Backup restore fails when restoring ActiveObjects in Jira
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
Backup restoration in Jira may fail when restoring ActiveObjects for numerous reasons. This article lists the most common causes and their respective resolutions.
ActiveObjects is a key part of Jira as it's where all plugin-enabled data and data definition are stored. You may find this List of Jira Server AO table names and vendors very useful in determining from which plugin the error messages refer to.
Environment
Most of the articles listed here apply to most versions of Jira, as the backup feature hasn't changed much between them. With few exceptions, they should be:
Jira Core: All versions 7 and 8.
Jira Software: All versions 7 and 8.
Jira Service Desk: All versions 3 and 4.
Diagnosis
The backup restore starts and then fails somewhere from the middle-to-the-end, when the ActiveObjects are being restored.
The backup restore has 3 major parts:
Restore of the entities.xml
Restore of the activeobjects.xml
Reindex
On the atiassian-jira.log you'll find a message containing either of these exceprts:
1
There was a problem restoring ActiveObjects data1
Error during ActiveObjects restoreCause
Foreign key constraint
Value is too big for column
Restore fails silently due to low Heap space
Backup restore fails with a syntax error in Jira
Backup restore fails with OutOfMemoryError
Solution
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