Attachment Storage Configuration

Confluence 2.2 introduces the ability to store Attachments in one of three places:

Filesystem - locally in the Confluence home directory
Database - in Confluence's configured database
WebDAV - remotely on a WebDAV server

Local filesystem

In the past, Confluence has stored Attachments in the attachments directory within the configured Confluence home folder. This remains the default in version 2.2.

Database

Confluence 2.2 gives administrators the option to store attachments in the database that Confluence is configured to use.

There are a number of reasons why, as an administrator, you may want to choose this storage system:

Ease of backup

Avoid issues with certain characters in attachment filenames

While storing Attachments in the database can offer some advantages, please be aware that the amount of space used by the database will increase, because of the greater storage requirements of Confluence

WebDAV

Confluence also allows administrators to set an external WebDAV repository as the location for Attachment storage.

Migration between Attachment storage systems

An improvement introduced in Confluence 2.2 is the ability to "migrate" between different Attachment storage systems. All existing Attachments will be moved over to the new Attachment storage system.

When the migration occurs, all other users will be locked out of the Confluence instance. This is to prevent modification of Attachments while the migration process occurs. Access will be restored as soon as the migration is complete.

To perform a migration, follow the steps below:

1. View the 'Administration Console'

2. Click on 'Attachment Storage'. The current configuration will be displayed.

Attachment storage configuration

3. Click on the 'Edit' button to modify the configuration. Select the storage system you desire.

Edit attachment storage

4. Click on the 'Save' button to save the changes.

5. A screen will appear, asking you to confirm your changes. Clicking 'Migrate' will take you to a screen that displays the progress of the migration.

Migration warning

Troubleshooting

To enable debug logging for WebDAV attachment storage, add the following to the bottom of WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties and restart Confluence:

log4j.logger.com.atlassian.confluence.pages.persistence.dao=DEBUG,confluencelog
log4j.additivity.com.atlassian.confluence.pages.persistence.dao=false

log4j.logger.org.apache.webdav=DEBUG,confluencelog
log4j.additivity.org.apache.webdav=false