# Process overview

**The Jira backup process overview outlines the steps GitProtect takes to securely back up your Jira organization's data.**

***

## General information

**GitProtect** is designed to protect **DevOps** ecosystems, including **Jira**.

With **GitProtect**, you can create separate backup plans for critical and non-critical spaces within the same **Jira** instance. Each plan can use different rotation scheme and backup method, ensuring your entire **Jira** environment is reliably protected.

For example, you can use the recommended Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) rotation scheme for backup plans protecting critical spaces and metadata that change daily—or even more frequently. For unused spaces that must be retained for future reference, you can create a separate backup plan with a custom rotation scheme. This type of backup primarily serves **Jira** archival purposes, and with unlimited retention, copies can be stored for as long as needed—even indefinitely.

{% hint style="success" %}
You can delete spaces from your **Jira** account while keeping a copy in storage, which helps bypassing **Jira** limits.
{% endhint %}

***

## Backup methods

{% hint style="danger" %}
Due to **Atlassian** API changes taking effect on March 30, 2026, the current disaster recovery backup and restore functionality will no longer be available. **To ensure continued protection of your Jira data, please switch to the granular backup plan.** Data previously protected with disaster recovery backups can still be restored using the granular restore option.
{% endhint %}

When creating a **Jira** backup plan, you must define how **GitProtect** will protect your data. You can choose between two protection methods: granular backup or disaster recovery backup. This choice determines the scope of data captured during each backup and the level of flexibility available during restore operations.

**Granular backup** focuses on individual **Jira** components, such as issues, projects, or attachments, allowing you to restore specific items when needed. In granular backup, each space (project) is handled as an individual task — if an error occurs during execution, only the spaces that were successfully backed up will have a restorable backup available.

**Disaster recovery backup** covers the entire **Jira** environment in a single operation, enabling you to restore the whole **Jira** instance in case of a major failure or service disruption.

{% hint style="success" %}
**GitProtect** allows granular recovery to be enabled for a **Jira** disaster recovery backup.
{% endhint %}

The following table outlines the core differences between a granular backup and a disaster recovery backup.

| Feature                                                              | Granular backup | Disaster recovery backup |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------------: | :----------------------: |
| Select spaces (projects) to protect (all, selected, based on rules). |        ✅        |             ❌            |
| Select individual data to protect**\***.                        |        ✅        |             ❌            |
| Exclude **Jira** issues (work items).                                |        ✅        |             ❌            |
| Skip corrupted issue attachments.                                    |        ✅        |             ❌            |

<sub>**\***</sub><sub>Select individual data to protect, along with a short description of the dependencies visible in the interface (includes information about object activity history, which is disabled by default because it may affect backup performance).</sub>

***

## Backup storage

**GitProtect** is a multi-storage system that allows you to store your data in the cloud, locally, or in a hybrid/multi-cloud environment. You can use different storage types to replicate backups, reduce the risk of outages or disasters, and comply with the 3-2-1 backup rule — which means having at least three copies of your data on two different storage types, with at least one copy stored in the cloud.

{% hint style="info" %}
Learn more about supported storage types in [this article](https://helpcenter.gitprotect.io/storage/supported-storage-types).
{% endhint %}