Need to understand the best strategy for changing domains

[David Whitehurst]

I've been running Confluence on this license now for about 4 years as confluence.ciwise.com (CI Wise Inc is my business)

I now work for a large consulting firm and would like to change my 5.9.2 instance and database to use dlwhitehurst.com (personal domain). I would like to be able to call confluence.dlwhitehurst.com and continue using my Confluence.

Is it possible to use my current file and database backups to be able to do this? And, what is Atlassian's best advice for me to accomplish this goal?

[Daniel Eads · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

Before hitting your domain question, I just want to note that Confluence 5.9 is beyond its end-of-life from Atlassian Support. You're of course welcome to continue using that version as long as you want (Server licenses are perpetual!) but if for some reason you have an issue with the product itself, Atlassian Support will only provide help with upgrading to a currently-supported version. 6.14 is the most recent release - you can see info about upgrading Confluence here if you're interested in getting some of the newer features.

OK, now the actual question!

Just changing URLs in Confluence boils down to 4 things:

1. The Base URL in Confluence needs to be updated - see here for steps
2. If you are using a reverse proxy such as Apache, nginx, or IIS, you'll need to update the proxyName property in the server.xml file. This is stored in <confluence's-install-directory>/conf/server.xml - try searching for your current URL (confluence.ciwise.com) in this file and replacing with your new URL. Note that Confluence will need to be restarted if you have to make changes in this file.
3. The actual configuration of your reverse proxy (Apache, nginx, IIS, etc) needs to be updated. This varies by proxy software. If you are using a reverse proxy and can't figure this out, just let me know which reverse proxy you're using and I'll try to provide more guidance. If you're not using a reverse proxy in front of Confluence, this step is not required.
4. The DNS entry for your new domain/URL (confluence.dlwhitehurst.com) need to point at the IP address of the server that you're hosting Confluence on. This is also something that varies greatly depending on where your domain's DNS records are stored. Although this is an "exercise left to the reader", here are Digital Ocean's instructions on updating DNS records.

Confluence will update any links to pages inside Confluence assuming that they were made as wiki links (not raw "web" links using a full web address). In the event that full links were made, we do have a support article with some options to update those links. To be clear, this would only be a problem in pages where full hyperlinks were created in user-generated content. Links that Confluence manages as part of navigation or links created by Confluence in the page editor with the '[' shortcut are both always up to date.

Given the way you phrased your question, I get the impression that you have a copy of your Confluence install and home directories, either a database dump or an XML backup generated by Confluence, and no currently-running Confluence to start up on your new target server. If that's correct, here's the actions I'd recommend:

1. Get the DNS set for your new server
2. Create the empty home and install directories for Confluence.
3. Create a new empty directory in the home directory called restore
4. Copy the backup you have into the restore directory - when you've copied it to its correct path, it will be something like "conf-home/restore/backup.zip"
5. Install Confluence 5.9.2 using the exe or bin installer (depending on if you're using Windows or Linux) from our download archives
6. When you start up Confluence in your browser, you'll have the option to restore as seen in our setup documentation. The backup you put in place in step #4 should appear on this page as an option to restore from. Make sure the "Build Index" checkbox is selected, choose your backup file, and click the Restore button.
7. Make sure the base URL is correct in Confluence once it starts the rest of the way up (see here for steps)

If you run into any issues, let me know and I'll help troubleshoot!

Cheers,
Daniel

[David Whitehurst]

Daniel:

I need to take my time with this so I need to spend some time seeing if I can use my data on a 6.14 install. I rely on my Confluence on travel now but I can test and tinker nights when I'm out of town. 

I'll accept this answer but I'm still not sure whether I continue with 5 or switch to the latest version. If I can use the latest, then I'd love to do that. I get the $10 license every year and being current would be nice.

Thanks,

David

[Daniel Eads]

Sure, no problem! One of the advantages of Server is that you can actually get your 5.9 setup running (to get you migrated to your domain)... Then on a separate server (or on a separate port on the same server if you're comfortable trying that out) you can try the latest 6.14 version with the backup you've got and see if it's to your liking. Both can run concurrently while you decide if the upgraded version is what you want!

Happy to help more if you need it when you've got the time to spend on it :)