Migrating Confluence internal (H2) DB to external MSSQL Database.

[Lorenze Larot]

Hi,

I'm posting this hoping someone can shed some light on the process of migrating our Confluence DB from internal to external MSSQL DB.

So we have this confluence instance v.5.9.1 running on Windows Server 2008 and is using the H2 internal database currenlty. We are planning to use  this into production and as part of Atlassian's recommendation, we need to move this to an external MSSQL DB. (SQL 2012).

I'm looking at this documentation as reference. https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/migrating-to-another-database-148867.html. Should this be the best article for this task.?

Base on the process the migration should go like this.

1. Take note of your add-ons 
   1. Should I only take note of the user installed add-on? does the version for this add-on matters?
2. Back up your data
3. Set up the new database
4. Install Confluence (same version number in a new location)
   1. Do I need to un-install the current confluence installation or just run the setup on top of the existing one?
   2. Should I create a new folder and make that as the new destination directory during the installation?same as the new directory?
      
5. Download and install the database driver if necessary
6. Run confluence setup wizard and copy your data to your new database
7. Re-install your add-ons
8. Check settings for the new machine

Thanks in Advance for your response.

Best,

lorenze 

[Guilherme Viana]

Hi Lorenze,

1. You should take note of your add-ons because they are not stored in the XML file, which you will use to import the content into the new server.
2. Yes. You need to create an XML file backup of your current prod.
3. That's right.
4. a. It's up to you, but you need to ensure the applications are not running on the same port(8090).
    b. It's up to you again. If you already had created the XML, you can just delete every thing in this folder to trigger a new installation.
5. It won't be. Confluence already has a supported driver for MSSQL.
6. You can finish the installation setup and restore the backup file when the option is available.

You can also try the following:

1. Create an XML backup file of your entire production.
2. Create a backup file of the attachments folder inside the *home* folder.
3. Stop the service.
4. Delete all the content of the *home* folder.
5. Start the service.
6. You will see the installation setup screen will appear. That means a new installation from scratch.
7. When the Import backup option appears to you, upload the XML file that you have.
8. Finish the setup.
9. Replace the attachments folder that you "backed-up" before.