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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Publisher's note: A new sixth edition, updated with enhanced Jira 8.21 and Data Center features has now been published.
Key Features
- Work on agile projects in Jira from both the administrator and end user's perspective
- Explore the improved Scrum and Kanban board and backlog
- Work through exercises at the end of each chapter to reinforce your skills
Book Description
Atlassian Jira enables effective bug tracking for your software and mobile applications and provides tools to track and manage tasks for your projects. Jira Essentials is a comprehensive guide, now updated to Jira 8 to include enhanced features such as updates to Scrum and Kanban UI, additional search capabilities, and changes to Jira Service Desk.
The book starts by explaining how to plan and set up a new Jira 8 instance from scratch before getting you acquainted with key features such as emails, workflows, business processes, and much more. You'll then understand Jira's data hierarchy and how to design and work with projects.
Since Jira is used for issue management, this book delves into the different issues that can arise in your projects. You'll explore fields, including custom fields, and learn to use them for more effective data collection. You'll create new screens from scratch and customize them to suit your requirements. The book also covers workflows and business processes, and guides you in setting up incoming and outgoing mail servers. Toward the end, you'll study Jira's security model and Jira Service Desk, which allows you to run Jira as a support portal.
By the end of this Jira book, you will be able to implement Jira 8 in your projects with ease.
What you will learn
- Understand Jira's data hierarchy and how to design and work with projects in Jira
- Use Jira for agile software projects, business process management, customer service support, and more
- Understand issues and work with them
- Design both system and custom fields to behave differently under different contexts
- Create and design your own screens and apply them to different project and issue types
- Gain an understanding of the workflow and its various components
- Set up both incoming and outgoing mail servers to work with e-mails
Who this book is for
This book will be especially useful for project managers but it's also intended for other Jira users, including developers, and any other industry besides software development, who would like to leverage Jira's powerful task management and workflow features to better manage their business processes.
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Seitenzahl: 435
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Jira 8 Essentials Fifth Edition
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing
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Commissioning Editor: Richa TripathiAcquisition Editor: Chaitanya NairContent Development Editor: Rohit Singh Technical Editor: Royce JohnCopy Editor: Safis Editing Project Coordinator: Vaidehi SawantProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Priyanka DhadkeGraphics: Alishon MendonsaProduction Coordinator: Nilesh Mohite
First published: May 2011 Second edition: April 2013Third edition: April 2015Fourth edition: November 2016 Fifth edition: February 2019
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Contributors
About the author
Patrick Li is the cofounder of AppFusions and works as a senior engineer there. AppFusions is one of the leading Atlassian experts, specializing in integration solutions with many enterprise applications and platforms, including IBM Connections, Jive, Google Apps, and more. He has worked in the Atlassian ecosystem for over 9 years, developing products and solutions for the Atlassian platform and providing expert consulting services. He has authored many books and video courses covering Jira 4 to 7. He has extensive experience in designing and deploying Atlassian solutions from the ground up and customizing existing deployments for clients across verticals such as healthcare, software engineering, financial services, and government agencies.
About the reviewer
Miroslav Kralik has over 16 years of experience in the IT field and has specialized knowledge in DevOps. He is a result-oriented and detail-oriented person with a passion for doing things in an easier and more effective way. He has also been part of various projects in which he trains divisions to automate IT processes and improve collaboration. He enjoys helping his customers to find solutions to their problems and creates best practices for them.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Jira 8 Essentials Fifth Edition
About Packt
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Section 1: Introduction to Jira 8
Getting Started with Jira
Jira Core, Jira Software, and Jira Service Desk
The Jira architecture
High-level architecture
Web browsers
Application services
Data storage
The Jira installation directory
The Jira home directory
System requirements
Hardware requirements
Software requirements
Operating systems
Java platforms
Databases
Application servers
Installation options
Installing and configuring Jira
Installing Java
Installing MySQL
Preparing MySQL for Jira
Installing Jira
Obtaining and installing Jira
Installing MySQL driver
The Jira setup wizard
Step one
Step two
Step three
Step four
Step five
Step six
Starting and stopping Jira
Post-installation configurations
Increasing Jira's memory
Changing Jira's port number and context path
Configuring HTTPS
Summary
Using Jira for Business Projects
Understanding project types
Business projects
Jira permissions
Creating projects
