The Jira home directory contains key data and configuration files specific to each Jira instance, such as Jira's database connectivity details. As we will see later in this chapter, setting the path to this directory is part of the installation process.
There is a one-to-one relationship between Jira and this directory. This means that each Jira instance must have only one home directory, and each directory can serve only one Jira instance. In the old days, this directory was sometimes called the data directory. It has now been standardized as the Jira Home. It is for this reason that, for the remainder of this book, we will refer to this directory as JIRA_HOME.
The JIRA_HOME directory can be created anywhere on your system, or even on a shared drive, but it cannot be a sub-directory of JIRA_INSTALL. It is recommended to use a fast disk drive with low network latency to get the best performance from Jira.
This separation of data and application makes tasks such as maintenance and future upgrades an easier process. Within JIRA_HOME, there are several subdirectories that contain vital data, as shown in the following table:
|
Directory |
Description |
|
data |
This directory contains data that is not stored in the database, for example, uploaded attachment files. |
|
export |
This directory contains the automated backup archives created by Jira. This is different from a manual export executed by a user; manual exports require the user to specify where to store the archive. |
|
import |
This directory contains the backups that can be imported. Jira will only load backup files from this directory. |
|
log |
This directory contains Jira log files, which are useful for tracking down errors. Some of the key log files include the following:
|
|
plugins |
This directory is where installed plugins (also known as add-ons) are stored. Add-ons will be discussed further in later chapters. |
|
caches |
This directory contains cache data that Jira uses to improve its performance at runtime. For example, search indexes are stored in this directory. |
|
tmp |
This directory contains temporary files created at runtime, such as file uploads. |
When Jira is running, the JIRA_HOME directory is locked. When Jira shuts down, it is unlocked. This locking mechanism prevents multiple Jira instances from reading/writing to the same JIRA_HOME directory and causing data corruption.
Jira locks the JIRA_HOME directory by writing a temporary file called jira-home.lock into the root of the directory. During shutdown, this file will be removed. Occasionally, however, Jira may fail to remove this file, such as during an ungraceful shutdown. In this case, you can manually remove this locked file to unlock the directory so that you can start up Jira again.