Migrating from Server to Data Center

Owned by Stanley Neychev
Nov 22, 2023
3 min read

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Why you should consider migrating to Data Center

In October 2020, Atlassian announced that they would stop support for Jira Server. Since then, customers wishing to purchase new Jira licenses had to go straight to Jira Data Center or Jira Cloud.

Data Center offers a lot more customization options than both Server and Cloud, which is ideal for teams that need the flexibility to fully tailor their tools to meet their business needs. Furthermore, you’ll be able to enjoy 100% crossfunctional parity with your Configuration Manager for Jira Server - no disruption to the user experience and your integrations. This means that all your settings, snapshots, and audits will be transferred over to Jira Data Center without any trouble.

Migration Prerequisites

The steps you need to take to migrate from Server to Data Center will vary based on your specific use case. Below you’ll find some prerequisites that need to be considered in order to ensure that all your data is migrated easily and correctly.

  • Supported Platforms - Before you begin the migration process, check Atlassian’s page about supported platforms. There you will find information regarding Java, browsers, operating systems, and databases you will be able to use.

  • License - Naturally, you’ll need a Jira Data Center license, so be sure to acquire one before you go any further. Jira will auto-detect the license type when you enter your license key and automatically unlock any license-specific features.

  • App Compatibility - If you want to use your Jira Server apps, you will need to update them to their Data Center versions. Check Atlassian’s documentation on upgrading Server apps when migrating to Data Center.

Migration Types

Check out our listed best practices for optimized CMJ snapshot deployments here.

Non-clustered

You should upgrade your apps to their Data Center version before updating your license.

Migrating from Server to a non-clustered Data Center instance only requires you to update your platform from a Server license to a Data Center license. To do that, you’ll need to adjust your license from within your Jira Instance by going to Administration > Applications > Versions and Licenses.

And that’s it! You can now continue using the infrastructure already in place but with the features from Data Center.

You can find more information about updating your Jira license here.

Clustered

As well as the steps required for a non-clustered instance, a clustered setup requires you to move your home directory to a shared location. This shared location should be a place that all nodes can access and where all the data and plugins should be installed. But here’s the best part - you can migrate your data by using CMJ’s system snapshots.

The process of moving your home directory is described in Atlassian’s guide.

As the data is saved in the database and some plugin information is saved in the Jira home inside the plugins folder, you’ll need to copy the add-ons folder to inside the shared home that you will need to create. Also, make sure that Jira is correctly configured in the cluster.properties and pointing to the same shared directory as the main node.

Once the migration is done, you’ll need to reindex the instance.