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The Server Base URL is the URL via which users access Confluence. The base URL must be set to the same URL by which browsers will be viewing your Confluence site.

Confluence will automatically detect the base URL during setup, but you may need to set it manually if your site's URL changes or if you set up Confluence from a different URL to the one that will be used to access it publicly.

(info) You need to have System Administrator permissions in order to perform this function.

(warning) The information on this page does not apply to Confluence OnDemand.

To configure the Server Base URL:

  1. In Confluence, open the 'Browse' menu and select 'Confluence Admin'. The 'Administration Console' will open.
  2. Click 'General Configuration' in the left-hand panel.
  3. Click the 'Edit' button next to 'Site Configuration'.
  4. Enter the new URL in the 'Server Base URL' text box.
  5. 'Save' your changes.

Example

If Confluence is installed to run in a non-root context path (that is, it has a context path), then the server base URL should include this context path. For example, if Confluence is running at:

then the server base URL should be:

Notes

  • Using different URLs. If you configure a different base URL or if visitors use some other URL to access Confluence, it is possible that you may encounter errors while viewing some pages.
  • Changing the context path. If you change the context path of your base URL, you may also need to edit the web server's server.xml to reflect the new path.
RELATED TOPICS

Page: Customising Default Space Content
Page: Editing the Site Welcome Message
Page: Editing the Site Title
Page: Configuring the Destination of View Space Links
Page: Configuring the Site Home Page
Page: Configuring the Server Base URL
Page: Editing the Global Logo

22 Comments

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  1. Apr 27, 2007

    Mark

    Server Base URL is problematic if you want to run your (same) wiki instance from multiple subdomains.

    Say I create four spaces:  one, two, three, four

    I want to run http://one.foobar.com/   two.foobar.com  three.foobar.com  four.foobar.com, and as each group logs in they see their space.

    This won't work right?

    Is there a workaround for this? 

    Can the base URL be set according to the server.xml file, where you can enter multiple hosts? 

    1. May 07, 2007

      David Chui

      Hi Mark,

      To confirm, Confluence does not support such configuration as discussed here.

      Unfortunately, there is no workaround. Also, each instance of Confluence is limited to one base URL.

      Regards,
      David

  2. Mar 08, 2010

    Anonymous

    we just started using confluence for our external documentation repository. 

    our confluence instance is accessible via: https://<businessname>.onconfluence.com (https://<businessname>.onconfluence.com).  Now the powers that be want our clients to
    access the site via a friendlier name.  Do we have to create a new instance of Confluence or is there an easier way to modify this.  Changing the Base URL alone won't do it, right?

    Thanks for any guidance.

  3. Mar 08, 2010

    Anonymous

    Oh, the friendlier name is still pending but may be something like: <businessname>.com/support or supportDocuments.onconfluence.

    Thanks.

  4. Mar 10, 2010

    Jordi Wauters

    I raised a support request, but no solution there.

    I wonder if this can be implemented as an Improvement Request?
    A lot of companies work with subdomains, can't the server base url be retrieved from the request?

  5. Mar 10, 2010

    Anonymous

    We implemented a subdomain solution.  Didn't even have to change the base url.  It seems to be working fine.

    1. Mar 11, 2010

      Jordi Wauters

      Hi anon,

      Can you tell me how you did it? Is it tomcat or confluence configuration?

      Thanks in advance!

      jordi.wauters@securex.be

  6. Apr 25, 2010

    Klaus Feldmann

    Hi,

    if you run a single or multiple confluence installation on a server it it best to make sure that following steps are done correctly

    1. set up server.xml to different ports for each instance like example: 8080, 8081, 8082, etc. with corresponding shutown ports example: 8005, 8006, 8087 etc.

    2. make sure to have sufficient discspace and RAM installed as each instance runs its own tomcat. With 4GB of RAM it works fine with upt to 4 Standalones running or crowd, Jira and Confluence on one server.

    3. make sure that the confluence URL does correspond to the ports you did set example Confluence Fails to Process Index Queue Automatically

    4. make sure that your NAT, Router, and Server is set up corresponding to your setup and that you opened the ports for access inside your firewall.

    If you fail to do 4., you wont have access to one or more instance.

    You will encounter search errors if you did not set up 1-3, because macros do look at the server URL and fail to work it it does not include the ports you are using  -- example overall search does work but pagetreesearch inside a space does not.