Changing the project key format
Project user interfaces
Project browser
The Summary tab
The Issues tab
The Versions and Components tabs
The Project Administration interface
The project details tab
The Components tab
Creating components
The component lead and default assignee
The Versions tab
Creating versions
Managing versions
Other tabs
Importing data into Jira
Importing data through CSV
The HR project
Creating a new project
Creating new components
Putting it together
Summary
Using Jira for Agile Projects
Scrum and Kanban
Scrum
Kanban
Running a project with Scrum
Creating a Scrum project
Working with the backlog
Prioritizing and estimating work
Creating a new sprint
Running through a sprint
Running a project with Kanban
Creating a Kanban project
Using the Kanban board
Enabling the backlog for the Kanban board
Configuring agile boards
Configuration columns
Setting up column constraints
Configuring swimlanes
Defining quick filters
Grooming your backlog
Creating a new agile board for your project
Including multiple projects on a board
Summary
Section 2: Jira 8 in Action
Issue Management
Understanding issues
Jira issue summary
Working with issues
Creating an issue
Editing an issue
Deleting an issue
Moving an issue between projects
Casting a vote on an issue
Receiving notifications on an issue
Assigning issues to users
Sharing issues with other users
Issue linking
Linking issues with other issues
Linking issues with remote contents
Issue cloning
Time tracking
Specifying original estimates
Logging work
Issues and comments
Adding comments
Permalinking a comment
Attachments
Attaching files
Issue types and subtasks
Creating issue types
Deleting issue types
Subtasks
Creating subtasks
Issue type schemes
Adding issue types to an issue type scheme
Issue priorities
Creating a priority scheme
The HR project
Adding new issue types
Updating the issue type scheme
Putting it all together
Summary
Field Management
Understanding system fields
Understanding custom fields
Standard fields
Advanced fields
Understanding field searchers
Custom field context
Managing custom fields
Adding a custom field
Editing/deleting a custom field
Configuring a custom field
Adding custom field contexts
Configuring select options
Setting default values
Field configuration
Adding a field configuration
Managing field configurations
Field description
Field requirement
Field visibility
Field rendering
Screens
Field configuration scheme
Managing field configuration schemes
Adding a field configuration scheme
Configuring a field configuration scheme
Associating a field configuration scheme with a project
The HR project
Setting up a custom field
Setting up the field configuration
Setting up a field configuration scheme
Putting it together
Summary
Screen Management
Jira and screens
Working with screens
Adding a new screen
Editing/deleting a screen
Copying a screen
Configuring screens
Adding a field to a screen
Deleting a field from a screen
Using screen tabs
Adding a tab to a screen
Editing/deleting a tab
Working with screen schemes
Adding a screen scheme
Editing/deleting a screen scheme
Copying a screen scheme
Configuring a screen scheme
Associating screens to issue operations
Editing/deleting an association
Issue type screen scheme
Adding an issue type screen scheme
Editing/deleting an issue type screen scheme
Copying an issue type screen scheme
Configuring an issue type screen scheme
Associating issue types to screen schemes
Editing/deleting an association
Associating an issue type screen scheme with a project
Delegating screen management
The HR project
Setting up screens
Setting up screen schemes
Setting up issue type screen schemes
Putting it together
Summary
Workflow and Business Process
Mapping business processes
Understanding workflows
Managing workflows
Issue statuses
Transitions
Triggers
Conditions
Validators
Post functions
Using the workflow designer
Authoring a workflow
Adding a trigger to transitions
Adding a condition to transitions
Adding a validator to transitions
Adding a post function to transitions
Updating an existing workflow
Workflow schemes
Creating a workflow scheme
Configuring a workflow scheme
Assigning an issue type to a workflow
Editing or deleting an association
Applying a workflow scheme to projects
Delegated workflow management
Extending a workflow with workflow add-ons
Suite utilities for Jira
Jira workflow toolbox
Jira Misc workflow extensions
Workflow enhancer for Jira
ScriptRunner for Jira
The HR project
Setting up workflows
Applying the workflow
Putting it together
Summary
Emails and Notifications
Jira and email
Mail servers
Working with outgoing mail
Adding an outgoing mail server
Disabling outgoing mail
Enabling SMTP over SSL
Sending a test email
Mail queues
Viewing the mail queue
Flushing the mail queue
Manually sending emails
Events
Adding a mail template
Adding a custom event
Firing a custom event
Notifications
The notification scheme
Adding a notification scheme
Deleting a notification scheme
Managing a notification scheme
Adding a notification
Deleting a notification
Assigning a notification scheme
Batching email notifications
Troubleshooting notifications
Incoming emails
Adding an incoming mail server
Mail handlers
Creating a new issue or adding a comment to an existing issue
Adding a comment with the entire email body
Adding a comment from the non-quoted email body
Creating a new issue from each email message
Adding a comment before a specified marker or separator in the email body
Adding a mail handler
Editing and deleting a mail handler
Advanced mail handler
The HR project
Setting up mail servers
Updating workflow post functions
Setting up a notification scheme
Setting up notifications
Putting it together
Summary
Section 3: Advanced Jira 8
