Backup and restore only parts of a configuration

Follow the below step-by-step guide if you need to import only parts of an email configuration into your system and override the existing ones with them. This could be the case when you need to check another Jira instance's configuration or use templates, field rules etc. of another environment.

In this tutorial, we import the mail handler, mail account and templates into an already existing configuration (which can be useful in the case of a service management support channel where you need to see another test environment's settings).

Prerequisites

It is a prerequisite that you have all projects, issue types, fields etc. already created in Jira before starting the Email This Issue Restore process. Everything you would like to set in Email This Issue has to be present before starting the backup, please make sure to check these beforehand.

Jira related dependencies:

In case of Projects, the name and the project key have to match
In case of Issue Type/Request type, the names have to match and they have to be available within the project
In case of (custom) Fields, the name and the field type have to match
In case of Project roles, the names have to match
In case of Issue Link Types, the names have to match
In case of Groups, the names have to match
In case of a User, the user key has to match

Email This Issue related dependencies:

Template: either imported or found by name
SMTP connection: either imported or found by name
Mail Account: either imported or found by name

Step-by-step procedure

There are four phases of a Backup/Restore process:

I. Creating a backup JSON file

II. Uploading the backup file to your new environment

III. Running the restore process

IV. Importing results

We go into details of the above steps in the following pages.

If you follow this guide correctly, you should be able to import certain Email This Issue settings into your setup.

I. Creating a backup JSON file

To create a backup JSON file in your system, you will need to carry out the following steps:

Go to SETTINGS --> Backup/Restore.
Click on Backup (next to Add file) and optionally fill the "Description of the export" field, then press the Create button under the description field.
Download the JSON file by clicking on the three dots at the end of the row and click on Download. Please note that the backup JSON file is by default stored at <Jira Home Directory>\data\emailissue\.

The file is displayed on a list in the Backup/Restore menu and can be restored by clicking on Restore.

II. Uploading the backup file back into your environment

In order to upload the backup file into your system, follow the below steps:

Navigate to Email This Issue - Administration - Backup/Restore.
Click on Add file then click on Browse.
Select the JSON file you wish to restore then click Upload (or drag and drop the downloaded file in your browser).
The file is now listed in a table below and can be used to restore your settings.

III. Running the restore process

After having the JSON file uploaded in your system you can now start the restore process:

Click on the three dots at the end of an uploaded item
Click on Restore

The restore configuration has four stages:

Entity selection
Conflict resolution
Overview
Importing results

Entity selection

During entity selection, you can select which parts of your configuration you would like to import into your server instance. In this case, we would like to import the mail handler, mail account and templates into an already existing configuration as shown below:

The entities (objects that we are restoring - in this case email template, manual email default, notification etc.) are presented with drop-down menus and are marked with a grey highlight, while the rows without any highlights are entity items.

The entity items can be one of the following types:

Name of an entity (e.g.: the name of a template)
A Project and/or an Issue type can be selected within the entity, in which case it is presented as <Project name>; <IssueType name> (this could be the case with the Manual email default for example)
A Project and/or an Issue type can be selected within the entity, in which case it is presented as <Project name>; <IssueType name>; <JQL filter> (this could be the case with the Context for example)

Conflict resolution

After selecting the entities to be imported, click on Conflict resolution to proceed with the process.

During the import, there could be conflicts regarding the items you wish to restore, but in this case, because we are restoring data in your old system there will be configurations (therefore conflicts) present already.

If you wish to restore any configuration into an empty setting, please follow our Backup and restore for empty email settings from this point onwards.

Otherwise, click on Overwrite existing then select an entity you wish to overwrite (by default the original entity will be offered to you automatically). By default the entity you are resolving is displayed but it can be overwritten in the Select Entity section:

Overview

After resolving the conflicts, click on Check to see if the resolutions have been successful. Once all the conflicts are resolved successfully, the overview page is displayed and you may proceed with the restore process by clicking on Confirm.

Important: When importing Mail Accounts please note that we do not import passwords. They need to be entered again or the account needs to be changed in order for the setup to work.

IV. Importing results

After clicking on Confirm, the import results page displays the log of imported entities and their status. Imported entities can be found on the left pane, while the results of their import are presented on the right pane of the window.
Click on Close to exit the import result page.

Note: The import can have four results:

Success: all data has been imported successfully.
Warning: there were items during the import that could not be identified, therefore no action has been taken on those items.
Error: there was an error during the process such as a faulty JSON file. It does not mean that the restore has failed, it can still be successful, however, you need to check the configuration.
Failed: a fatal error has occurred, the import is failed, no action has been taken on any of the items.
- In the case of "New entity", the new entity is NOT created.
- In the case of "Overwrite existing", the existing entity will not be modified in any way.
On the results page a link is displayed next to the entity which takes you to the edit page of the entity.