Jira Datacenter supports archiving of issues and projects since v8.1. By archiving issues, Jira will remove them from the indexes. The archived issues will still be accessible in read-only mode, however, they will not appear in search results. This enhances Jira performance because it stores less data in the indexes.

As many of the Xray entities are normal Jira issue objects, archiving its issues has the same effect of archiving any other Jira issue type. But additionally, Xray extends this feature by archiving some of its internal data.

The goal of this page is to describe how Xray handles the archiving feature and the effects of it. 

Archiving Test Executions

Archived Test Execution issues no longer appear:

1. In the Test Executions section in the Test Plan issue view
2. In Xray reports and gadgets
3. In document generator exports
4. In search results from Xray built-in JQL functions

Also, archiving a Test Execution issue automatically archives its related Test Runs. Archiving Test Runs will not delete the Test Run information from database, instead they will be:

1. Read-only
2. Omitted from the Test Runs tables in the Test and Test Execution issue view
3. Still be possible to navigate into the execution page and see the execution results
4. No longer used for the calculation of the Test Run Status and Requirement Status
5. Hidden from Xray reports and gadgets
6. Hidden from document generator exports

Test Runs archived via Test Execution issue can be restored at any time by restoring the Test Execution issue.

Archiving Tests

Archived Test issues:

1. No longer participate in the Requirement Status calculation
2. Are no longer taken in account in the Requirement Test Coverage analysis
3. No longer appear in the Tests section in the Test Plan, Test Set and Pre-Condition issue view 
4. Are hidden from Test Repositories and Test Plan Boards
5. Are hidden from Xray reports, gadgets and document generator exports
6. No longer appear in search results from Xray built-in JQL functions

Archiving a Test issue also automatically archives its related Test Runs with the same effects described on the previous section. Test Runs archived via Test issue can be restored at any time by restoring the Test issue.

Archiving Test Plans

Archived Test Plans are no longer used as scope for the Test Run Status and Requirement Status,

Archiving Requirement issues

Archiving Pre-Conditions and Test Sets

Archiving Projects

When archiving a Project its issues are archived as well. If any Test or Test Execution is found, Xray will archive its internal data, namely the Test Runs will be archived and the Tests will be hidden from the Test Repository and Test Plan Boards.

This can be a long running task depending on the amount of Xray internal data to handle. Currently, Jira provides no way of knowing the progress of a project archival. However you can use this:

Effects on Xray built-in reports and gadgets

Archived issues and test runs no longer appear on reports, gadgets ...

Effects on Xray Document Generator

Archived issues and test runs no longer appear on documents exported by docgen ...

Effects on Issue data tables sections

Whenever an issue is archived it is removed from the Lucene indexes and thus no longer appears on JQL search results. This has impact on some of the Xray issue data tables used to present the associations between issues.