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

[sarah nuppy]

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.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There is nothing in an Atlassian application that would destroy a file in that way.  Something outside it has destroyed the file.

To recreate it, you should be able to install a new Confluence somewhere and pretty much copy the file out of the clean install, adjusting the handful of settings in it.  Most are standard for any given class of install - standalone, development (SDK) and data-centre ones will differ a lot, but if your original install was built standalone, you can use one from another standalone and just hack the database settings.

However, whatever external process destroyed it could be affecting other parts of the installation, so you really need to find out what script or admin did the damage, so you can assess and prevent it.

[sarah nuppy]

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.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

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]

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.