Restore SQL files to new SQL 2014 DB?

Question

Hello, The VM running our Confluence instance completely crashed. We do have a backup of the SQL Express 2012 database (.mdf and .ldf files, the SQL_Data folder) - I'm hoping this is enough to restore our wiki. I have a new Windows 2012 R2 built with SQL 2014 fully patched and ready to go. Confluence is not yet installed as I was unsure what the next steps are.Curious if this is even feasible?

Daniel Eads {unmonitored account} · Answer

In addition to the Confluence installation directory, there's data stored in two more places:

* Database - this is where all the user info, pages, spaces, etc. are stored. Sounds like you have that under control (although MS SQL is pretty terrible with all Atlassian products, consider moving to MySQL/PostgreSQL if that's available to you and somebody in your organization can support those databases)
* Confluence Home - where the database configuration file is, the application logs, and all of your attachments. If you can't recover this directory, all the file uploads (images, PDFs, etc) that people have included on pages will be gone. This is typically near the same place as your Confluence install directory - for instance on Windows if Confluence was installed to D: \Confluence, you might find the home directory in some place like D: \ConfluenceData.

Hopefully you can recover the disk image of where the Confluence/Confluence Home directories were, or you will have a rough time coming back. Good luck!

chucktalk · Answer

Hi IT Admin,

I do not know if the MSSQL Express 2012 will restore into SQL Server 2014 directly, but the procedure to Migrate Confluence Between Servers does provide the steps to do what you are seeking to do. Specifically, read the section entitled  'Transferring Confluence to Another Server using the Same Operating System' as that has the specific steps required to migrate your instance of Confluence using a backup.

I do hope that helps.

Chuck