It’s widely acknowledged that the previous backup options in the Atlassian Cloud, including Jira and Confluence, have often been insufficient, and in some cases, they still are (as of 2024, CLOUD-6498). This is especially true because backups for other services like Assets, Opsgenie, and Atlassian Access were missing. This poses significant risks: for example, if the configuration of Atlassian Access is lost, there is often no other option but to reconfigure everything from scratch.
Why Cloud Backups? Isn’t Atlassian Handling This for Me?
Despite Atlassian’s robust security measures, including the ability to restore any transaction from the last 24 hours, it’s important to understand that Atlassian only intervenes in cases of their own errors. User-induced errors, such as accidentally deleting a ticket, are not covered.
Improvements and Safety Nets
Atlassian has continuously improved its cloud solutions. Many objects are not immediately deleted but are first archived or moved to a recycle bin, which applies to projects and custom fields. User data, for example, is only permanently deleted after 60 days. Still, there are instances where you might delete something you didn’t intend to.
The Options:
Manual Standard Backup:
Note: This can be manually triggered and downloaded every 48 hours. Not all data is included…
- Jira: Settings → System → Backup Manager → Create Backup for Cloud
- Confluence: Settings → Backup Manager → Create Backup for Cloud
Analytics, Atlas, Bitbucket:
Currently, no direct backup options are available. (2024)
Apps:
Rewind: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/vendors/1219507/
Revyz data Manager: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1228694/revyz-data-manager-for-jira-backup-restore-analyze-optimize
Atlassian Backup and Restore CLI (EAP 2024)
Atlassian has been working on improved backup solutions for some time. The Backup CLI and Restore CLI are part of these efforts.
This tool bypasses the 48-hour backup limitation from the web interface and supports incremental backups—a good start. Unfortunately, only Jira and Confluence are supported, likely with the known limitations.
You can find the tool at https://go.atlassian.com/backuptool.
What Should I Do Now? Recommendations for Enterprise Customers
Risk Management! Most users will never consider pulling a backup from Atlassian. Who backs up Office365 or AWS? However, for enterprise customers, this is crucial. Our recommendation:
- Regular backups (at least weekly) of all available data are recommended.
- Utilize the Atlassian Backup CLI and other tools to secure critical data.
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