Securing Jira
User directories
Connecting to LDAP
Users
User browser
Adding a user
Enabling public signup
Enabling CAPTCHA
Groups
Group browser
Adding a group
Editing group memberships
Deleting a group
Project roles
Project role browser
Adding a project role
Managing default members
Assigning project role members
Jira permissions hierarchy
Application access
Global permissions
Jira System Administrator versus Jira Administrator
Configuring global permissions
Granting global permissions
Revoking global permissions
Project permissions
Permission schemes
Adding a permission scheme
Configuring a permission scheme
Granting a permissions
Revoking permissions
Applying a permission scheme
Issue security
Issue security schemes
Adding an issue security scheme
Configuring an issue security scheme
Adding a security level
Assigning users to a security level
Setting a default security level
Applying an issue security scheme
Troubleshooting permissions
Workflow security
Password policy
Whitelists
The HR project
Setting up groups
Setting up user group association
Setting up permission schemes
Setting up permissions
Putting it together
Summary
Searching, Reporting, and Analysis
Search interface and options in Jira
Issue navigator
Basic search
Advanced search with JQL
Quick search
Working with search results
Switching result views
Exporting search results
Customizing the column layout
Sharing search results
Filters
Creating a filter
Managing filters
Sharing a filter
Subscribing to a filter
Deleting a filter
Changing the ownership of a filter
Reports
Generating a report
Dashboards
Managing dashboards
Creating a dashboard
Configuring a dashboard
Setting a layout for the dashboard
Changing the ownership of a dashboard
Gadgets
Placing a gadget on the dashboard
Moving a gadget
Editing a gadget
Deleting a gadget
The HR project
Setting up filters
Setting up dashboards
Setting up gadgets
Putting it together
Summary
Jira Service Desk
Jira Service Desk
Installing Jira Service Desk
Getting started with Jira Service Desk
Creating a new service desk
Branding your customer portal
Service desk user types
Adding an agent to a service desk
Adding a customer to a service desk
Adding a collaborator to a service desk
Request types
Setting up request types
Organizing request types into groups
Setting up fields
Setting up a workflow in Jira Service Desk
Service level agreement
Setting up an SLA
Setting up custom calendars
Queues
Creating a new queue
Creating knowledge base articles
Process automation
Summary
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Preface
Over the years, Jira has grown from a simple bug-tracking system designed for engineers to manage their projects to an all-purpose issue-tracking solution. As it has matured over time, Jira has become more than an application—it has transformed into a platform with a suite of other products that are built on top of it, enabling it to adapt and deliver value to a wide variety of use cases.
The term Jira now refers to a suite of products, including Jira Software, Jira Service Desk, and Jira Core. With this change, each product is more focused on what it does and the value it provides. It is now easier than ever for customers to choose the product best suited to their needs, whether they are running an Agile software development project, a customer support portal, or simply a generic task management system.
In this book, we will cover all the basics of Jira and the core capabilities of each product in the family, along with the add-ons that add additional features to the JIRA platform. Packed with real-life examples and step-by-step instructions, this book will help you become a Jira expert.
Who this book is for
This book will be especially useful for project managers, but it's also intended for other Jira users, including developers, and those in any other industry besides software development who would like to leverage Jira's powerful task management and workflow features to better manage their business processes.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Getting Started with Jira, serves as an overall introduction to Jira by going over its high-level architecture. We will cover both fresh new deployments and how to upgrade from an existing deployment. This will also serve as the starting point of the project that readers will go through.
Chapter 2, Using Jira for Business Projects, covers using Jira for projects that are not based on software development, for example, a generic task management solution. This chapter focuses on use the basic features of Jira, which are offered through the Jira Core product, which is bundled with Jira Software.
Chapter 3, Using Jira for Agile Projects, covers features that are specific to Jira Software. This chapter focuses on using JIRA for software development projects, especially using Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
Chapter 4, Issue Management, introduces issues, which are the cornerstone of using Jira. The focus is to make sure users understand issues and what they do. You will also learn how to make each of the features available and customize them further beyond the out-of-box settings.
Chapter 5, Field Management, introduces fields, and specifically how to use custom fields to customize Jira for more effective data collection. You will learn how to create different types of custom fields and their usages, and how to control field behaviors such as visibility and rendering options.
Chapter 6, Screen Management, introduces screens. You will learn how to create new screens from scratch and specify which fields (system and custom) will be displayed. We will also cover the complex scheme mappings to apply new screens to projects.
