This document provides best practices and lessons learned from past upgrade issues for upgrading JIRA and Confluence. It discusses common problems like not backing up data before upgrading, server crashes, customizations causing issues, incompatible plugins, attachment conversion failures, and performance problems. The key recommendations are to thoroughly test upgrades, back up all data and customizations, evaluate plugins and their compatibility, communicate with users, and read upgrade documentation. Addressing these areas can help prevent many potential post-upgrade problems.

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2. Upgrade Dos and Don'ts
for JIRA + Confluence
Jeff Curry, Technical Support, Atlassian
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3. JIRA Master!
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4. Agenda
• Case review
• Best practices
• Prevention
• Watch out!
Questions?
•
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5. Best Practices - No Cowboys Allowed
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6. Case #1 of 12 - Backup schmakups
• Upgraded with production server, no backups
• Canʼt start old version either
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7. Case #1 of 12 - Backup schmakups
• Upgraded with production server, no backups
• Canʼt start old version either
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8. Pro Tip #1 of 12 – Backup, cowboy!
• Backup: Application directory, data directory, database
• Create an upgrade checklist
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9. Pro Tip #1 of 12 – Backup, cowboy!
• Backup: Application directory, data directory, database
• Create an upgrade checklist
Confluence JIRA
Layout and Menu Look and feel
Search Issue Navigator
Permissions Workflow transitions
Attachments Attachment links
Plugins Plugins
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10. Case #2 of 12 – Murphyʼs Law at work
• Server crashed with sound backup strategy in place
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11. Case #2 of 12 – Murphyʼs Law at work
• Server crashed with sound backup strategy in place
Restore?
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12. Pro Tip #2 of 12 - Practice restores
• Preferably not when production is down…
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13. Case #3 of 12 –
• Remote operations fail to complete after Confluence upgrade
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14. Case #3 of 12 –
• Remote operations fail to complete after Confluence upgrade
• Firewall?
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15. Case #3 of 12 –
• Remote operations fail to complete after Confluence upgrade
• Firewall?
• Network?
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16. Case #3 of 12 –
• Remote operations fail to complete after Confluence upgrade
• Firewall?
• Network?
• Virus scanner?
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17. Case #3 of 12 –
• Remote operations fail to complete after Confluence upgrade
• Firewall?
• Network?
• Virus scanner?
• RPC plugin?
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18. Case #3 of 12 –
• Remote operations fail to complete after Confluence upgrade
• Firewall?
• Network?
• Virus scanner?
• RPC plugin?
• CUSTOMIZIATION!
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19. Pro Tip #3 of 12 - Track your changes
• Keep rolling log
• Confluence page
Inventory at upgrade time
• Modz_detector ( Administration -> System Info )
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20. Pro Tip #3 of 12 - Track your changes
• Keep rolling log
• Confluence page
Inventory at upgrade time
• Modz_detector ( Administration -> System Info )
JIRA find . –newer views
Connie find . –newer users
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21. Prevention – Better safe than sorry
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22. Case #4 of 12 – Plugin safari
After upgrading in testing JIRA no longer starts
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23. Case #4 of 12 – Plugin safari
After upgrading in testing JIRA no longer starts
2010-04-30 09:44:38,151 main FATAL [atlassian.jira.upgrade.ConsistencyLauncher]
An Error occurred during ConsistencyLauncher servlet context initialisation -
com.atlassian.plugin.DefaultModuleDescriptorFactory.
<init>(Lcom/atlassian/plugin/hostcontainer/HostContainer;)
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.atlassian.plugin.DefaultModuleDescriptorFactory.
