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Confluence Cluster Installation with Existing Data

Added by Matt Ryall, last edited by Per Fragemann on Feb 22, 2008  (view change)
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Confluence 2.9 Documentation

Index

Overview

There are two methods of installing Confluence in a cluster, depending on whether you have existing data. This page describes how to upgrade an existing Confluence instance into a cluster.

See also Cluster installation without existing data.

Cluster installation from an existing copy of Confluence

To upgrade an existing copy of Confluence to run in a two-node cluster, you must do the following:

  1. Ensure that your standalone version of Confluence has been upgraded to the version you want to run the Cluster on. Do not upgrade your version of Confluence and switch to the clustered version at the same time. First upgrade your system (e.g. from Confluence 2.5.8 Standalone to 2.7.1 Standalone) and make sure everything works fine (e.g. for a week) before switching (e.g. from Confluence 2.7.1 Standalone to 2.7.1 Clustered)
  2. Ensure you meet the clustering requirements, including obtaining a clustered license key from Atlassian for each node
  3. Upgrade the existing Confluence instance to a clustered license
  4. Enable clustering and select a cluster name
  5. Shut down the first node, copy the Confluence application and Confluence home directory to the second node
  6. Start the first node, wait until it is running, then bring up the second node and it will automatically join the cluster
  7. Test the cluster is working correctly
  8. Configure a load balancer in front of the two clustered nodes.

Each of these steps will be described in detail below.

1. Clustering requirements

Your Confluence cluster installation must meet all the following criteria for clustering:

  • you must be running Confluence 2.3 or later
  • you must have a clustered license
  • you must use an external database
  • you must use a load balancer with session affinity in front of the cluster.

Clustered licenses are available through the Confluence website.

A cluster can run using two copies of Confluence Standalone. However, cluster administrators must understand how to configure an application server and web server with load balancing, so we recommend you are comfortable installing Confluence as a EAR/WAR in your application server before proceeding with a clustered installation.

You can follow the instructions to Migrate Confluence to an external database.

2. Upgrade existing instance to clustered license

Once you've obtained your clustered license from Atlassian, you can simply update the license in your running Confluence instance:

  1. Go to 'Administration'.
  2. Go to 'License Details', and paste in the new license.
  3. Click 'Save'.

When you enter a clustered license, you will see a new line appear on this page: Licensed Clustered Nodes. This tells you how many nodes your Confluence license will allow.


License Details page shows the number of cluster nodes permitted

3. Enable clustering and select a cluster name

When you change Confluence to use a cluster license, a new menu option will be revealed on the left: Cluster Configuration. Open this menu item to configure your cluster.

On this page, you need to enter a name for your cluster, and possibly select which network interface on your server will be used for the cluster (only if you have more than one suitable interface).

Clicking 'Start cluster' will migrate your attachments to the database, then prevent any access to Confluence until it is restarted.

Technical note
The cluster name will be converted into a unique multicast IP address and port for your Confluence cluster. UDP multicast traffic is used for Confluence to automatically discover other nodes in the cluster when they start up.

4. Copy Confluence to second node

For the remaining steps in setting up a cluster with existing data, please continue from step 4 in the normal Confluence cluster installation guide.

5. Start Confluence on the first node, wait, then start Confluence on second node

See comment in step 4.

6. Test cluster connectivity

See comment in step 4.

7. Configure load balancer

See comment in step 4.

Troubleshooting

If you have problems with the above procedure, please see our Cluster Troubleshooting guide.

Upgrading a cluster

It is important that upgrades follow the procedure for Upgrading a Confluence Cluster.

Related documentation

Overview of Confluence Clusters
Confluence Cluster Installation
Confluence Installation Guide
Upgrading a Confluence Cluster
Confluence User Guide

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Comments (4)

 

  1. Jun 19, 2007

    Garnet R. Chaney says:

    Tried entering a single word for "Cluster Name" and it generated a seemingly ran...

    Tried entering a single word for "Cluster Name" and it generated a seemingly random address that I am sure is not valid on our network. This is confusing and very different than other systems. Shouldn't I be able to choose the IP address to make sure there are no conflicts? In most other systems doing broadcast packets, I would expect this to be a 255 address on our subnet. For example, if our wikis were on 66.66.66.xx, I'd expect the multicast to be configured to 66.66.66.255.

    1. Jun 20, 2007

      Rosie Jameson says:

      Could you please log a support request at

      Could you please log a support request at http://support.atlassian.com, so that our Support team can assist you?

      Alternatively, please raise an Improvement request in the Confluence project at http://jira.atlassian.com

      Thank you 

  2. Feb 14, 2008

    Paul Curren says:

    In current versions of Confluence there is a defect in the attachment migration ...

    In current versions of Confluence there is a defect in the attachment migration process. See this issue.

    In summary, you need to explicitly migrate your attachments to the database before you enter the new cluster license. Instructions on attachment storage options can be found here.

  3. Mar 19

    Peter R. says:

    Our Websphere administrators are chuckling over our requirement that we bring up...

    Our Websphere administrators are chuckling over our requirement that we bring up one node only to turn on Clustering and name it. They say that a load balanced cluster brings both nodes online at the same time with the same configuration.

    So, suggestions on how to proceed? Anyone?

    Peter

    Captcha: "brainy" - I'm not feeling so brainy after my conversation with the Websphere folks!

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