Chapter 7, Workflow and Business Process, explores the most powerful feature offered by Jira, workflows. The concept of issue life cycles is introduced, and various aspects of workflows are explained. This chapter also explores the relationship between workflows and other various Jira aspects that have been previously covered, such as screens. The concept of Jira add-ons is also briefly touched upon in the sample project, using some popular add-ons.
Chapter 8, Emails and Notifications, talks about emails and how Jira can use it to send notifications with end users. We will start by explaining how Jira sends out notifications to users, and then how Jira can process incoming emails to create, comment, and also update issues.
Chapter 9, Securing Jira, explains Jira's security model, starting with how to manage users, groups, and roles. Readers will then learn Jira's security hierarchy of how permissions are managed. Lastly, we will look at integrating JIRA with LDAP, a common requirement with most enterprise organizations.
Chapter 10, Searching, Reporting, and Analysis, focuses on doing more with data collected by Jira, including searching, reporting, and using dashboards. Readers will also learn how to make this data and reports available outside of Jira, either via email, or by displaying them in other applications.
Chapter 11, Jira Service Desk, introduces one of the new add-ons, called Jira Service Desk, which allows you to run Jira as a customer support portal. Readers will learn how to use Jira Service Desk to run and manage a support queue internally while at the same time communicating effectively with customers with the add-on.
To get the most out of this book
The installation package used in this book is the Windows Installer standalone distribution, which you can get directly from Atlassian at https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download for JIRA Software and https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/service-desk/download for JIRA Service Desk.
You will also need additional software, including the Java SDK, which you can get from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html, and MySQL, which you can get from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads.
Download the example code files
You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packt.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.
You can download the code files by following these steps:
Log in or register at
www.packt.com
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Select the
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Click on
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Enter the name of the book in the
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Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:
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We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789802818_ColorImages.pdf.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "You should see both the New Employee and Termination issue types."
A block of code is set as follows:
<Resource name="mail/JiraMailServer" auth="Container" type="javax.mail.Session"
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
<security-constraint> <web-resource-collection> <web-resource-name>all-except-attachments</web-resource-name>
<url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
<url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
create database jiradb character set utf8;
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "There is a Create another option beside the Create button."
Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].
Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packt.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.
Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.
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For more information about Packt, please visit packt.com.
Section 1: Introduction to Jira 8
In this section, you will learn how to set up a new Jira 8 instance from scratch, followed by how to use Jira for your business and agile projects.
The following chapters will be covered in this section:
Chapter 1
,
Getting Started with Jira
Chapter 2
,
Using Jira for Business Projects
Chapter 3
,
Using Jira for Agile Projects
Getting Started with Jira
In this chapter, we will start with a high-level view of Jira, going through each of the components that make up the overall application. We will then examine the various deployment options, system requirements for Jira 8, and the platforms/software that are supported. Finally, we will get our hands dirty by installing our very own Jira 8 from scratch with the installation wizard. Finally, we will also cover some post-installation steps, such as setting up SSL to secure our new instance.
By the end of this chapter, you will have learned about the following:
The different offerings from the Jira product family
The overall architecture of Jira
The basic hardware and software requirements to deploy and run Jira
Platforms and applications supported by Jira
Installing Jira and all of the required software
Post-installation configuration options to customize your Jira
Jira Core, Jira Software, and Jira Service Desk
Starting with Jira 7, Jira is split into three different products, and the term Jira now refers to the common platform that all these products are built on. The three products that make up the Jira family are as follows:
Jira Core
: This is similar to the classic Jira (also known as JIRA), with all the field customizations and workflow capabilities. This is perfect for general-purpose task management.
Jira Software
: This is Jira Core with agile capabilities (previously known as JIRA Agile). This is well-suited for software development teams that want to use agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban.
Jira Service Desk
: This is Jira Core with service desk capabilities. This is designed for running Jira as a support ticketing system, with a simplified user interface for the end users, and a focus on customer satisfaction with SLA goals.
As you can see, Jira Core is at the heart, providing all the base functionalities, such as user interface customization, workflows, and email notifications, while Jira Software and Jira Service Desk add specialized features on top of it.
In this book, we will mostly focus on Jira Software. However, since Jira Core provides many of the common features, most of the knowledge is also applicable to Jira Core, and features that are only available to Jira Software will be highlighted. For this reason, the term Jira will be used to cover both Jira Core and Jira Software, unless a distinction is required. We will also cover Jira Service Desk in Chapter 11, Jira Service Desk.
The Jira architecture
Installing Jira is simple and straightforward. However, it is important for you to understand the components that make up the overall architecture of Jira and the installation options that are available. This will help you make an informed decision and be better prepared for future maintenance and troubleshooting, as well as establishing some common terminologies that are often used by the user community and Atlassian support representatives.
