-
Suggestion
-
Resolution: Fixed
-
None
-
77
-
-
Issue Summary
Historically, Atlassian has provided manual and automatic installation methods for each version of Jira.
In Jira 10, however, we did not provide installers to help automate the installation and upgrade process.
This creates additional overhead for customers as they might not be very familiar or comfortable with the manual installation/upgrade methods, along with the supplementary tasks of installing a JRE/JDK.
Suggestion:
Please include .bin and .exe installers for Jira 10 to help streamline the installation and upgrade process.
[JRASERVER-78049] Add Installers for Jira 10
Hello, team; thank you for your feedback on removing the installers.
We understand that the current approach and facilitation could have been better, and we have revised the decision to bring back installers for the upcoming 10.3 LTS release and following its bug fix releases.
We’re still investigating the upgrade processes and working towards better support of the manual upgrade path, so this decision only applies to 10.3 LTS. The following feature releases (for example 10.4, 10.5) will not provide installers.
Thank you for understanding in this matter.
Andrzej Kotas
Product Manager Jira Data Center
All comments
That is what I call ignorance. Customers are publicly given the option of choosing between the two models, while at the same time everything is being done to ensure that customers not only receive fewer functionalities as before, but that the core of the application is now also being addressed: Security.
As the previous speakers have already explained, there will be massive problems here with numerous installations. In my view, Atlassian is cutting itself in half here. On the one hand, there will be a massive increase in support costs due to faulty installations and, on the other, customers who experience this spectacle will do anything but switch to the cloud. Before they do, they will look for an alternative tool and turn their backs on Atlassian.
Customer service is key!
eaec06bb454d Fine to see the installers return to LTS 10.3 version - BUT......you are definitely touching an area, where you risk "on-behalf" breaking your customers installations on DC! The non-installed version of Jira/Confluence is more complex and the risk of manual mistakes are definitely present here.
Additionally you don't even provide an installation guide for Jira/....you just remove the installer!? That is just pure craziness and shitty decision making! It opens up tons of risks for the inexperienced System Admins and Ops teams, which only have simple procedures up until today!
- Risk of breaking the installations by forgetting to stop Jira before amending the file system
- Risk of breaking the installation by forgetting to take backup or remove the previous installation
- Missing to install the JRE(Which is also now NOT embedded) or installing the wrong version!
- Lack of setting the correct file permissions on disk
- Lack of changing the setenv.sh, server.xml and copying jira-application.properties
- ....I can go one with the list of steps that can easily go wrong here!
Status: Overall the customer experience & support here is just worsened! Worst case you indirectly end up breaking an installation and get even further frustrated customers, which eventually then need your support to recover.
P.S I will almost guarantee that you will see increased support tickets and complaints on this topic and a more generic shift towards LTS releases over feature releases = Getting features later to your customers and more regressions errors, hence more customers will first experience bugs on LTS versions
Suggestion: Reconsider this! - It technically NOT difficult to retain the installers between versions! The alternative is worse for both you and the customers!
Hello, team; thank you for your feedback on removing the installers.
We understand that the current approach and facilitation could have been better, and we have revised the decision to bring back installers for the upcoming 10.3 LTS release and following its bug fix releases.
We’re still investigating the upgrade processes and working towards better support of the manual upgrade path, so this decision only applies to 10.3 LTS. The following feature releases (for example 10.4, 10.5) will not provide installers.
Thank you for understanding in this matter.
Andrzej Kotas
Product Manager Jira Data Center
And now we've just found out that you are no longer supporting an installer for Version 10 - Not in Windows or Linux - Even Java seems to be installed manually.....
NO clear information for ANY DC customers on this - The only way to find out, is to see the download page for version 10 no longer have .exe/.bin options in the download menu.
Additionally NO instructions or even guidance on HOW to then install your product in version 10!?
Atlassian - I'm flabbergasted by your ignorance.......I would even say arrogance for your customers here.
I'm considering to just postpone our Jira 10 upgrade just because of this - Then the end user must suffer from getting new features - I'm fed up with this upgrade/CVE nonsense and the increased risk of human mistakes.
