Plan a Self-Hosted Jama Connect® Upgrade

Published Date: July 8, 2026
Audience: Everyone
Products and Versions Covered: 

• Jama Connect® version(s)
  • Self-hosted, Replicated - KOTS

Summary

Careful planning is one of the most important factors in a successful Jama Connect® upgrade. This article describes common deployment topologies, upgrade planning strategies, and best practices that can help reduce operational risk when upgrading a self-hosted environment.

The examples in this article illustrate common approaches organizations use to validate upgrades before making changes to Production. They are intended to help you evaluate different strategies and are not intended to serve as step-by-step implementation instructions or deployment runbooks.

Every self-hosted environment is unique. Infrastructure, integrations, authentication, customizations, and organizational requirements may influence the best approach to upgrading your deployment.

Recommendation

Jama Software recommends engaging Customer Delivery Services (CDS) for all major self-hosted installations, upgrades, and migrations. Every environment is unique, and CDS can help review your architecture, identify upgrade risks, and recommend an approach appropriate for your deployment.

At a minimum, customers should schedule a complimentary pre-upgrade consultation before beginning a production upgrade.

Resolution

General Upgrade Best Practices

Regardless of deployment architecture, Jama Software recommends the following practices before upgrading Production:

• Create and verify a complete backup of the production environment.
• Validate the upgrade in a non-production environment whenever possible.
• Test using a recent copy of production data rather than an empty or newly created environment.
• Keep application data, assets, and configuration synchronized throughout testing.
• Disable or isolate external integrations within cloned environments to prevent unintended interactions with production systems.
• Verify that the operating system, database platform, Java version, and Jama Connect version are supported and compatible.
• Document both your upgrade procedure and rollback strategy before the maintenance window begins.
• Allow sufficient time for database upgrades, search indexing, and post-upgrade validation.
• Ensure only one Jama Connect application environment is connected to the production database during production cutover.
• Whenever practical, make the test environment as similar to Production as possible.

Compare Common Upgrade Approaches

There is no single upgrade strategy that fits every deployment. The following examples describe common self-hosted architectures and illustrate approaches organizations often use to validate upgrades before making changes to Production.

Common Deployment Topologies

The following examples describe common deployment models and illustrate how organizations often approach upgrade validation. Your environment may differ, and the most appropriate strategy depends on your infrastructure and operational requirements.

Scenario 1: Separate Production and Test Environments

Configuration

• Dedicated Production application server
• Dedicated Test application server
• Separate Production and Test databases

This deployment provides complete isolation between Production and Test environments and generally represents the lowest-risk approach for major upgrades.

One Possible Validation Approach

Organizations commonly:

• Create a recent copy of production data for use in the Test environment.
• Synchronize production assets with the copied data.
• Upgrade the Test environment.
• Validate application functionality and performance.
• Complete User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Document any required remediation before scheduling the production upgrade.

Testing against production-like data provides greater confidence than testing against a newly created environment because it helps identify environment-specific, configuration-specific, and data-specific issues before Production is upgraded.

Scenario 2:  Separate Application Servers with a Shared Database Server

Configuration

• Separate Production and Test application servers
• Separate Production and Test databases hosted on the same database server

This is a common and supported deployment model, provided the database server has sufficient capacity to support multiple environments.

The overall validation strategy is similar to a fully isolated deployment. Rather than maintaining separate database servers, organizations maintain separate databases while keeping Production and Test environments isolated from one another.

When properly configured, this approach still allows upgrades to be validated before Production is affected.

Scenario 3: Single Production Environment

Configuration

• One application server
• One production database

This deployment provides no opportunity to validate the upgrade before Production.

Although this architecture is supported, it introduces additional operational risk because:

• Upgrade procedures cannot be rehearsed.
• Production data cannot be validated beforehand.
• Recovery generally depends on infrastructure and backup strategies if issues occur.

Whenever practical, Jama Software recommends establishing a temporary or permanent non-production environment before performing major upgrades.

Scenario 4: Cutover Deployment Strategy

Some organizations reduce operational risk by preparing a fully validated application environment before the production maintenance window.

Instead of installing and validating software during production downtime, the upgraded environment is prepared and tested in advance using a production-like copy. During the maintenance window, that validated environment is promoted to Production after final synchronization of production data and assets.

The exact implementation varies between organizations and depends on infrastructure, networking, authentication, and operational practices.

Benefits

A cutover strategy can provide several advantages:

• Installation activities are completed before the maintenance window.
• Upgrade procedures are validated in advance.
• User Acceptance Testing is completed before Production is affected.
• Production downtime is reduced.
• Production maintenance focuses primarily on activating the validated environment and completing the database upgrade.

Important

Only one Jama Connect application environment should be connected to the production database at any given time.

Organizations considering this strategy are encouraged to work with Customer Deployment Services (CDS) to develop an implementation and rollback plan appropriate for their environment.

Additional Considerations

Assets

The Jama Connect® assets directory is an important part of the production environment and should remain synchronized with the database being used for upgrade validation.

Testing with production data while using outdated or incomplete assets may produce inaccurate validation results.

External Integrations

When creating a production-like test environment, consider disabling or redirecting external integrations, including:

• Email notifications
• LDAP or Active Directory
• SAML or Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Webhooks
• REST API integrations
• Scheduled background jobs
• Third-party connectors

This helps prevent testing activities from affecting production users or downstream systems.

Environment Parity

Upgrade validation is most effective when the Test environment closely matches Production.

Where practical, ensure both environments use comparable:

• Operating system versions
• Database platforms
• Java versions
• Jama Connect versions
• Memory allocation
• Search configuration
• Installed integrations

Performance Validation

A successful software installation does not necessarily guarantee acceptable production performance.

Use your Test environment to evaluate:

• Approximate upgrade duration
• Search indexing time
• Application startup time
• General application responsiveness

These observations can help establish realistic maintenance windows and identify performance considerations before upgrading Production.

Need Help Planning Your Upgrade?

Every Jama Connect deployment is different. Factors such as infrastructure architecture, authentication, integrations, customizations, and downtime requirements can influence the best upgrade strategy.

If you are planning a major installation, migration, or upgrade, Jama Software recommends working with your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Customer Deployment Services (CDS). They can help you:

• Review your deployment architecture.
• Recommend an upgrade strategy appropriate for your environment.
• Identify potential risks before the maintenance window.
• Review rollback planning and upgrade best practices.
• Answer questions about supported deployment options.

Additional Resources 

• Pre-Upgrade Consultation for Self-Hosted Upgrades 
• Success Programs
• Success Catalog
• Datasheets
• Request a Solution Offering or Training from the Success Catalog

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