    If you did once run into trouble that a search result does not appear the content you expected, than you could also redo indexing. I did add a comment also to [indexing|http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Confluence+Fails+to+Process+Index+Queue+Automatically] to give a hint.

    best

    Klaus

  7. Sep 16, 2010

    Anastasia Sirotenko

    Hi,

    After i've changed the Base URL from localhost to more reasonable name that is visible from domain, i cannot get a list of Confluence Gadgets (it shows empty). When i change the Base URL back to localhost, Confluence Gadget list is showing again. What i do wrong?

    Thanks in advance

  8. Jan 25, 2011

    Anonymous

    Hi good afternoon, I am using confluence as a test and I would like to  
    know the manner that I can have the host  in the server of my company,  
    how  I can do this?
    Thank you very much for your help.

    Angela

  9. Jan 25, 2011

    Anonymous

    Hi good afternoon, I am using confluence as a test and I would like to  
    know the manner that I can have the host  in the server of my company,  
    how  I can do this?
    Thank you very much for your help.

    Angela

  10. Feb 03, 2011

    Anonymous

    Hi!

    You should mention in the docs that if you change the path you should edit conf/server.xml too, or it won't work!

    for example, to make http://mycompany.com/confluence work correctly, you need to edit <Context path="" .../> to <Context path="/confluence" .../>

  11. Apr 05, 2011

    Klaus Feldmann

    Target: faster access and load of pages.

    Situation: Confluence Server and computers of users are in the same network and server URL guides local users via web if they try to access the server.  

    Question: I would like to setup confluence in a manner that users within the same local network that the confluence-server is in to access directly (not over WEB) while external users still can use confluence in common manner. Cant find this in the docs – Pleas post a link or a tip.

    1. Jun 07, 2011

      Michael Brinson

      I'm curious to hear if you ever got this set up the way you describe Klaus.  I'd like to set up our environment in the same way and haven't been able to figure it out yet.

      1. Jun 08, 2011

        Klaus Feldmann

        Not jet – fro my understanding it will be an Apache setup but I think links created would not be compatible in use if e.g. an internal user would do a change its notification would include the internal local network link and if an external user clicks on his received e-mail notification link it would point to the local network and vise versa – so no access due to url setup – maybe someone could post an http.d and server.xml  config of how to do it.

        1. Aug 08, 2011

          Michael Brinson

          Only way I've been able to figure on how to do it is via host entries on the pcs in the office that you want to connect directly.  A big pain in the rear if you've got lots of office PCs, but if you've got more than just a handful then you could probably do something via internal dns settings.  Set up an A record that points to the internal ip address using the url that you've assigned for use with jira or confluence.

  12. Apr 14, 2011

    Matt Doar (CustomWare)

    Do short URLs all break if you change the base URL? It seems like it should be documented somewhere but I couldn't find it.

    ~Matt

  13. May 02, 2011

    Anonymous

    I'm not too familiar with the product, but we had an instance running on a server.  The server was renamed.  Now, when you attempt to access the instance, it redirects to old server name with the 'login.action?os_destination=/homepage.action' appended to it.  Is this a problem of the Base Url still pointing to the old server?  I can't access the application because I get a 404 because it can't find the old server name.

    Thank you!

    -Ethan

    1. May 02, 2011

      Klaus Feldmann

      if its redirects you to the old name at login you get the old name therefore you know it and if you go ant exchange this old name with the new name every time its stops loading you will manage that way to get to the administration console to change the old base URL to the new one. It is hard to do so but that way I managed once to have success. That will work if get at least the login window. Your 404 error tells you where it stops and that message can help you to get parts of the old name – maybe it used to include a context name or prefix URL. 

  14. May 03, 2011

    Akhirudin Fahmi

    Hi..

    My company have been using JIRA and Confluence for a couple of years.

    We're planing to change our JIRA & Confluence for example for http://www.mycompany.com into https://jira.mycompany.com

    but, we already have many issues and confluence pages contains the current Base URL.

    so, is there anyway  or tool for doing batch  updates of those URLs?

    Regards,

    Fahmi

    1. May 11, 2011

      Husein Alatas [Atlassian]

      Hi Akhirudin,

      I'd suggest to use this plugin to do the job: Global Search and Replace Plugin. In case you are using a recent Confluence releases, you might want to workaround it as suggested here to make it work.

      Hope that helps,
      Husein

      1. May 30, 2011

        Akhirudin Fahmi

        Hi Husein,

        Thank you for the info, this plug ins is very usefull, anyway do you know this kind of plug ins for JIRA?

        Kind Regards,

        Fahmi