GitLab for Jira Cloud app administration

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

NOTE: This page contains administrator documentation for the GitLab for Jira Cloud app. For user documentation, see GitLab for Jira Cloud app.

With the GitLab for Jira Cloud app, you can connect GitLab and Jira Cloud to sync development information in real time. You can view this information in the Jira development panel.

To set up the GitLab for Jira Cloud app on your self-managed instance, do one of the following:

• Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace (GitLab 15.7 and later).
• Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually.

After you set up the app, you can use the project toolchain developed and maintained by Atlassian to link GitLab repositories to Jira projects. The project toolchain does not affect how development information is synced between GitLab and Jira Cloud.

For Jira Data Center or Jira Server, use the Jira DVCS connector developed and maintained by Atlassian.

Set up OAuth authentication

Whether you want to install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace or manually, you must create an OAuth application.

To create an OAuth application on your self-managed instance:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin area.

2. Select Applications.

3. Select New application.

4. In Redirect URI:

   • If you're installing the app from the Atlassian Marketplace listing, enter https://gitlab.com/-/jira_connect/oauth_callbacks.
   • If you're installing the app manually, enter <instance_url>/-/jira_connect/oauth_callbacks and replace <instance_url> with the URL of your instance.

5. Clear the Trusted and Confidential checkboxes.

   NOTE: You must clear these checkboxes to avoid errors.

6. In Scopes, select the api checkbox only.

7. Select Save application.

8. Copy the Application ID value.

9. On the left sidebar, select Settings > General.

10. Expand GitLab for Jira App.

11. Paste the Application ID value into Jira Connect Application ID.

12. Select Save changes.

Jira user requirements

• Support for the org-admins group introduced in GitLab 16.6.

In your Atlassian organization, you must ensure that the Jira user that is used to set up the GitLab for Jira Cloud app is a member of either:

• The Organization Administrators (org-admins) group. Newer Atlassian organizations are using centralized user management, which contains the org-admins group. Existing Atlassian organizations are being migrated to centralized user management. If available, you should use the org-admins group to indicate which Jira users can manage the GitLab for Jira app. Alternatively you can use the site-admins group.
• The Site Administrators (site-admins) group. The site-admins group was used under original user management.

If necessary:

1. Create your preferred group.
2. Edit the group to add your Jira user as a member of it.
3. If you customized your global permissions in Jira, you might also need to grant the Browse users and groups permission to the Jira user.

Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace

• Introduced in GitLab 15.7.

You can use the official GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace with your self-managed instance.

With this method:

• GitLab.com handles the install and uninstall lifecycle events sent from Jira Cloud and forwards them to your GitLab instance. All data from your self-managed instance is still sent directly to Jira Cloud.
• With any version of GitLab prior to 17.2 it is not possible to create branches from Jira Cloud on self-managed instances. For more information, see issue 391432.

Alternatively, you might want to install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually if:

• Your instance does not meet the prerequisites.
• You do not want to use the official Atlassian Marketplace listing.
• You do not want GitLab.com to handle the app lifecycle events or to know that your instance has installed the app.
• You want to create branches from Jira Cloud.

Prerequisites

• The instance must be publicly available.
• The instance must be on GitLab version 15.7 or later.
• You must set up OAuth authentication.
• If your instance uses HTTPS, your GitLab certificate must be publicly trusted or contain the full chain certificate.
• Your network must allow inbound and outbound connections between your self-managed instance, Jira, and GitLab.com. For self-managed instances that are behind a firewall and cannot be directly accessed from the internet, you must:
  1. Set up an internet-facing reverse proxy in front of your self-managed instance.
  2. Open your firewall and allow inbound traffic from Atlassian IP addresses only.
  3. Add GitLab IP addresses to the allowlist of your firewall.
• The Jira user that installs and configures the app must meet certain requirements.

Set up your instance

Prerequisites

To set up your self-managed instance for the GitLab for Jira Cloud app in GitLab 15.7 and later:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin area.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand GitLab for Jira App.
4. In Jira Connect Proxy URL, enter https://gitlab.com.
5. Select Save changes.

Link your instance

Prerequisites

To link your self-managed instance to the GitLab for Jira Cloud app:

1. Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app.
2. Configure the GitLab for Jira Cloud app.
3. Optional. Check if Jira Cloud is now linked.