High-level architecture
Atlassian provides a comprehensive overview of the Jira architecture at https://developer.atlassian.com/server/jira/platform/architecture-overview. However, with regards to the day-to-day administration and utilization of Jira, we do not need to go into the details of this; the information provided can be overwhelming at first glance. For this reason, we have summarized a high-level overview, which highlights the most important components in the architecture, as shown in the following diagram:
Web browsers
Jira is a web application, so there is no need for users to install anything on their machines. All they need is a web browser that is compatible with Jira. The following table summarizes the browser requirements for Jira:
Browsers
Compatibility
Internet Explorer
11 and Edge
Mozilla Firefox
Latest stable versions
Safari
Latest stable versions on mac OSX
Google Chrome
Latest stable versions
Mobile
Mobile Safari on iOS only
Mobile Chrome
Application services
The application services layer contains all the functions and services provided by Jira. These services include various business functions, such as workflow and notification, which will be discussed in depth in Chapter 7, Workflow and Business Process, and Chapter 8, Emails and Notifications, respectively. Other services, such as REST/Web Service, provide integration points to other applications, and the OSGi service provides the base add-on framework to extend Jira's functionalities.
Data storage
The data storage layer stores persistent data in several places within Jira. Most business data, such as projects and issues, are stored in a relational database. Content such as uploaded attachments and search indexes are stored in the filesystem in the JIRA_HOME directory, which we will talk about in the next section. The underlying relational database that's used is transparent to users, and you can migrate from one database to another with ease, as referenced at https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/switching-databases-938846867.html.
The Jira installation directory
The Jira installation directory is where you install Jira. It contains all the executable and configuration files of the application. Jira neither modifies the contents of the files in this directory during runtime, nor does it store any data files inside the directory. The directory is used primarily for execution. For the remainder of this book, we will refer to this directory as JIRA_INSTALL.
The Jira home directory
The Jira home directory contains key data and configuration files specific to each Jira instance, such as Jira's database connectivity details. As we will see later in this chapter, setting the path to this directory is part of the installation process.
There is a one-to-one relationship between Jira and this directory. This means that each Jira instance must have only one home directory, and each directory can serve only one Jira instance. In the old days, this directory was sometimes called the data directory. It has now been standardized as the Jira Home. It is for this reason that, for the remainder of this book, we will refer to this directory as JIRA_HOME.
The JIRA_HOME directory can be created anywhere on your system, or even on a shared drive, but it cannot be a sub-directory of JIRA_INSTALL. It is recommended to use a fast disk drive with low network latency to get the best performance from Jira.
This separation of data and application makes tasks such as maintenance and future upgrades an easier process. Within JIRA_HOME, there are several subdirectories that contain vital data, as shown in the following table:
Directory
Description
data
This directory contains data that is not stored in the database, for example, uploaded attachment files.
export
This directory contains the automated backup archives created by Jira. This is different from a manual export executed by a user; manual exports require the user to specify where to store the archive.
import
This directory contains the backups that can be imported. Jira will only load backup files from this directory.
log
This directory contains Jira log files, which are useful for tracking down errors. Some of the key log files include the following:
atlassian-jira.log
: Information about Jira Software and the Jira Core application
atlassian-servicedesk.log
: Information about the Jira Service Desk application
atlassian-jira-security.log
: Information about user sessions, logins, and logouts
plugins
This directory is where installed plugins (also known as add-ons) are stored. Add-ons will be discussed further in later chapters.
caches
This directory contains cache data that Jira uses to improve its performance at runtime. For example, search indexes are stored in this directory.
tmp
This directory contains temporary files created at runtime, such as file uploads.
When Jira is running, the JIRA_HOME directory is locked. When Jira shuts down, it is unlocked. This locking mechanism prevents multiple Jira instances from reading/writing to the same JIRA_HOME directory and causing data corruption.
Jira locks the JIRA_HOME directory by writing a temporary file called jira-home.lock into the root of the directory. During shutdown, this file will be removed. Occasionally, however, Jira may fail to remove this file, such as during an ungraceful shutdown. In this case, you can manually remove this locked file to unlock the directory so that you can start up Jira again.
System requirements
Just like any other software application, a set of base requirements needs to be met before you can install and run Jira. Therefore, it is important for you to be familiar with these requirements so that you can plan out your deployment successfully. Note that these requirements are for a behind-the-firewall deployment, also known as the Jira Server or Jira Data Center. The main difference between the two is that Jira Data Center allows for clustering, so you can have additional benefits such as high availability and better scalability. Atlassian also offers a cloud-based alternative called Jira Cloud, available at https://www.atlassian.com/software#cloud-products.
