System requirements

Before we can deploy Jira Data Center, we need to look at the hardware and software required for Jira, and how you want your deployment to be.

You can deploy Jira in two ways:

• Standalone: This is the same deployment as the classic Jira Server, where you have a single Jira instance serving your users. This is the easier option and does not require as many system resources. If you are just getting started, this is the option for you.
• Cluster: This is the deployment shown in Figure 1.1, where you can have multiple Jira instances (nodes) running in a cluster, and they all serve your users. If you need scalability, high availability, and other cluster-specific features, this is the option for you.

If you are unsure which option to start with, you can always start with the standalone option and switch to a cluster when you need all the features and benefits from a clustered deployment.

Now that we know what deployment options are available for Jira, let’s start looking at the hardware and software you will need.

Hardware requirements

For evaluation purposes, where there will only be a small number of users, Jira will run happily on any server that has a 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB to 2 GB of RAM. As your Jira usage grows, a typical server will have a quad-core 2 GHz+ CPU and 4 GB of RAM dedicated to the Jira application, and at least 10 GB of hard disk space for your database.

For production deployment, as in most applications, it is recommended that you run Jira on its own dedicated server. There are many factors that you should consider when deciding the extent of the resources to allocate to Jira, especially in terms of how Jira will scale and grow in the future. When deciding on your hardware needs, you should consider the following:

• The number of active (concurrent) users in the system, especially during peak hours
• The number of projects, issues, and comments in the system
• The number of configuration items, such as custom fields and workflows

At times, it can be difficult to estimate these figures. As a reference, a server running with a 2.0 quad-core CPU and 4 GB of RAM will be sufficient for most instances with around 200 active users. If you start to get into thousands of active users, you will need to have at least 8 GB of RAM allocated to Jira (JVM). Once you have gone beyond a million issues and thousands of active users for a single Jira instance, simply adding raw system resources (vertical scaling) will start to yield diminishing returns. In such cases, it is often better to consider using the Data Center edition of Jira, which offers better scalability by allowing you to have multiple instances clustered together (horizontal scaling), with the added benefit of providing high availability.

Officially, Jira only supports x86 hardware and 64-bit derivatives of it. When running Jira on a 64-bit system, you will be able to allocate more than 4 GB of memory to Jira, which is the limit if you are using a 32-bit system. If you are planning to deploy a large instance, it is recommended that you use a 64-bit system.

Software requirements

Jira has three major requirements when it comes to software: it needs a supported operating system, a Java environment, and a database to store all of its data. In the following sections, we will discuss each of these requirements and the options that you have to install and run Jira.

Additional information

You can find the latest information on software requirements online at https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/supported-platforms-938846830.html.

Operating systems

Jira supports most of the major operating systems, so the choice of which operating system to run Jira on becomes a matter of expertise, comfort, and, in most cases, the existing organization’s infrastructure and requirements.

The operating systems supported by Atlassian are Windows and Linux. There is a Jira distribution for macOS, but this is mostly for evaluation purposes only. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure are also supported with quick-start templates.

With both Windows and Linux, Atlassian provides an executable installer wizard package that bundles all the necessary components to simplify the installation process. There are minimal differences when it comes to installing, configuring, and maintaining Jira on different operating systems. If you do not have any preferences and would like to keep initial costs down, CentOS Linux is a good choice.

Java platforms

Jira is a Java-based web application, so it needs to have a Java environment installed. This can be a Java Development Kit (JDK) or a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The executable installer that comes with Windows or Linux includes a JRE. However, if you want to use archive distributions, you will need to make sure that you have the required Java environment installed and configured.

Jira requires a minimum version of Java 8. If you run Jira on an unsupported Java version or from an unsupported vendor, you may run into unexpected errors. The following table shows the supported Java versions for Jira:

Table 1.1 – Java platforms

You should also keep your Java versions up to date by running the latest patched version of either Java 8 or 11. This will ensure you have the latest bug and security patches to keep your environment secure.

Databases

Jira stores all its data in a relational database. While you can run Jira with H2 Database, the in-memory database that comes bundled with Jira, it is prone to data corruption. You should only use this to set up a new instance quickly for evaluation purposes, where no important data will be stored. For this reason, you must use an enterprise-level database such as MySQL for production systems.

Most relational databases available on the market today are supported by Jira, and there are no differences when you install and configure Jira. Just like operating systems, your choice of database will come down to your organization’s infrastructure/DevOps team’s expertise, experience, and established corporate IT standards. If you run Windows as your operating system, then you probably want to go with Microsoft SQL Server. On the other hand, if you run Linux, then you may want to go with PostgreSQL and MySQL.

The following table summarizes the databases that are supported by Jira at the time of writing. It is worth mentioning that both MySQL and PostgreSQL are open source products, so they are excellent options if you are looking to minimize your initial cost:

Database	Support Status
MySQL	MySQL 5.7, 8.0 Note that both MariaDB and PerconaDB are not supported
PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL 10, 11, 12
Microsoft SQL Server	SQL Server 2016, 2017, 2019
Oracle	Oracle 12c R2, 18c, 19c This requires the JDBC 19.3 (ojdbc8) driver
Azure SQL
Amazon Aurora	PostgreSQL 10, 11, 12
H2	This is bundled with the standalone distribution, for evaluation purposes only

Table 1.2 – Databases

Take special note of the driver requirement for each database. Jira comes bundled with drivers for several of the databases, but some, such as Oracle, will require you to get the driver separately. You need to make sure you get the correct version of the driver to avoid any unexpected errors.

With the system and database requirements covered, it is time to move on to Jira itself.