Check if Jira Cloud is linked

You can use the Rails console to check if Jira Cloud is linked to:

• A specific group:

  JiraConnectSubscription.where(namespace: Namespace.by_path('group/subgroup'))

• A specific project:

  Project.find_by_full_path('path/to/project').jira_subscription_exists?

• Any group:

  installation = JiraConnectInstallation.find_by_base_url("https://customer_name.atlassian.net")
  installation.subscriptions

Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually

If you do not want to use the official Atlassian Marketplace listing, install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually.

You must install each Jira Cloud app from a single location. Jira fetches a manifest file from the location you provide. The manifest file describes the app to the system.

To support your self-managed instance with Jira Cloud, do one of the following:

• Install the app in development mode.
• Create an Atlassian Marketplace listing.

Prerequisites

• The instance must be publicly available.
• You must set up OAuth authentication.
• Your network must allow inbound and outbound connections between GitLab and Jira. For self-managed instances that are behind a firewall and cannot be directly accessed from the internet, you must:
  1. Set up an internet-facing reverse proxy in front of your self-managed instance.
  2. Open your firewall and allow inbound traffic from Atlassian IP addresses only.
• The Jira user that installs and configures the app must meet certain requirements.

Set up your instance

Prerequisites

To set up your self-managed instance for the GitLab for Jira Cloud app in GitLab 15.7 and later:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin area.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand GitLab for Jira App.
4. In Jira Connect Proxy URL, ensure this is blank.
5. Select Save changes.

Install the app in development mode

Prerequisites

To configure your Jira instance so you can install apps from outside the Atlassian Marketplace:

1. Sign in to your Jira instance as an administrator.
2. Enable development mode on your Jira instance.
3. Sign in to GitLab as an administrator.
4. Install GitLab from your Jira instance:

   1. On your Jira instance, go to Apps > Manage Apps and select Upload app.

   2. In App descriptor URL, provide the full URL to your manifest file based on your instance configuration.

      By default, your manifest file is located at /-/jira_connect/app_descriptor.json. For example, if your GitLab self-managed instance domain is app.pet-store.cloud, your manifest file is located at https://app.pet-store.cloud/-/jira_connect/app_descriptor.json.

   3. Select Upload.

   4. Select Get started to configure the integration.

5. Disable development mode on your Jira instance.

In Apps > Manage Apps, GitLab for Jira Cloud is now visible. You can also select Get started to configure the GitLab for Jira Cloud app.

If a GitLab upgrade makes changes to the app descriptor, you must reinstall the app.

Create an Atlassian Marketplace listing

Prerequisites

If you do not want to use development mode, you can create your own Atlassian Marketplace listing. This way, you can install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace.

To create an Atlassian Marketplace listing:

1. Register as an Atlassian Marketplace vendor.
2. List your application with the application descriptor URL.
   • Your manifest file is located at: https://your.domain/your-path/-/jira_connect/app_descriptor.json
   • You should list your application as private because public applications can be viewed and installed by any user.
3. Generate test license tokens for your application.

Like the GitLab.com Marketplace listing, this method uses automatic updates.

For more information about creating an Atlassian Marketplace listing, see the Atlassian documentation.

Configure your GitLab instance to serve as a proxy

A GitLab instance can serve as a proxy for other GitLab instances through the GitLab for Jira Cloud app. You might want to use a proxy if you're managing multiple GitLab instances but only want to manually install the app once.

To configure your GitLab instance to serve as a proxy:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin area.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand GitLab for Jira App.
4. Select Enable public key storage.
5. Select Save changes.
6. Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually.

Other GitLab instances that use the proxy must configure the following settings to point to the proxy instance:

• Jira Connect Proxy URL
• Redirect URI

Security considerations

The following security considerations are specific to administering the app. For considerations related to using the app, see security considerations.

GitLab.com handling of app lifecycle events

When you Install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace, GitLab.com receives lifecycle events from Jira. These events are limited to when the app is installed in or uninstalled from your Jira Project.

In the install event, GitLab.com receives a secret token from Jira. GitLab.com stores this token encrypted with AES256-GCM to later verify incoming lifecycle events from Jira.