Hardware requirements
For evaluation purposes, where there will only be a small number of users, Jira will run happily on any server that has a 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB to 2 GB of RAM. As your Jira usage grows, a typical server will have a quad core 2 GHz+ CPU and 4 GB of RAM dedicated to the Jira application, and at least 10 GB of hard disk space for your database.
For production deployment, as in most applications, it is recommended that you run Jira on its own dedicated server. There are many factors that you should consider when deciding the extent of the resources to allocate to Jira; keep in mind how Jira will scale and grow. When deciding on your hardware needs, you should consider the following:
The number of active (concurrent) users in the system
The number of issues and projects in the system
The number of configuration items, such as custom fields and workflows
The number of concurrent users, especially during peak hours
It can be difficult at times to estimate these figures. As a reference, a server running with over 2.0 quad core CPU and 4 GB of RAM will be sufficient for most instances with around 200 active users. If you start to get into thousands of active users, you will need to have at least 8 GB of RAM allocated to Jira (JVM). Once you have gone beyond a million of issues and thousands of active users for a single Jira instance, simply adding raw system resources (vertical scaling) will start yield diminishing returns. In such cases, it is often better to consider using the data center edition of Jira, which offers better scalability by allowing you to have multiple instances clustered together (horizontal scaling), with the added benefit of providing high availability.
Officially, Jira only supports x86 hardware and 64-bit derivatives of it. When running Jira on a 64-bit system, you will be able to allocate more than 4 GB of memory to Jira, which is the limit if you are using a 32-bit system. If you are planning to deploy a large instance, it is recommended that you use a 64-bit system.
Software requirements
Jira has four requirements when it comes to software. It needs a supported operating system and a Java environment. It also needs an application server to host and serve its contents and a database to store all of its data. In the following sections, we will discuss each of these requirements and the options that you have to install and run Jira. You can find the latest information online at https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/supported-platforms-938846830.html.
Operating systems
Jira supports most of the major operating systems, so the choice of which operating system to run Jira on becomes a matter of expertise, comfort, and, in most cases, the existing organization's IT infrastructure and requirements.
The operating systems supported by Atlassian are Windows and Linux. There is a Jira distribution for mac OSX, but this is mostly for evaluation purposes only. Cloud-based deployment options are also available for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. However, with these cloud options, there are restrictions for components such as database support.
With both Windows and Linux, Atlassian provides an executable installer wizard package, which bundles all the necessary components to simplify the installation process (only available for standalone distribution). There are minimal differences when it comes to installing, configuring, and maintaining Jira on different operating systems. If you do not have any preferences and would like to keep initial costs down, CentOS Linux is a good choice.
Java platforms
Jira is a Java-based web application, so it needs to have a Java environment installed. This can be a Java Development Kit (JDK) or a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The executable installer that comes with Windows or Linux contains the necessary files and will install and configure the JRE for you. However, if you want to use archive distributions, you will need to make sure that you have the required Java environment installed and configured.
Jira 8 requires Java 8 (also known as 1.8). If you run Jira on an unsupported Java version, including its patch version, you may run into unexpected errors. The following table shows the supported Java versions for JIRA:
Java platforms
Support status
Oracle JDK/JRE
Java 8 (1.8)
With the recent licensing changes made to Oracle JDK by Oracle, efforts are currently underway to add support for OpenJDK. However, at the time of writing, OpenJDK is not officially supported.
Databases
Jira stores all its data in a relational database. While you can run Jira with H2 Database, the in-memory database that comes bundled with Jira, it is prone to data corruption. You should only use this to set up a new instance quickly for evaluation purposes, where no important data will be stored. For this reason, it is important that you use a proper database such as MySQL for production systems.
Most relational databases available on the market today are supported by Jira, and there are no differences when you install and configure Jira. Just like operating systems, your choice of database will come down to your IT staff's expertise, experience, and established corporate IT standards. If you run Windows as your operating system, then you probably want to go with the Microsoft SQL Server. On the other hand, if you run Linux, then you should consider Oracle (if you already have a license), MySQL, or PostgreSQL.
The following table summarizes the databases that are currently supported by Jira. It is worth mentioning that both MySQL and PostgreSQL are open source products, so they are excellent options if you are looking to minimize your initial investments.
Database
Support status
MySQL
MySQL 5.6 and newer. Note that neither MariaDB nor PerconaDB are supported.
This requires the latest JDBC driver.
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL 9.4 and newer.
This requires the latest PostgreSQL JDBC (9.4) driver.
Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server 2012 and newer.
This requires the latest Microsoft JDBC (6.2.1) driver.
Oracle
Oracle 12c R1.
This requires the latest Oracle driver.
