When I try to upgrade Confluence 7.13.0 to version 8.5.3 (I do it as I have always done - manually,

[Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum]

The old instance v. 7.13.0 for some reason no longer wants to run. The user can no longer log in. After restoring from backup, the instance runs for 1 day and then the same thing happens again - the user can no longer log in.

The previous license expired in February 2023 and Atlassian no longer wants to license individual servers. If it is after that what alternatives are there?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum 

As per the answers on this 2021 community post you should be able to upgrade to any Confluence Server version that was released before your license expired. You can find release dates and download versions here:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/download-archives

Based on that page you should be able to upgrade to 7.19.5 or 7.19.6, depending on the exact date in February 2023 that your licensed expired.

Your license won't be renewed by this activity, and you still will not have access to support.

[Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum]

Hello Trudy Claspill,
Thank you very much! That worked. And many thanks for the additional information! Do you happen to know how long you can use version 7.19.5? I mean how long is the lifetime of this version before it starts to cause problems?

Thanks,

Jurij

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm not sure what you mean. I'm not aware of any problems that arise in Jira over time. As a Server edition the product is still subject to the same end of support plans that go into effect next year.

[Trudy Claspill]

If my guidance helped you solve your upgrade problem please consider marking the Answer as Accepted.

[Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum]

I meant the following: the server v. 7.13.0 has suddenly stopped working properly. The instance ran for 1 day, the next day nobody could log in. Restoring from backup only resulted in the instance running again for only 1 day and so on. I noticed this at the beginning of November. At first I thought it was because of a hacker attack. In the log file (atlassian-confluence-security.log) I had seen that several login attempts were made with foreign logins. All were unsuccessful, but the possibility was real. I then looked at the log file atlassian-confluence.log and found the following text: "The End of Life date for Confluence version 7.13 is 16-Aug-2023. To ensure you're still fully supported, you should upgrade before this date." From this information I have gathered that not only will support be discontinued at a certain point in time, but presumably the functionality of Confluence is also somehow time-limited. Eventually, when you no longer have the possibility to upgrade, you will definitely no longer be able to access your own data. I would be interested to know if anyone has any information on whether the functionality of Confluence is time-limited?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum 

"End of life" for a version means only that Atlassian will no longer generate bug fixes or provide support for that version. There is not a "time bomb" in the Server product that will cause it to cease to function after a given date.

You can find Atlassian's EOL policy here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/support/atlassian-support-end-of-life-policy-201851003.html

[Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum]

Trudy Claspill, thank you very much!

[Jurij Ivastsuk-Kienbaum]

After some farther investigations I have found, that with version 7.13.0 it was exactly the Vulnerability discribed in: CVE-2023-22518 - Improper Authorization Vulnerability in Confluence Data Center and Server.