any feedback here would be appreciated!

No, I don't think that changing Java versions will affect this, since the scripts are Groovy. Updating the version of ScriptRunner may do so though

Disclaimer: I work for Adaptavist, makers of ScriptRunner and one of the Atlassian partners who can help with migrations and upgrades, but am not part of those teams

[Jamie Rogers]

These are all great points for doing a Jira upgrade!

[Jamie Rogers · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kirk Friedman 

I can elaborate on what we do for our data centre version upgrades.

1. Our environment is Linux and we do manual installs + updating the required configuration files and installing DB driver. As Matt suggest it probably doesn't make much difference which way you go.
2. Upgrading Java to 17 would be the way to go as its the latest Java LTS version that Jira currently supports - check out the Jira 9.12 supported platforms page for details.
3. We upgraded from 9.4 LTS to 9.12 LTS when we did it last year; currently planning for 10.3 LTS upgrade. I would highly recommend testing this in a non-prod or test instance to see how this goes for your specific installation. Generally reading through the release and upgrade notes for all versions in between is a great place to start if you haven't already.
4. The issues around Log4J and Jira we finally resolved in Jira 9.5 - so upgrading to 9.12 will include these. As far as I recall - there is nothing you need to do regarding this unless you have customised the log4j configuration.
5. Your existing LDAP configuration should remain in-place during the upgrade and not change. Again testing this prior to prod to verify you don't have any issues. You could do you Okta migration either before or after the upgrade - personally I would do this kind of change separately from an upgrade.
6. Definitely backup your database and application configuration/data prior to your upgrade. Depending on how critical JIra is to your org - you may even want to test your backup and restore procedures in test in case anything goes wrong.
7. We have ScriptRunner in our instance and during version upgrades we haven't had to remediate any scripts although as Matt suggested - you may need to check these when the ScriptRunner plugin version changes. Ideally this would be something you would be testing prior to the upgrade so you can prepare any script changes ahead of time.
   
   Additional point(s):
8. Apps/Addons/Plugins - Aside from ScriptRunner; if you have any others installed you may want to check you have compatible versions available to upgrade to and test these.

I hope these points help - feel free to ask any follow up questions.

[Kirk Friedman]

Thank you all for super quick and helpful feedback!  Some basic questions but a good start in planning out my approach.