H2
This is bundled with the standalone distribution, for evaluation purposes only.
Take special note of the driver requirement on each database, as some drivers that come bundled with the database vendor or Jira itself (for example, PostgreSQL) are not supported and will need to be replaced with the appropriate versions.
Application servers
Jira 8 officially only supports Apache Tomcat as the application server. While it is possible to deploy Jira into other JEE compliant application servers, you will be doing this at your own risk, and it is not recommended.
The following table shows the versions of Tomcat supported by Jira 8:
Application server
Support status
Apache Tomcat
Tomcat 8.5.32 and newer.
You should not deploy other applications or multiple Jira instances into the same Tomcat server.
Installation options
Jira comes in two flavors—an executable installer and a TAR.GZ or ZIP archive. The executable installer provides a wizard-driven interface that will walk you through the entire installation process. It even comes with a Java installer to save you some time. The archive flavor contains everything except for a Java installer, which means you will have to install Java yourself. You will also need to perform some post-installation steps manually, such as configure Jira as a service. However, you do get the advantage of learning what really goes on under the hood.
Installing and configuring Jira
Now that you have a good understanding of the overall architecture of Jira, the basic system requirements, and the various installation options, we are ready to deploy our own Jira instances.
In the following exercise, we will be installing and configuring a fresh Jira instance for a small production team. We will perform our installation on a Windows platform with a MySQL database server. If you are planning to use a different platform or database, refer to the vendor documentation on installing the required software for your platform.
In this exercise, you will do the following:
Install a fresh instance of Jira Software
Connect Jira to a MySQL database
We will continue to use this Jira instance in subsequent chapters and exercises as we build our help desk implementation.
For our deployment, we will use the following:
Jira Software server distribution 8
MySQL 5.7.13
Microsoft Windows 7
Installing Java
Since we will be using the installer package that's bundled with Java, you can skip this section. However, if you are using the archive option, you need to make sure that you have Java installed on your system.
Jira 8 requires JRE version 8 (1.8) to run. You can verify the version of Java you have by running the following command in a Command Prompt:
java -version
The preceding command tells us which version of Java is running on your system, as shown in the following screenshot:
If you do not see a similar output, then chances are you do not have Java installed. You will need to perform the following steps to set up your Java environment. We will start by installing JDK on your system:
Download the latest JDK from
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
.
Double-click on the downloaded installation file to start the installation wizard.
Select where you would like to install Java, or you can simply accept the default values. The location where you install JDK will be referred to as
JAVA_HOME
for the remainder of this book.
Create a new environment variable named
JAVA_HOME
with the value set to the full path of the location where you installed Java. You can do this as follows:
1. Open the System Properties window by holding down your Windows key and pressing the Pause key on your keyboard.
2. Select the Advanced system settings option.
3. Click on the Environment Variable button from the new popup:
Edit the
PATH
environment variable and append the following to the end of its current value:
;%JAVA_HOME%\bin
Test the installation by typing the following command in a new Command Prompt:
java -version
This will display the version of Java installed, provided everything is done correctly. In Windows, you have to start a new Command Prompt after you have added the environment variable to see the change.
Installing MySQL
The next step is to prepare an enterprise database for your Jira installation. Jira requires a fresh database. If, during the installation process, Jira detects that the target database already contains data, it will not proceed. If you already have a database system installed, then you may skip this section.
To install MySQL, simply perform the following steps:
Download MySQL from
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads
, select
MySQL Community Server
, and then select the
MSI installer
for Windows.
Double-click on the downloaded installation file to start the installation wizard.
Click on
Install MySQL Products
on the welcome screen.
Read and accept the license agreement and click on the
Next
button.
Select the
Server only
option on the next screen. If you are an experienced database administrator, you can choose to customize your installation. Otherwise, just accept the default values for all subsequent screens.
Configure the MySQL root user password. The username will be
root
. Do not lose this password, as we will be using it in the next section.
Complete the configuration wizard by accepting the default values.
Preparing MySQL for Jira
Now that you have MySQL installed, you need to create a user for Jira to connect MySQL with as you should never use the default root user, and then create a fresh database for Jira to store all its data:
Start the MySQL Command Line Client by navigating to
Start
|
All Programs
|
MySQL
|
MySQL Server 5.7
|
MySQL 5.7 Command Line Client
.
Enter the MySQL root user password you set during installation.
Use the following command to create a database:
create database jiradb character set utf8;
Here, we are creating a database called
jiradb
. You can name the database anything you like. As you will see later in this chapter, this name will be referenced when you connect JIRA to MySQL. We have also set the database to use
utf8
character encoding, as this is a requirement for JIRA. Using the following command, you need to ensure that the database uses the InnoDB storage engine to avoid data corruption:
grant all on jiradb.* to 'jirauser'@'localhost' identified by 'jirauserpassword';
We are doing several things here. First, we create a user called jirauser and assign the password jirauserpassword to them. You should change the username and password to something else.
