TL;DR
- Configuration Manager for Jira (CMJ) is an Appfire app that lets Jira admins test, analyze, and deploy configuration changes between environments, such as sandbox to production.
- Before anything goes live, CMJ shows every addition, modification, error, and warning, plus the impact on other projects.
- You can move only the changes that are ready, compare configurations to catch drift, and template projects across sites.
- CMJ supports migrations, merges, and splits across Jira Data Center and Cloud, with some features that differ by deployment.
Bring confidence and control to Jira configuration changes
If you're responsible for keeping your Jira instance healthy, you're taking on one of the most essential, and often most complex, roles in the organization. From handling change requests and optimizing your setup to managing the everyday upkeep that keeps things running smoothly, your work is the engine behind a reliable, high-performing Jira environment.
And it's not just about keeping things up and running. It's about doing it with minimal disruption to teams, and in a way that scales as your organization grows.
What CMJ does
Stability at scale takes the right apps, and that's where Configuration Manager for Jira (CMJ) comes in. Designed for large-scale configuration management, CMJ helps admins promote changes between environments, manage instance migrations, perform cleanups, and audit configurations, all with the control and transparency admins need.
It keeps your Jira environment stable and secure by reducing risk, minimizing disruption, and giving you full visibility into every change.
With CMJ, you can:
- Test and promote configuration changes safely
- Understand the impact of every change before it goes live
- Keep environments consistent across teams and projects
- Reduce manual errors and streamline administrative work
How CMJ works
Behind the scenes, CMJ powers change management through a snapshot-based approach. In Jira Data Center, snapshots act as a "black box" of configuration data, capturing projects, issues, and settings that you can deploy to another instance or use to restore a previous state. You can create snapshots at the full system or project level, with or without issue data.
On Jira Cloud, CMJ uses a project-based deployment architecture that enables modular, targeted changes between instances.
For deeper insight within a single Data Center instance, CMJ works alongside Integrity Check and Power Admin. These apps help teams analyze and compare configuration elements, understand dependencies, and detect potential issues, so admins can resolve problems before making changes.
Together, they give admins the clarity and control to make safe, informed decisions across environments or within a single Jira instance.
Use cases: what can you do with CMJ?
Promote configuration changes with confidence
Admins routinely receive requests to change the Jira setup. To handle those changes safely, CMJ lets you test, validate, and deploy them from your test system to production.
Whether you’re updating workflows, screens, or full project schemes, CMJ captures every change with accuracy and gives you full control before anything goes live. It’s a streamlined way to move from sandbox to production, with fewer surprises and more control.
Here's how it all works:
To learn more, visit our documentation: Data Center: Test, staging, production use case or Cloud: Deploy configuration changes from Cloud to Cloud.
Sync configurations across instances
Want to run tests without compromising the integrity of your production system? CMJ allows you to easily transfer project configurations from one Jira instance to another, so it's a great choice for setting up a sandbox instance or creating a clone. Comparing configurations between environments also helps you spot drift and keep shared processes consistent across teams. Visit our documentation for this use case: Data Center: Creating clones.
Migrate and merge Jira environments
Consolidating environments or planning a move to Cloud? CMJ gives you clarity and control over your data, with no surprises. It simplifies complex operations like merging multiple Jira Data Center instances, splitting large environments, or migrating to Cloud. For broader planning support, see Atlassian Cloud migration with Appfire.
Ensure configuration integrity
CMJ includes integrity checking features in both Cloud and Data Center, designed to catch broken configuration objects, references, and other inconsistencies before deployment.
- In Cloud, CMJ performs an integrity check during the analysis process, comparing source and destination configurations and flagging any issues before changes are applied. Learn more: Analyze changes.
- In Data Center, admins can run Integrity Check for targeted scans across the system, individual projects, or even CMJ snapshots, for more control and deeper visibility. The app also provides suggested fixes and navigation to resolve warnings easily. Learn more here: Integrity Check.
Data Center only: optimize your instance pre-migration
CMJ lets you optimize your instance before a migration. Run Integrity Check first to resolve configuration errors on the source instance so you don't carry them to the destination (learn more about Integrity Check). Then use Power Admin to clean up unused configurations and old projects and reduce your overall migration scope (learn more about Power Admin).
Even more uses for CMJ
Here are additional use cases that CMJ solves complex Jira admin challenges.
Project templating
CMJ makes it easy to replicate success. Share project templates across and within Data Center and Cloud to save time and keep things consistent. When you need to set up a similar project, transfer all the configurations from an exemplar project to another site. Learn more about project templating.