<init>(Lcom/atlassian/plugin/hostcontainer/HostContainer;)
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24. Case #4 of 12 – Plugin safari
assign-from-customfield-plugin-1[1].3.jar jira-dashboard-sharing-1[1].1-JIRA3.11.jar
atlassian-configurableobjects-0.9.jar jira-fisheye-plugin-2.2.4.jar
atl-jira-subversion-plugin-0.10.4.1.jar jira-greenhopper-plugin-4.3.1.jar
atlassian-plugins-0.23.2.jar jira-misc-workflow-extensions-1[1].3.jar
atlassian-tagutil-0.1.jar jira-toolkit-0.7.30.jar
dwr-2.0.5.jar jregex-1.2_01.jar
javamail-1.3.3.jar language_default.jar
jira-bamboo-plugin-2.3.1.jar ldapsdk-4.1.jar
jira-calendar-plugin-1.9.jar mkk-jira-plugin-1[1].4.0-Jira-3.10.jar
jira-charting-plugin-1.4.1.jar tdt-easyadmin-plugin-1.1.jar
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25. Pro Tip #4 of 12 - Know your plugins
• System
• Canʼt mess with ʻem
• Bundled
• Can be upgraded independently, disabled
• Third-party
• Skyʼs the limit
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26. Pro Tip #4.5 of 12 – Upgrade your plugins
• The old way…
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27. Pro Tip #4.5 of 12 – Upgrade your plugins
• The old way…
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28. Pro Tip #4.5 of 12 – Upgrade your plugins
• The new way!
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29. Case #5 of 12 – Major upgrades
• Attachments not being converted as advertised
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30. Case #5 of 12 – Major upgrades
• Attachments not being converted as advertised
• XML not suitable for large restores
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31. Case #5 of 12 – Major upgrades
• Attachments not being converted as advertised
• XML not suitable for large restores
Attachment change with 2.7.3
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32. Universal Pro Tip - RTFM
Consult documentation
• Release notes
• Upgrade guide
• [ This half intentionally left blank ]
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33. Pro Tip #5 of 12 -
• Communicate with stake holders
• Evaluate milestone releases
• New release cycle- 3-4 months
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34. Case #6 of 12 – Little pestering flies…
• Preserving old-school navigation in JIRA 4.1+
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35. Pro Tip #6 of 12 – Engage your users
• Involve in upgrade decision
• Invite them to perform QA ( in testing! )
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36. Case #7 of 12 – Gadgets load slowly
• After upgrading to JIRA 4.0 gadgets take forever to load
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37. Case #7 of 12 – Gadgets load slowly
• After upgrading to JIRA 4.0 gadgets take forever to load
• Reverse-proxy?
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38. Case #7 of 12 – Gadgets load slowly
• After upgrading to JIRA 4.0 gadgets take forever to load
• Reverse-proxy?
• Server resources?
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39. Case #7 of 12 – Gadgets load slowly
• After upgrading to JIRA 4.0 gadgets take forever to load
• Reverse-proxy?
• Server resources?
• Client config?
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40. Case #7 of 12 – Gadgets load slowly
• After upgrading to JIRA 4.0 gadgets take forever to load
• Reverse-proxy?
• Server resources?
• Client config?
• Profiling data looking good…
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41. Case #7 of 12 – Gadgets load slowly
• After upgrading to JIRA 4.0 gadgets take forever to load
• Reverse-proxy?
• Server resources?
• Client config?
• Profiling data looking good…
• 1/5 second – 1 second page load time
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42. Pro Tip #7 of 12 – Test new features
• Review release summary pages
• http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+Release+Summary
• http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+Release+Summary
Encourage key stakeholders to evaluate
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43. Watch out!
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44. Case #8 of 12 – The devil is in the details
• Setup new JIRA for upgrade, receiving “404 Not Found”
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45. Case #8 of 12 – The devil is in the details
• Setup new JIRA for upgrade, receiving “404 Not Found”
2010-04-20 16:07:38,561 main ERROR
[jira.appconsistency.db.DatabaseConsistencyCheck]
There was a SQL exception checking for database driver correctness. Skipping.
org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.SQLNestedException:
Cannot create JDBC driver of class 'com.mysqljdbc.Driver' for connect URL
'jdbc:mysql:localhost/jiradb?
autoReconnect=true&useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF8'
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46. Pro Tip #8 of 12 - Use the GUI!