We have also granted all the privileges to the user for the jiradb database that we just created so that the user can perform database operations, such as create/drop tables and insert/delete data. If you have named your database something other than jiradb, then make sure that you change the command so that it uses the name of your database.
This allows you to control the fact that only authorized users (specified in the preceding command) are able to access the Jira database to ensure data security and integrity.
To verify your setup, exit the current interactive session by issuing the following command:
quit;
Start a new interactive session with your newly created user:
mysql -u jirauser -p
You will be prompted for a password, which you set up in the preceding command as
jirauser
.
Use the following command:
show databases;
This will list all the databases that are currently accessible by the logged-in user. You should see jiradb among the list of databases.
Examine the
jiradb
database by issuing the following commands:
use jiradb;
show tables;
The first command connects you to the jiradb database, so all of your subsequent commands will be executed against the correct database.
The second command lists all the tables that exist in the jiradb database. Right now, the list should be empty, since no tables have been created for JIRA; but don't worry, as soon as we connect to Jira, all the tables will automatically be created.
Installing Jira
With the Java environment and database prepared, you can now move on to installing Jira. Normally, there are only two steps:
Download and install the Jira application
Run through the Jira setup wizard
Obtaining and installing Jira
The first step is to download the latest stable release of Jira. You can download Atlassian Jira from http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download.
The Atlassian website will detect the operating system you are using and automatically suggest an installation package for you to download. If you intend to install Jira on a different operating system from the one you are currently on, make sure that you select the correct operating system package.
As we mentioned earlier, with Windows, there is a Windows installer package and a self-extracting archive package. For the purpose of this exercise, we will use the installer package (Windows 64-bit Installer):
Double-click on the downloaded installation file to start the installation wizard and click on the
Next
button to continue:
Select the
Custom Install (recommended for advanced users)
option and click on the
Next
button to continue. Using the custom installation will let us decide where to install Jira and will also provide numerous configuration options:
Select the directory where Jira will be installed. This will become the
JIRA_INSTALL
directory. Click on the
Next
button to continue:
Select where Jira will store its data files, such as attachments and log files. This will become the
JIRA_HOME
directory. Click on the
Next
button to continue:
Select where you would like to create shortcuts to the start menu and click on the
Next
button to continue.
In the
Configure TCP Ports
step, we need to select the port on which Jira will be listening for incoming connections. By default, Jira will run on port
8080
. If
8080
has already been taken by another application, or if you want Jira to run on a different port such as port
80
, select the
Set custom value for HTTP and Control ports
option and specify the port numbers you want to use. Click on the
Next
button to continue:
Select whether you would like Jira to run as a service. If you enable this option, Jira will be installed as a system service and can be configured to start automatically with the server; refer to the
Starting and stopping Jira
section for more details:
For the final step, review all the installation options and click on the
Install
button to start the installation:
Once the installation is complete, check the
Launch Jira Software in browser
option and click on
Finish
. This will close the installation wizard and open up your web browser to access Jira. This might take a few minutes to load as Jira starts up for the first time:
Installing MySQL driver
Jira 8 comes bundled with the MySQL database driver, so you can skip this section. However, if you do need to manually install the driver for some reason, such as the driver file got corrupted or accidentally deleted, you can download the required driver from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/. Once downloaded, you can install the driver by copying the driver JAR file into the JIRA_INSTALL/lib directory. After that, you need to restart Jira. If you have installed Jira as a Windows service in step 9, refer to the Starting and stopping Jira section.
The Jira setup wizard
Jira comes with an easy-to-use setup wizard that will walk you through the installation and configuration process in six simple steps. You will be able to configure the database connections, default language, and much more. You can access the wizard by opening http://localhost:<port number> in your browser, where the <port number> is the number you have assigned to Jira in step six of the installation process.
The steps are explained in the following sections.
Step one
In the first step of the wizard, we need to select how we want Jira to be set up. Since we are installing Jira for production use, we will select the I'll set it up myself option, as demonstrated in the following screenshot:
Step two
For the second step, we will need to select the database we want to use. This is where we configure Jira to use the MySQL database we created earlier in this chapter. If you select the Built In option, Jira will use its bundled in-memory H2 database, which is good for evaluation purposes. If you want to use a proper database, such as in our case, you should select the My Own Database option:
After you have selected the My Own Database option, the wizard will expand for you to provide the database connection details. If you do not have the necessary database driver installed, Jira will prompt you for it.
