Bamboo asking for license key

[Tony Fontanilla]

I just upgraded Java on bamboo, as well as the JAVA_OPTS variable in the server config, as well as ran "flush hosts" on the database that bamboo connects to. This enabled the web page to come back up, but now it's going through the new setup process and asking for the license key. Why is it doing that?

[Daniel Santos]

Hi Toni,

Usually, this happens because Bamboo is not finding its home directory or the home directory does not have the database configuration properly set. This scenario triggers the installation wizard so a new installation can be set.

If you had an installation working before and you want to restore it, you need to make sure:

1. You have the <Bamboo_Installation_Folder> with the Bamboo binaries from our website - Download Bamboo - Atlassian
2. The <Bamboo_Installation_Folder>/atlassian-bamboo/WEB-INF/classes/bamboo-init.properties is pointing to <Bamboo_Home_Folder>
3. Your <Bamboo_Home_Folder> is restored as it was before this issue
4. Your database is restored as it was before this issue

Explanation:

A Bamboo installation is composed of 3 main parts:

1. <Bamboo_Installation_Folder>: basically binaries and tomcat configuration
2. <Bamboo_Home_Folder>: general instance configuration (user management, database, AWS, URL, license, ...), build result logs, build working directory, repository caches, and others
3. Database: most of the Bamboo data is located here, everything that really needs to be persisted (plan configuration, build results, deployment configuration, deployment results, repository configuration, local users/groups)

The Bamboo process is started from the installation folder. It knows where is the home directory through the <Bamboo_Installation_Folder>/atlassian-bamboo/WEB-INF/classes/bamboo-init.properties file. Once the home directory is located, all the configurations set there can be loaded including the database details. This is how all three parts are connected.

In other words, if the Bamboo home directory is empty the installation wizard will be triggered so a new instance can be configured.