How to enforce Full Synchronization between Jira and your User Repository
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
The article explains the steps to take when you need to enforce a Full Synchronization between Jira and your User Repository
Environment
Jira Core/Software integrated with Crowd or Active Directory
Solution
Some directories, such as Active Directory and Crowd, support a faster synchronization process called incremental synchronization. This is process is the recommended one as it is much faster and less resource intensive because the User Repository will send over only a list of changes, so Jira's Embedded Crowd can go through the changes and process them.
However, sometimes this process can go wrong and when that happens, the Embedded Crowd should cancel the incremental sync and fall back to a full sync. There will be some situations in which this is not automatically happening, so, you as a Jira Admin, can enforce a Full Synchronization with the following steps:
Keep In Mind
A Full synchronization will request a list of all users/groups matching the configured LDAP filter from the remote directory. Depending on the number of users/groups retrieved, this process can consume a decent amount of heap.
In summary, when a directory configuration changes since the last sync, the Embedded Crowd will always perform a full synchronization. Any change is valid, but of course, we suggest one that will not affect your system, such as:
Changing the LDAP name;
Temporarily unselecting the "Enable Incremental Synchronization";
Let's follow the steps to change the LDAP name to enforce a Full Sync:
As a Jira Administrator, go to Settings >> System >> User Management >> User Directories.
Edit the desired LDAP configuration
Change the LDAP User Directory Name field.
Click on Save and Test, this will automatically force a Full Synchronization.
Repeat steps 1-4 if you want to undo the name change, but it is important to notice that this will enforce another Full Synchronization, as it considers a new change in the configuration.
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