GitLab.com then forwards the token to your self-managed instance so your instance can authenticate its requests to Jira with the same token. Your self-managed instance is also notified that the GitLab for Jira Cloud app has been installed or uninstalled.

When data is sent from your self-managed instance to the Jira development panel, it is sent from your self-managed instance directly to Jira and not to GitLab.com. GitLab.com does not use the token to access data in your Jira project. Your self-managed instance uses the token to access the data.

For more information about the lifecycle events and payloads that GitLab.com receives, see the Atlassian documentation.

sequenceDiagram
accTitle: Dataflow of the GitLab for Jira Cloud app installed from the Atlassian Marketplace
accDescr: How GitLab.com handles lifecycle events when the GitLab for Jira Cloud app was installed from the Atlassian Marketplace

    participant Jira
    participant Your instance
    participant GitLab.com
    Jira->>+GitLab.com: App install/uninstall event
    GitLab.com->>-Your instance: App install/uninstall event
    Your instance->>Jira: Your development data

Access to GitLab through OAuth

GitLab does not share an access token with Jira. However, users must authenticate through OAuth to configure the app.

An access token is retrieved through a PKCE OAuth flow and stored only on the client side. The app frontend that initializes the OAuth flow is a JavaScript application that's loaded from GitLab through an iframe on Jira.

The OAuth application must have the api scope, which grants complete read and write access to the API. This access includes all groups and projects, the container registry, and the package registry. However, the GitLab for Jira Cloud app only uses this access to:

• Display groups to link.
• Link groups.

Access through OAuth is only needed for the time a user configures the GitLab for Jira Cloud app. For more information, see Access token expiration.

Using a reverse proxy

To use the GitLab for Jira Cloud app on a self-managed instance that cannot be accessed from the internet, the self-managed instance must be accessible from Jira Cloud. You can use a reverse proxy, but keep the following in mind:

• When you install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app from the Atlassian Marketplace, use a client with access to both the internal GitLab FQDN and the reverse proxy FQDN.
• When you install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually, use the reverse proxy FQDN for Redirect URI to set up OAuth authentication.
• The reverse proxy must meet the prerequisites for your installation method:
  • Prerequisites for connecting the GitLab for Jira Cloud app.
  • Prerequisites for installing the GitLab for Jira Cloud app manually.
• The Jira development panel might link to the internal GitLab FQDN or GitLab.com instead of the reverse proxy FQDN. For more information, see issue 434085.
• To secure the reverse proxy on the public internet, allow inbound traffic from Atlassian IP addresses only.
• If you use a rewrite or subfilter with your proxy, ensure the proxy does not rewrite or replace the gitlab-jira-connect-${host} app key. Otherwise, you might get a Failed to link group error.

External NGINX

This server block is an example of how to configure a reverse proxy for GitLab that works with Jira Cloud:

server {
  listen *:80;
  server_name gitlab.mycompany.com;
  server_tokens off;
  location /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {
    root /var/www/;
  }
  location / {
    return 301 https://gitlab.mycompany.com:443$request_uri;
  }
}
server {
  listen *:443 ssl;
  server_tokens off;
  server_name gitlab.mycompany.com;
  ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/gitlab.mycompany.com/fullchain.pem;
  ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/gitlab.mycompany.com/privkey.pem;
  ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384';
  ssl_protocols  TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
  ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;
  ssl_session_cache  shared:SSL:10m;
  ssl_session_tickets off;
  ssl_session_timeout  1d;
  access_log "/var/log/nginx/proxy_access.log";
  error_log "/var/log/nginx/proxy_error.log";
  location / {
    proxy_pass https://gitlab.internal;
    proxy_hide_header upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Host             gitlab.mycompany.com:443;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP        $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For  $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  }
}

In this example:

• Replace gitlab.mycompany.com with the reverse proxy FQDN and gitlab.internal with the internal GitLab FQDN.
• Set ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key to a valid certificate (the example uses Certbot).
• Set the Host proxy header to the reverse proxy FQDN to ensure GitLab and Jira Cloud can connect successfully.

You must use the reverse proxy FQDN only to connect Jira Cloud to GitLab. You must continue to access GitLab from the internal GitLab FQDN. If you access GitLab from the reverse proxy FQDN, GitLab might not work as expected. For more information, see issue 21319.