8.0 Confluence 3.x Setup

Install Required Libraries

In order to render thumbnails and related functionality you need certain x-windows libraries. Refer to the list from the Confluence install instructions and make sure to use the list matching your version of Confluence.

PostgreSQL

Confluence comes with its own embedded database called hsqldb. However, for real production use you should use a full fledged database like PostgreSQL.

Install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu

Install PostgreSQL6.0 PostgreSQL on Ubuntu.

Install Confluence

Core Package

Download the tar.gz install package and decompress it,

su - serveradmin # if you are not already
gunzip confluence-3.2-std.tar.gz
tar -xvpf confluence-3.2-std.tar
su - bhitch # log in as a staff user that can run sudo
# Use specific version numbers. This will make upgrade easier in the future.
sudo mv home/serveradmin/confluence-3.2-std /opt/

Next, we make the symbolic link directory. Scripts and anything else you do will use the symbolic link directory. When the new version of Confluence comes along you have various options for upgrading.

su - bhitch # log in as a staff user that can run sudo
cd /opt
# make a symbolic link which scripts and commands can run against
sudo ln -s ./confluence-3.2-std ./confluence

Manually Setup JDK

I use a manual Java setup with an instance of Java specifically for the application.

Log in as your staff account which has sudo access to perform the actual move to /opt/

cd /home/serveradmin
sudo mv ./jdk1.6.0_16/ /opt/confluence/java # moves and renames the directory in one step

Configure Confluence to Use JDK

The downloaded Confluence package is powered by Tomcat. You can specify Tomcat use a specific java directory by modifying the Confluence setenv.sh file as described at Running Tomcat with a specific JRE version.

Configure Data Directory

Also we need to create the home directory,

su - serveradmin
cd ~
mkdir confluence-data # Don't use specific version numbers here because the data will actually be upgraded
su - bhitch # to get sudo access
sudo mv /home/serveradmin/confluence-data /opt/

As serveradmin, set the home (data) directory by modifying the files, /opt/confluence/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties, go to the bottom of the file,

Configure PostgreSQL

These are the command line version of the instructions from Confluences wiki on setting up an external database.

The commands were derived from the visual guide by Confluence.

First log into the PostgreSQL prompt as explain in PostgreSQL on Ubuntu.

Create the confluence database admin account by typing in these commands,

CREATE ROLE confluencedbuser LOGIN ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'putYourPasswordHere'
NOINHERIT
VALID UNTIL 'infinity';
COMMENT ON ROLE confluencedbuser IS 'Account used by the Confluence application.';

Create the database.

CREATE DATABASE confluencedb
WITH ENCODING='UTF8'
OWNER=confluencedbuser
CONNECTION LIMIT=-1;

Finally quit the PostgreSQL prompt,

Confluence 3.2 does include a JDBC driver for PostgreSQL. However, because we are using the newest version of Java download the JDBC4 driver from the PostgreSQL website.

First delete the jdbc3 driver,rm /opt/confluence/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/postgresql-8.4-701.jdbc3.jar
Then, place the JDBC Driver postgresql-8.4-701.jdbc4.jar into the <confluence-install-path>/confluence/WEB-INF/lib folder.

Starting the Confluence Service

We will now start Confluence for the first time to initialize everything.

cd /opt/confluence/bin/
./startup.sh

Next, hit the website with a browser, http://localhost:8080/ or change localhost to the ip address if you are not launching the browser off of the server.

The very first time Confluence starts it asks you to make selections,

1. Choose custom
2. Makes sure PostgreSQL is selected (it should be by default) click External Database.
3. Direct JDBC
4. Fill out the form,
   1. Database URL: Change the default line, jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/confluence to jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/confluencedb
   2. User: confluencedbuser
   3. Pass: the pasword you used earlier to create the user
5. The intial user will be called "Server Admin" with user name serveradmin

Optimize Confluence

There are some basic tasks we should do before getting other people on board.

Once logged in go to, Browser, Confluence Admin. There are tasks there that Confluence recommends, the most important to us being,

1. Disable automatic backup
2. Setup email
3. Update Confluence plugins

Connect Apache to Confluence using Mod_JK

As this install of Confluence is powered by Tomcat we can front Confluence with the Apache Web Server.

First we must enable the standard port 9009.

Once port 9009 is enabled, mod_jk can be enabled by following the Apache Tomcat Connector instructions.

Stopping the Service

There appears to be a problem with shutting down the Confluence server. According to Atlassian, this only happens on certain configuration and they are not able to determine yet why. I have personally experienced this on pretty much every type of Ubuntu system setup by myself and by others. So here are the steps to ensure Confluence actually shuts down,

ps -ef | grep java | grep confluence

Then try the ./shutdown.sh

ps -ef | grep java | grep confluence

Which usually shows it is still running so then I do,

kill #### where #### is the process id

Future Upgrade Notes

s part of planning for future upgrades listed here are the key files to keep in mind,

• \bin\setevn.sh
• \bin\shutdown.sh
• \bin\startup.sh
• \bin\conf\server.xml
• confluence\WEB-INF\classes\confluence-init.properties
• opt\confluence-3.2.1_01-std\postgresql-8.4-701.jdbc4.jar - add
• opt\confluence-3.2.1_01-std\postgresql-8.4-701.jdbc3.jar - remove

The package dependencies change between confluence versions. You should check if there are differences. For example look at the difference between 3.1 and 3.2 ,

confluence-3.1

• libice-dev - nolonger used
• libsm-dev - nolonger used
• libx11-dev - used
• libxext-dev - nolonger used
• libxp-dev - nolonger used
• libxt-dev - nolonger used
• libxtst-dev - used

confluence-3.2

• libx11-6 - new
• libx11-dev - carry over
• libxt6 - new
• libxt6-dbg - new
• libxext6 -new
• libxtst-dev - carry over
• libxtst6 - new
• xlibs-dbg - new
• xlibs-dev - new

Also, keep a page listing any plugins you install. Upgrades generally do not require you to reinstall the plugins but they might be deprecated so make that after the upgrade is done, login as Administrator on Confluence and ensure plug-ins are up to date.