Backup and restore
Before you make significant changes, create a backup. In Data Center, you can generate a full backup that includes configurations and data. In Cloud, CMJ lets you back up and restore configurations. Learn more about creating backups.
Top CMJ features
Powerful features that drive smarter change management
Change and impact analysis
CMJ gives you a detailed change analysis of every planned modification. You can see how each change will affect other projects and decide whether to go ahead, in both Data Center and Cloud. Learn more about CMJ's analysis.
Audit logs
With the Audit feature in CMJ for Data Center, everything that changes in the system during deployment is recorded, so you always have complete oversight of your Jira instance. Learn more about audit logs.
Flexible configuration management
Flexible snapshots
On Data Center, CMJ offers three snapshot types: full system, project configuration, and project with issues. That flexibility supports a wide range of project import and export use cases, from migrating a full environment to sharing a single project. On Cloud, you can create configuration snapshots, upload snapshots from other sites, and compare them to see what changed. More details are in our documentation.
Deployment customization
In Data Center, CMJ offers a selective merge feature (known as transformations in the Cloud app) that gives admins control over how configurations map between source and destination. That means fine-tuned deployments: you make targeted changes without overwriting the rest of your configuration.
Power Admin
Power Admin is an advanced administration app that lets you search for configuration elements, see dependencies and usage, and edit and configure components. It's indispensable for system cleanup or performance tuning.
It also lets you merge custom fields, so you can finally eliminate duplicate, legacy, and unnecessary custom fields while seeing exactly what will change and how your Jira configuration will look afterward. Learn more about merging custom fields, or explore Power Admin on its own.
Note: This paid app is included free with the purchase of CMJ.
Automation
REST API support
CMJ's REST API lets admins automate many tasks typically done through the UI, including creating, deploying, and managing snapshots programmatically. Check the API reference for supported endpoints and examples.
Health checks and integrity scanning
Integrity Check
Integrity Check detects corrupted configurations and prevents them from being deployed to a production server. Quick-fix buttons help you resolve issues and get on with your deployment. Learn more about Integrity Check.
Note: This paid app is included free with the purchase of CMJ.
App integrations
CMJ also supports migrating third-party apps. Check the documentation below for supported apps on Data Center and Cloud.
Currently, we offer more extensive support on DC, but we're actively working to expand app support on Cloud.
Get started with CMJ
No matter the size or complexity of your Jira environment, Configuration Manager for Jira gives you the clarity, control, and confidence to make smarter changes and keep your instance running at its best.
Try CMJ for freeFrequently asked questions
How can I test the impact of a Jira configuration change before applying it?
Build the change in a sandbox or test instance, then run CMJ's pre-deployment analysis before you deploy. CMJ compares source and destination configurations and lists every addition, modification, error, and warning, including impacts on other projects. You review the results, fix any problems, and only then push to production.
Can CMJ automate Jira configuration deployments between environments?
Yes. On Data Center, CMJ's REST API lets admins create, deploy, and manage snapshots programmatically, so you can script repeatable promotions from test to staging to production or plug them into an existing release process. The REST API reference in the CMJ documentation lists supported endpoints and examples. On Cloud, CMJ supports scheduled snapshots, which help you capture configurations on a regular cadence.
How does CMJ help prevent configuration drift between Jira environments?
CMJ helps you spot and fix drift by enabling scheduling snapshot creation and comparing configurations across environments and over time. You can compare snapshots taken from different sites or at different points in time to see exactly what changed. Once you find differences, you can promote the approved setup from your source environment so sandbox, staging, and production stay aligned and shared processes stay consistent across teams.
Can I deploy only selected Jira configuration changes instead of moving an entire project?
Yes. CMJ lets you choose the exact configuration changes to promote instead of moving a whole project, and it includes required dependencies automatically. Both Cloud and Data Center apps include custom mapping features that let you rename or remap configurations before deployment. This gives you greater control over changes and reduces the need for manual cleanup after deployment.
Does CMJ work on both Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center?
Yes. CMJ is available for Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center, though some capabilities differ by deployment. Data Center offers full system snapshots, snapshots with issue data, audit logs, and selective merge. Cloud uses a project-based deployment model with change analysis, snapshot comparison, and transformations. Check the CMJ documentation for your deployment to confirm which features apply to your setup.
Can CMJ help with a Jira Data Center to Cloud migration?
Yes. CMJ lets you compare Data Center and Cloud configurations side by side to validate setup accuracy. Before you migrate, Integrity Check and Power Admin help you fix errors and reduce your migration scope.
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