I'm quite sure some of your customers will have issues with installing your product going forward - Even causing a broken installation = Longer Downtime = Unhappy end users.
For ANY other DC customer out there - Please vote for the above "suggestion"......or feel the pain of extra manual labour!
6+ years from now this will be closed for "lack of interest".
This is another step by Atlassian to kill the on-prem product that they used to support.
I guess no one known the reason so far? There is also a reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/jira/comments/1ge6a98/atlassian_removed_support_for_the_installer_make/
Should I really speculate, its just another pressure point for the "Cloud first" strategy that Atlassian has, making every day business just a little bit harder, and requiring a little more skills etc from the avarage admin....
As ofthen stated, "Dont F**K the customers" has a questioanable ring to it for us DC Users - but I dont think the "Cloud first" is unknown to anyone, Atlassian is spamming people in my company constantly..
And the death of Data center can come in 2 forms:
- Atlassian actually abandon it.
- The entire eco system fading/crumbling slowly - App vendors leaving the platform due to low sales and new Atlassian Demands, Installers removed, and small things that just add up..
Pushing for #2 is a great way to get a good argument for #1
Dear Sir/Madam,
Please include Linux installer because it is really cause an issue for us now
Best regards,
Farzin Beheshti
I vote for the re-instatement of the installer as well. I would also like it improved. I have found that in more recent versions the time taken during the various stages has taken longer. The modified and added files identification process now takes a long time and is inaccurate. I wonder if this is in part the reason for the deprecation of the installer option. Perhaps there are significant issues to overcome?
We must have this back - the ease of installation/upgrade that Jira has using these installers was one of the reason we always found it safe easy and convenient to administer JIRA. With this not available in 10 , its a big unexpected hurdles.
How do you remove something that is already there ?
I would love to see the installer return. I just upgraded to 10.0.1 and it took quite a bit longer to install than previous versions with an installer.
Ed.
Aha, https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftware/jira-software-10-0-x-release-notes-1416825224.html says
"Because of the removal of binary installers, Java is no longer bundled with Jira. Install Java manually"
I don't know, and Patrick as an Atlassian may have access to more info, but I speculate either
Atlassian didn't want to spend the effort maintaining the installers any more. Perhaps they weren't actually used that often? Perhaps work on Data Center products is a lower priority?
or
Distribution of the JRE has become harder with changes in the Oracle licensing. If customers have to install Java themselves, then they can be expected to do the other necessary steps? The H2 database is also no longer shipped with Jira 10, so a database has to be set up, which is better done with a list of steps.
Personally, I don't think that installing a fresh Jira and database has that many configuration steps, so I've never used the installers. There was also never any really good documentation about what the installer did when running, which made it hard to revert any changes if running the installer went wrong.
I'm in favor of keeping the installers, but I'm a biased sysadmin in that I use them 😁
I think that if Atlassian does decide to get rid of the installers and only support manual upgrade methods, then Atlassian is definitely going to need to beef up their existing documentation to provide better upgrade guidance. For example, it's stated in this ticket that installer upgrades are supported for 10.3 LTS, but the LTS page itself says otherwise: [Installing Jira applications on Windows | Administering Jira applications Data Center 10.3 | Atlassian Documentation|https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver103/installing-jira-applications-on-windows-1489806900.html]
Additionally, the page does not draw a clear high-level comparison of the upgrade methods and their pros/cons. Sysadmins who have only used the installers to upgrade are not given clear guidance on how to approach the new (to them) manual upgrade method.
Again, I hope the installers stick around. But failing that, Atlassian really needs to provide a very clear and comprehensive set of docs that spells out "if you were previously using the installers for upgrades, this is exactly what's different in the manual method and what you need to do".
Heck, if it were me handling this transition, I'd include an example video of the full process of removing the previous installer-based version and installing the new version manually with explanations at each step.
I'm sure that axing the installer method is going to save the dev team a lot of resources; hopefully they'll consider putting some of those reclaimed resources into improving their documentation with these transitioning users in mind. Thank you.