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47. Case #9 of 12 – The complex upgrade
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48. Case #9 of 12 – The complex upgrade
• Receiving 404 page after upgrading JIRA and Confluence
• New
• Hardware
• Windows XP -> Debian linux
• Standalone -> EAR/WAR
• Trouble with configuring
• LDAP
• SSL
• Days to resolve…
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49. Pro Tip #9 of 12 –
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50. Pro Tip #9 of 12 –
• Deploy JIRA on new server, restore data
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51. Pro Tip #9 of 12 –
• Deploy JIRA on new server, restore data
• Deploy Confluence, restore data
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52. Pro Tip #9 of 12 –
• Deploy JIRA on new server, restore data
• Deploy Confluence, restore data
• KB article to fix class loading
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53. Pro Tip #9 of 12 –
• Deploy JIRA on new server, restore data
• Deploy Confluence, restore data
• KB article to fix class loading
• Configure SSL
• Mail server
• LDAP server
• Tomcat
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54. Pro Tip #9 of 12 –
• Deploy JIRA on new server, restore data
• Deploy Confluence, restore data
• KB article to fix class loading
• Configure SSL
• Mail server
• LDAP server
• Tomcat
• Configure LDAP
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55. Case #10 of 12 –
Duplicate mail notifications
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56. Case #10 of 12 –
Duplicate mail notifications
# Testing
• Production data
• Jelly scripts
• Workflow transitions
Forgot notification schemes
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57. Pro Tip #10 of 12 –
• bin/setenv.sh:
#DISABLE_NOTIFICATIONS="
-Datlassian.mail.senddisabled=true
-Datlassian.mail.fetchdisabled=true
-Datlassian.mail.popdisabled=true”
• Remove mail server in admin UI
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58. Confluence support #1 headache
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59. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
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60. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
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61. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
• Step 2 – Old DB -> New Confluence
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62. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
• Step 2 – Old DB -> New Confluence
• Step 3 – Works good enough
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63. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
• Step 2 – Old DB -> New Confluence
• Step 3 – Works good enough
•…
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64. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
• Step 2 – Old DB -> New Confluence
• Step 3 – Works good enough
•…
# Step 4 – Hmmm… attachments missing
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65. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
• Step 2 – Old DB -> New Confluence
• Step 3 – Works good enough
•…
# Step 4 – Hmmm… attachments missing
• Step 5 – Contact support, failing to mention this for awhile
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66. Case #11 of 12 – Cutting corners
• Step 1 – Upgrade Confluence
• Step 2 – Old DB -> New Confluence
• Step 3 – Works good enough
•…
# Step 4 – Hmmm… attachments missing
• Step 5 – Contact support, failing to mention this for awhile
• Step 6 – ???
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67. Pro Tip #11 of 12 - Donʼt cut corners!
Donʼt make assumptions
Freeze data for upgrade process
• Perfect practice makes perfect
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68. Case #12 of 12 – $*#&$! Gadget loopback!
• Created internal checklist and tested, tested, tested!
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69. Case #12 of 12 – $*#&$! Gadget loopback!
• Created internal checklist and tested, tested, tested!
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70. Pro Tip #12 of 12 –
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71. Pro Tip #12 of 12 –
• Reverse-proxy
• Load-balancer
• More?
• Exit strategy
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72. Summary
Best Practices Prevention Watch out!
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73. Summary
Best Practices Prevention Watch out!
Go home, upgrade JIRA to 4.1 and Confluence to 3.2
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74. Resources
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75. Resources
• forums.atlassian.com
• confluence.atlassian.com
• confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAKB/JIRA+Knowledge+Base+Home
• confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Confluence+Knowledge+Base+Home
• jira.atlassian.com
• support.atlassian.com
• Pssst… Freenode IRC #atlassian, #atlassiandev
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