instructions on how to create a new database

I am writing up internal update instructions. I have referred to the link http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/latest/upgrading.html but the instruction "create a new database" is not clear. From my (1) experience, I think what I did was delete the folder "database" on the JIRA server. Is that the correct way to interpret that instruction, or is there more to do? Thanks.