CONFLUENCE does not start anymore - confluence.cfg.xml was destroyed

Question

My confluence server does not start anymore.

Analysing revealed that confluence.cfg.xml has 3kB but is filled with zeros only, so it is an invalid config file.

Is there a chance to get the system up again?
Is there a chance to get the data back?

This is extremely frustrating and causes doubts into using Atlassian products for me.

sarah nuppy · Answer

Thank you Nic

I have no clue which Confluence I have. It does not start at all.  Which file should I check to find out the version?

Is there any sample for the config file?

I had a straightforward installation with maybe some plugins that were not very important. Maybe with a template of a config I could get it running.

If you have hints on that, I would appreciate.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Are you telling me you are on Confluence 2?  That bug does exist, I'd forgotten it, as it's so old.  But, it just empties the file, it does not write 0s over it.  Which is why I still think it's going to be an external thing.

Do you need a hand editing a copy of the config file?

sarah nuppy · Answer

Thank you fo your constructive reply. Much effort, but promising.

Cetainly this is a bug or whatever you want to call it: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-9715

No other process goes into the Atlassian directory, overwriting the config file with zeros - never ever.