Changed hostname on confluence, and can't access site.

[Trae_McCombs]

So first of all, we have a working confluence setup now.  We've fixed the "glitch" as it were.  However, we really want to understand why what we did works and how to REALLY fix the problem and not hack around it like it feels we've done.

We recently changed the hostname of our server and then consequently, Confluence stopped working.  We pulled our hair out forever. Trying to find logs that seem hidden in /var/atlassian/application-data/confluence/logs – This is a horrible location and should be in $INSTALL_DIR/logs e.g. /opt/confluence/logs.

At any rate...  when we finally found the right log files, we were able to suss out that it could be a problem with our hostname.

The Fix:

In our /etc/hosts we put:   $IPADDRESS $FQDomainName $NEWHOSTNAME

Original setup:

Originally we had:  $IPADDRESS $FQDomainName

We didn't have:  $IPADDRESS $FQDomainName $OLDHOSTNAME.

So what gives?  Why does this work, and what is / should be the proper solution to this issue.

fwiw:  $OLDHOSTNAME != $NEWHOSTNAME

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The log files are kept in the running data directory, the installation directory is probably the wrong default place for them.  You can, of course, place them anywhere you like.  I tend to go the other way and put the server logs (tomcat) in the data directory as well.

What you've done in your hosts file is aliased the old host name to the right place.  This is workable as a fix, but the proper solution is probably to get your host names set up correctly in your DNS system, and not have anything in hosts at all.