Comparison between Jira Data Center Project Archiving and Issue Archiver for Jira

To archive or not

Introduction

Issue archiving is a very popular request for Jira as more companies are using Jira as their official issue tracking system enterprise wide.

Issue Summary Votes
JRASERVER-1450 Project Status – archive project 183
JRASERVER-5843 Archiving Old Issues 298

This blog post is to compare and explain the differences between the project archiving feature in Jira Software Data Center and Issue Archiver for Jira app

Why Issue Archiver for Jira

Some scenarios which the Issue Archiver for Jira may be useful

  • Point-in-time snapshot – It offers a true snapshot of the issue at the point in time. The custom field of an archived issue can still be modified by deleting the custom fields or modifying the custom field options. It can also be deleted from Jira.
  • Easy extraction of attachments – Jira renames the filename of the attachments to numerical id before storing it in the file system. Issue archival renames them back to their filenames before storing them into the zip archive
  • Reclaim disk space – The attachments from the old issues are taking up a lot of precious disk space on the server
  • Sharing with external parties – The issues are exported in human readable and can be shared with users who cannot access your Jira

Comparison

  Jira Data Center Issue Archiver for Jira
Key Features
  • Improves the performance of Jira by not indexing the issues in the archived projects
  • The issue will be marked as read-only
  • It is still accessible with a direct link or mentions in other issues or applications
  • Generate a human readable backup of the issues archived including the attachments
  • Offers 2 modes
    • Snapshots – does not delete
    • Archive – delete the archived issues
  • Includes the attachments in the archives
Pros
  • The information can still be viewed in Jira
  • Changes to Jira schemes will be applied to the new projects
  • True snapshot as the values cannot be changed
  • Able to download the attachments in their filename
Cons
  • This feature is only available in Jira Software Data Center
  • The issues are still retained in the system taking up database and disk space
  • It is not possible to restore the archive in Jira
Suitable for
  • Needs to improve on the search performance of Jira
  • If you still need to access the project in future and don’t want to delete from Jira
  • To download all the attachments for the archived issues
  • Snapshot for audit purposes
  • Permanent archive
  • For sharing project information with 3rd parties who does not have access to Jira
  • When you want to housekeep your Jira of the useless projects and schemes

FAQS

  1. Is it possible to restore an archive from the Issue Archiver app to another instance of Jira?
    • No, it is not possible because the custom fields, screen schemes, workflows might have been modified and cannot be reconciled
  2. What is the most basic way to archive a Jira project without deleting if I do not have Jira Software Data Center?
    • The simplest way to hide the project by associating the project with a permission scheme such that nobody has browse permission
  3. What is the recommendation of archiving
    • Archiving should be of the last resort (only when issues are really not required). It is better to retain the issues on Jira if the server can support it
    • Snapshots are useful for keeping an export
  4. What if I need to generate statistics on the archived issues?
    • You can export the issues into CSV format before archiving. The data crunching of archived issues can be done within Excel

Conclusion

If you feel the app is suitable, the best way is to install the app to try it out. There is a free 30 days evaluation.

  • Try to generate a snapshot to see if the archives is to your requirements
  • If it is ok, then execute the archive with the same settings

If you have any queries, you can raise a support ticket via our own Jira Service Desk.

Other Useful Information