Backup Center for Jira Cloud

Atlassian doesn't officially provide data rollback based on a customer request. Thus, it's essential to take your site backup regularly. For example, backup will help you when any of site data was lost by a user operation. Backup Center allows you to automatically take periodic snapshots of your entire Jira cloud site data. You can save the backup files to our storage, or to your own to your own FTP networked storage, according to your schedule and preferences. The saved backup files can be used at any time to restore the information of past snapshot onto your Jira cloud site.

Installing the Backup Center App

To install the app go to as an Admin to settings and click Apps (on the left menu) and then Manage Apps.

Search for Backup Center app and install it.

Once the installation is complete, or whenever you select the installed app from the list going forward, you can reach the app configuration menu on the left, under BACKUP CENTER.

Backup Center Configuration

From the Apps menu, select Configuration to setup the connectivity and storage parameters.

Setting Atlassian credentials

In order to use the Backup for Jira Cloud app you need to enter an Atlassian API token - this token is required in order to enable the app access to backup functionality. To obtain a token, go to the Atlassian website page - HERE.

Click the button Create API token. In the popup that appears enter a name for your token.

When you click Create, you should have access to your token.

Click Copy to copy the token string to your clipboard. Then, paste it in the app configuration Atlassian API Token field. If at any point in the future you want to change the token, you can create a new one and use it. Always make sure you keep your key securely.

Essentially, you can now click the button Save and this is all that you need to you to get the app to start creating basic backup snapshots and keep the 10 most recent ones. The rest of the configuration steps allows you to tailor your backup in more details to your needs.

Atlassian credentials

In the Email address field, enter your Jira user email address.

Backup schedule

The Backup Center app supports two types of backup snapshots. The Basic type includes all the site projects and issue data, without images and attachments. The Extended type includes images and attachments. Naturally, the extended backup file size is significantly larger than the basic one. In addition Jira prevents creating an extended backup if any other backup was performed in the preceding 48 hours. The app supports saving basic, extended, or a combination of two, with a timing schema that supports the extended backup constraints.

If you choose the Basic backup, it will be triggered daily. Extended backup will be triggered three times a week. The Combined schema will create basic backups with a once a week extended one.

Backup time: You can choose the time of day in which the backup is running, with default value of midnight (the exact running times may vary slightly). The time zone of this field is taken as the setup in your Jira site.

Number of backup files to keep: this is the maximum number of files that will be saved in the storage. The default value is 10. Once this number is reached, files are being rotated, where the oldest file is removed whenever a new one is created.

Storage configuration

The default Managed storage space for the backup was created for you by the app. This cloud storage keeps your most recent backup snapshot files, up to the number of files that you configured, or up to the storage quota allocated for you. Currently the storage quota is 20GB. Note that this quota may be reached eventually if you specify a very large number of backup files to preserve. If you reached the quota you can reach Addon Experts Center for a paid increase of storage. Also note that you can download backup files from the storage and delete them as you wish.

Alternatively you can use your own, network connected, FTP storage server to store your backup files. We support the FTP, FTPS and SFTP protocols. To use such a configuration make sure you have a server ready, and get the following parameters that are necessary to define the secure access and communication method. Once you have the information about that storage, enter the information bellow.

• Protocol Type: the backup can use FTP, FTPS or Secure FTP.

• Storage target: the server to which the backup is delivered. You can use an IP address or a domain name.

• Storage port: the network port that the backup is using. Default is the standard port 21 for FTP.

• Storage username and password: your FTP server credentials.

Once you completed configuring your backup, snapshots should be created automatically and saved in storage.

Backup Center Control Panel

To manage your backup files, on the left menu, under JIRA BACKUP CENTER, click Control panel.

The control panel gives you a view of the status and health of your backup activity. It also shows you the repository of your backup file and let’s you manage the. You can locate the relevant snapshot to use if a restore action is required.

Backup status

At the top of the page you observe the latest backup attempt and its state. You can also manually create an immediate on-demand backup snapshot. If you are using our managed storage, you can view the amount of storage use though a graphical indicator.

Backup Files

All backup files are listed, with their name, extended with date and time, and size. You can delete a file by clicking the X button, and then confirming in a delete warning popup. Note that a deleted backup file is not recoverable. Remember as well that older backup file will be deleted automatically in a rolling fashion, based on your specifying how many old files to keep.

Restoring Backup Files

The backup restore is done through the existing Jira clout Import mechanisms, as described here. Once you decided on the backup file to be imported, follow those Atlassian instructions carefully.

NOTE THAT A RESTORE IS GOING TO OVERWRITE YOUR EXISTING SITE DATA. MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION CAREFULLY.

A good practice before an import attempt it to backup your Jira cloud site information before the import. It is also best to import the information to a secondary cloud instance. Importing to this “staging” site first will help you ensure that the restore is working well, as well as verify that the data you imported includes what you expected.

When you restore a Basic Backup, you will need to click Import Data and select the file from your local storage.

The file will then upload into Jira (you should see a progress bar) and will get processed. If everything is correct you should be redirected to a new page, with a confirmation

A click on Run Import will open a Running Import screen. You should then see an import progress status step after step

When done, you should get an Import complete confirmation

Follow Atlassian's verification instructions in that page, to ensure the health of your updated site.

Troubleshooting

Question -I got an ERROR indicator in my backup. What should I do?

Answer - Backups may fail due to one of the following:

• Connection to storage failed - in this case, you should verify that your storage is still setup correctly.

• Not enough storage existed for saving the backup file - you need to create more space by offloading backup files from the repository of increase your quota.