NTEXT columns in AO_xxx tables on SQL Server are not migrated automatically to NVARCHAR columns when upgrading to 7.4

Summary

JIRA uses activeobjects (AO) library and before7.4, AO uses NTEXT column type for MSSQL. After that is uses NVARCHAR(max)
Before 7.4: activeobjects-plugin-1.2.3.jar
After 7.4: activeobjects-plugin-1.4.0.jar

Environment

• JIRA 7.4+
• MSSQL

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install JIRA 7.2
2. Upgrade to 7.4

Expected Results

NTEXT columns should be migrated correctly to NVARCHAR columns.

Actual Results

NTEXT columns are still the same columns after the upgrading.

Notes

• NTEXT deprecated for over 10 years, since SqlServer2005 and while still present in SqlServer2016, it will be removed later. According to Microsoft documentation: ntext, text, and image (Transact-SQL)

IMPORTANT! ntext, text, and image data types will be removed in a future version of SQL Server. Avoid using these data types in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use them. Use nvarchar(max), varchar(max), and varbinary(max) instead.

Workaround

• Manually update all columns in tables AO_% from ntext to nvarchar(max)