Install Jira Software with MySQL on Ubuntu server

Jira Software is one of the top agile project management tools used by teams to plan, track, release and support world-class software with confidence. It is the single source of truth for your entire development lifecycle, empowering autonomous teams with the context to move quickly while staying connected to the greater business goal. Whether used to manage simple projects or to power your DevOps practices, Jira Software makes it easy for teams to move work forward, stay aligned, and communicate in context.

This tutorial will show you how to install the Jira Software (Data Center) v9.0.0 on Ubuntu 20.04 server.

Prerequisites

A server running Ubuntu 20.04 with a minimum 4GB of RAM.
Server has been assigned external static IP address.
Port 8080 has been added to firewall rules.

Getting Started

First, updating your system package cache with the latest version.

apt-get update -y

apt-get upgrade -y

Once all the packages are updated, install other required dependencies.

apt-get install unzip fontconfig -y

Once finished, you can proceed to the next step.

Install and Configure MySQL Database

Jira uses MySQL/MariaDB as a database backend. This tutorial will guide you how to install the MySQL on your server.

apt-get install mysql-server -y

Once the MySQL server is installed, you can verify the status of the MySQL using the following command:

systemctl status mysql

You should see the following:

Next, log in to the MySQL shell:

mysql

Once login, create a database and user for Jira:

CREATE DATABASE jira CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_bin;

Next, create user jira with password password (you can type another credentials, however, make sure to remember them).

CREATE USER 'jira'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Grant all the privileges to the jira database:

GRANT ALL ON jira.* TO 'jira'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, flush the privileges and exit from the shell:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

Once finished, you can proceed to the next step.

Install Jira on Ubuntu

First, visit the Jira official download page and download the desired version of JIRA with the wget command. In this tutorial we’ll install version 9.0.0, you can install Jira from TAR.GZ archive file, or with Linux Installer.

Install from archive file

Download file from source then unpack it.

wget https://product-downloads.atlassian.com/software/jira/downloads/atlassian-jira-software-9.0.0.tar.gz

tar xf atlassian-jira-software-9.0.0.tar.gz

Create folder to install.

mkdir /opt/atlassian

Move the unpacked folder and rename.

mv atlassian-jira-software-9.0.0-standalone /opt/atlassian/jira

Jira requires JDK/JRE, to check whether a JDK is already installed: Open a shell console and type echo $JAVA_HOME and hit Enter:

If it returns something like /opt/JDK8 or /usr/lib/jvm/java-8 then your JDK is installed and configured
If nothing displays, you’ll need to install the JDK or set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable

Install by command (we’ll use JDK 8).

apt install openjdk-8-jre

Check java version.

java -version

Set the JAVA_Home.

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-arm64" # for ARM CPU

Update Jira home.

nano /opt/atlassian/jira/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/jira-application.properties

Then enter:

jira.home = /usr/local/jira

Enter the following command at a shell/console prompt before running Jira.

export JIRA_HOME=usr/local/jira

Now you can run Jira from BIN folder.

/opt/atlassian/jira/bin# ./start-jira.sh

Successfully to run:

If you wish to stop Jira, use the following command.

/opt/atlassian/jira/bin# ./stop-jira.sh

Install with Linux Installer

You don’t need to install Java if using the Linux Installer as Eclipse Adoptium JRE is bundled with Jira.

Download installer from source.

wget https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/downloads/binary/atlassian-jira-software-9.0.0-x64.bin

Once the download is completed, change the permission of the downloaded file.

chmod a+x atlassian-jira-software-9.0.0-x64.bin

Next, install the Jira Software by running the downloaded binary.

./atlassian-jira-software-9.0.0-x64.bin

You should see the following output:

Press Enter to continue.

Type 2 and hit Enter for custom install.

Hit Enter to select the Jira installation path.

Next, press Enter to continue.

Type 1 to use default ports (HTTP: 8080, Control: 8005) and hit Enter.

Hit Enter to install Jira as Service.

Next, hit Enter to start the installation.

Hit Enter to start Jira Software.

Now, Jira has been installed and listens on port 8080. You can check it with the following command:

ss -antpl | grep java

Output:

Configure Jira

Next, you will need to download the MySQL JDBC driver and copy it to the Jira installation directory. In this tutorial we’ll use version 8.1.0.

wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/Connector-J/mysql-connector-j-8.1.0.zip

Unzip the downloaded file.

unzip mysql-connector-j-8.1.0.zip

Copy the MySQL connector to the lib folder of Jira.

cp mysql-connector-j-8.1.0/mysql-connector-j-8.1.0.jar /opt/atlassian/jira/lib

Finally, stop and start the Jira service to apply the changes.

/etc/init.d/jira stop

/etc/init.d/jira start

Access Jira Web UI

Now, open your web browser and access the Jira web interface using the URL:

http://[your server's IP]:8080

You will be redirected to the following screen:

Select I’ll set it up myself and click on the Next button.

Select “My Own Database“, provide your database details as above and click on the Next button.

Provide Application Title, Mode, Base URL as desired and click on the Next button.

Provide license key and click on the Next button.

Provide your administrator account details and click on the Next button.

Click on the Finish button to complete the installation. In the language selection screen, select your desired language and click on the Continue button.
In the next screen, choose your avatar as desired and click on the Next button.

Now, welcome to Jira Software!