Jira Installation on Windows

Installation of Jira Application:

1. Download the Jira zip file to your OS:

• Refer to https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/core/download for Jira Core.
• Refer to https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download for Jira Software.
• Refer to https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download for Jira Service Management. 

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2. Create a folder named installation directory. This is the place where the Installation of Jira will be done. Do not use spaces or special characters in the path. Extract the Jira Zip file in your installation directory.

3. Create a folder named the home directory. This is the place where Jira data such as search indexes, logs, and files are stored. You should create this folder separately from your installation directory.

Let Jira know where to find the home directory when it starts. There are two ways to do it. 

• Setting up an environment variable (generally Preferred)
• Edit the jira-application.properties file

Setting up an environment variable:

• You need to set an environment variable called “Jira_Home” in the OS with an exact path to the home directory.   
• set JIRA_HOME=A:\path\to\jira-home
• where A is the drive on which you have created the home directory.
• You may later specify the above command in a script that is used to start Jira.

Edit the jira-application.properties file:

• In any text editor, edit the file installation_directory\atlassian-jira\WEB-INF\classes\jira_application.properties. 
• Next, add jira.home exact path to your home directory. You should avoid backlashes.
• If you set a UNC path, you will have to double escape the primary backslash.

If you want to Explore more about Jira? then read our updated article - Jira Tutorial

4. By default, Jira checks port 8080.  If another application uses the same ports, you must tell Jira to use another port.

5. Then you can start Jira.  

• Start the installation process by running installation_directory/bin/start-jira.bat. A command prompt opens. Closing it will stop Jira.
• To run Jira in your browser, go to http://localhost:8080/.
• If the command prompt window immediately closes, then your Java_home variable may be incorrectly set.

[ Related Article : jira training ]

Setting up Jira Application:

1. Select the setup method. Select ‘I will set it up myself’.

2. Connect with your database: 

• If you haven't done that yet, now is the time for you to set up a database.
• Select My own database.
• Select your database type and enter your database details.

3. Define Application properties:

• Enter the name of your Jira site
• Choose if your website needs to be private or everyone can register. You'll be able to change that later.
• Enter your basic URL through which people will be able to access your Jira website.

JIRA will connect to your database by means of a standard connection to the JDBC database. Connection sharing is managed in JIRA and can be modified later using the JIRA configuration tool.

When using Oracle or MySQL, there is an additional step:

• Download and extract suitable database JDBC drivers.
• Put the JAR file in your jira_installation/lib folder before proceeding with the setup wizard.

4. Enter the License:

• Follow the instructions to sign in to my.atlassian.com to recover your license or enter the license key.

5. Sign up for your admin account:

• Enter your administrator account details. Additional administrators can be added at the end of the setup.

6. Configure email notifications:

• Enter the email server details. It enables Jira to send notifications when problems change.

7. Get started with Jira: 

That’s all! Your Jira website can be accessed from your basic URL or a URL such as http://computer_name(or)IP_address:port

Now, let us go through some of the prerequisites before we install Jira.

frequently asked Jira Interview Questions and Answers !!

Jira installation Prerequisites:

1. See the Supported Platforms page to learn which version of Jira you are installing. It will provide you information about the supported operating systems, browsers and databases. 

Note: 

• The installation of Jira on OSX is not supported.
• We can use JDK (Java Development Kit) or JRE (Java Runtime Environment).
• Only the version of Apache Tomcat provided with Jira is supported.

2. If you install Jira on a 32-bit system, you must reduce the maximum amount of heap available for Jira. 2GB is the default size 64bit system which is very high for a system with 32 bit and may be unsuitable for available memory.

Follow these steps once you have extracted files from the archive, but even before you start Jira.

• The Default setenv file must be renamed. 

Go to the Jira-install-directory/bin directory and remove the setenv.bat/.sh file (edit its name). 

Label setenv32.bat/. sh as setenv.bat/.sh. Jira will use that file during startup.

• You need to add properties for the jira-config.properties file.

Go to the home directory of Jira, and change the jira-config.properties file. In case there is no file, you may create it.

Add the properties below:

jira.index.batch.maxrambuffermb=256

jira.index.interactive.maxrambuffermb=256

3. Executing Jira as a service on Windows indicates that your Jira application will start automatically once Windows is started. You need to use the Windows installer if you wish to execute Jira as a Service.
In the event that you decide not to use Jira as a service: You need to start and stop Jira by executing the file start-jira.bat in your Jira installation folder. 

Jira will be executed as the Windows user account which is used to install Jira, or you may choose to operate it as a dedicated user. (This user requires complete read and write access for the installation folder and the base folder). Jira requires a manual restart when your server is restarted.

4. In order to start Jira in production, you must have an external database. Refer to the Supported Platforms page for the version you are installing for a list of currently supported databases. If you do not have a database, then PostgreSQL is the best choice. It is free, easy to configure, and has gone through many tests with Jira.

• Configure your database before you start. Stepwise guidance for all supported databases can be found in Connecting Jira Apps to a Database.
• UTF-8 character encoding can be used.
• If you use either Oracle or MySQL, you will be required to download your database driver.
• The integrated H2 database can be used to evaluate Jira, but you need to migrate to a different database before executing it in production. An external database can be easier to use right from the beginning.

5. You require a valid Jira software server, Jira service desk server or Jira Core server license to operate JIRA.

• If you have not purchased a Jira Application License, then you can create an evaluation License during configuration.
• If you are having a license key, you will be asked to log into my.atlassian.com to get it back, or you may manually enter the key while configuring.
• If you are moving from Jira Cloud, then you will require a new Jira license.

6. Before installing Jira, make sure that you are using a supported Java version and that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set properly.

Jira applications will work with Oracle JDK, OpenJDK, or JRE. To verify the JAVA_HOME variable:

• Open the command prompt and enter “echo %JAVA_HOME%” and press Enter. 
• If you are able to see the path to your Java install directory, then the JAVA_Home environment variable has been properly set. 
• If nothing is shown, or  %JAVA_HOME% is shown, you need to manually define the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

Related Article: Trello vs Jira

Conclusion:

In this post, we have gone through the installation of the Jira application on windows, Setting up the Jira application and the prerequisites before installing Jira. I hope this post was helpful!

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