Problem scenario
You are trying to install Jira on Linux. You log into the web UI to finish configuration. The process stalls at this stage:
" Finishing your setup
Now sit back while we set up your JIRA instance. It will take a minute or two to complete.
Configuring your database
Initializing the plugin system - Don't worry, I'm still working..."
On the back-end you may notice the server's load average gets above 5. If you are very patient and wait 30 minutes you notice it gets back down to a normal healthy level, but the web UI keeps showing the above with a circle moving near the "Initializing the plugin system..." line.
How do you get Jira to complete the installation?
Solution
Root cause
Insufficient memory. On the back end the catalina.out file may have the word "error" near a message about insufficient memory.
Procedures
Do one of the following:
1. Resize the VM, or upgrade the physical server, to have 3 GB of RAM. Click here for AWS resizing directions or here for GCP resizing directions.
2. Ensure that the server has at least 1 GB of RAM and 2 GB of virtual memory. For directions on adding or configuring virtual memory, see this posting.
Background Information
As of 3/28/18 we found that Atlassian says that Jira, for evaluation purposes, only needs 1 GB of RAM.
Here is the external link. We find the posted requirements for installing Jira are not completely accurate. We find that 2 GB of virtual memory can make the installation work with 1 GB of RAM. In the absence of virtual memory, we were not able to install Jira on a Linux server with 1 GB or less of RAM.