Install Bitbucket Server from an archive file

This page describes how to manually install Bitbucket Server from an archive file. However, we strongly recommend that you use the Bitbucket Server installer instead, for a quick and trouble-free install experience.

1. Check supported platforms

Check the Supported platforms page for details of the application servers, databases, operating systems, web browsers and Java and Git versions that we have tested Bitbucket Server with and recommend.

Atlassian only officially supports Bitbucket Server running on x86 hardware and 64-bit derivatives of x86 hardware.

Cygwin Git is not supported. No internal testing is done on that platform, and many aspects of Bitbucket Server's functionality (pull requests and forks among them) have known issues.

2. Check your version of Java

In a terminal or command prompt, run this:

java -version

The version of Java should be  1.8.x . You'll need a 64-bit version of Java if you have a 64-bit operating system.

On Linux, if you don't see a supported version, then get Java...

Install Java

Download Java Server JRE from Oracle's website, and install it.

Now try running 'java -version' again to check the installation. The version of Java should be  1.8.x.

Check that the system can find Java

In a terminal, run this:

echo $JAVA_HOME

You should see a path like /usr/jdk/jdk1.8.0.

If you don't see a path, then set JAVA_HOME

Do one of the following:

  • If JAVA_HOME is not set, log in with 'root' level permissions and run:

    echo JAVA_HOME="path/to/JAVA_HOME" >> /etc/environment

    where  path/to/JAVA_HOME may be like: /usr/jdk/jdk1.8.0

  • If JAVA_HOME needs to be changed, open the  /etc/environment file in a text editor and modify the value for JAVA_HOME to:
    JAVA_HOME="path/to/JAVA_HOME"

    It should look like: /usr/jdk/jdk1.8.0

On macOS, if you don't see a supported version, then get Java...

Install Java

Download Java Server JRE from Oracle's website, and install it.

Now try running 'java -version' again to check the installation. The version of Java should be 1.8.x .

Check that the system can find Java

In a terminal, run this:

echo $JAVA_HOME
You should see a path like /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Home/.

If you don't see a path, then set JAVA_HOME

Open your ~/.profile file in a text editor and insert:

JAVA_HOME="path/to/JAVA_HOME"
export JAVA_HOME

where path/to/JAVA_HOME may be like: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Home/

Refresh your ~/.profile in the terminal and confirm that JAVA_HOME is set:

source ~/.profile
$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -version

You should see a version of Java that is 1.8.x, like this:

java version "1.8.0_1"


3. Check your versions of Git and Perl

In a terminal or command prompt, run:

git --version
perl --version

The version of Git should be 1.8.x or higher. The version of Perl should be 5.8.8 or higher.

If you don't see supported versions of Git and Perl, either install or upgrade them – see Installing and upgrading Git.

4. Now it's time to get Bitbucket Server  

Download Bitbucket Server from the Atlassian download site. Looking for the Bitbucket Server WAR file?

Extract the downloaded file to an install location (without spaces in the path). 

The path to the extracted directory is referred to as the <Bitbucket Server installation directory> in these instructions.

Never unzip the Bitbucket Server archive file over the top of an existing Bitbucket Server installation –  each version of Bitbucket Server includes versioned jar files, such as  bitbucket-model-4.0.0.jar . If you copy these, you end up with multiple versions of Bitbucket Server's jar files in the classpath, which leads to runtime corruption.

Note that you should use the same user account to both extract Bitbucket Server and to run Bitbucket Server (in Step 6.) to avoid possible permission issues at startup. For production installations, we recommend that you create a new dedicated user that will run Bitbucket Server on your system. See Running Bitbucket Server with a dedicated user.

5. Tell Bitbucket Server where to store your data

The Bitbucket Server home directory is where your Bitbucket Server data is stored.

If you are upgrading Bitbucket Server, simply update the value of BITBUCKET_HOME in the <Bitbucket Server installation directory>/bin/set-bitbucket-home file so the new Bitbucket Server installation points to your existing Bitbucket Server home directory (if you use a BITBUCKET_HOME environment variable to specify the home directory location, no change is required).

Otherwise, for a new install, create your Bitbucket home directory (without spaces in the name), and then tell Bitbucket Server where you created it by editing the <Bitbucket Server installation directory>/bin/set-bitbucket-home.sh file – uncomment the BITBUCKET_HOME line and add the absolute path to your home directory. Here's an example of what that could look like when you're done:

#
if ["x${BITBUCKET_HOME}" = "x"]; then
    export BITBUCKET_HOME="/home/username/bitbucket_home"
fi

You should not locate your Bitbucket home directory inside the   <Bitbucket Server installation directory>  — they should be entirely separate locations. If you do put the home directory in the <Bitbucket Server installation directory> it may be overwritten, and lost, when Bitbucket Server gets upgraded. And by the way, you'll need separate Bitbucket Server home directories if you want to run multiple instances of Bitbucket Server.


6. Move server.xml to your Bitbucket Server home shared directory

If this is a new installation, or you are already running Stash 3.8 or above, you can skip to the next step.

If you are upgrading from Stash 3.7 or earlier and you made any changes to <Bitbucket Server installation directory>/conf/server.xml (for instance to secure your server with SSL):

  1. In the <BITBUCKET_HOME> directory, make a new directory called shared.
  2. Then, copy your modified server.xml file into <BITBUCKET_HOME>/shared/. Ensure the copied file is readable by the user account that runs Bitbucket Server.

7. (Optional) Install and configure a remote search server

Bitbucket Server 4.5+ comes with a bundled search server, which runs as a separate process from the Bitbucket Server application, and does not require any extra configuration. 

If you plan to use the bundled search server, jump to the next step, Start Bitbucket Server! 

However, you can also install a search server on a remote machine, which can provide some advantages allocating memory resources. Read the instructions for installing and configuring a remote search server at Install and configure a remote Elasticsearch server and Install and configure a remote OpenSearch server.

Bundled search server ports

Bitbucket Server's bundled search server requires ports 7992 and 7993 be available to provide code search functionality. This is not configurable, so ensure these ports are available.


8. Start Bitbucket Server!

There are a couple of ways in which you can start Bitbucket Server – see Start and stop Bitbucket.

If you've setup a remote search server you do not want to start the bundled search server.

To start Bitbucket Server with a remote search server

When using a remote search server, instead of the bundled search server, start Bitbucket Server by running start-bitbucket.sh --no-search. This starts Bitbucket Server alone without running the bundled search server.

Finish configuring Bitbucket Server

Now, in your browser, go to http://localhost:7990/ and run through the Setup Wizard. In the Setup Wizard:

9. Set up your mail server

Configure your email server so users can receive a link from Bitbucket Server that lets them generate their own passwords. See Setting up your mail server.

10. Add users and repositories

Now is the time to set up your users in Bitbucket Server, and to tell Bitbucket Server about any existing repositories you have. Please the following pages for the details:

Additional steps for production environments

For production or enterprise environments we recommend that you configure the additional aspects described on Use Bitbucket in the enterprise. The aspects described there are not necessary when you are installing for evaluation purposes only.

If you wish to install Bitbucket Server as a service on Linux, see Run Bitbucket as a Linux service.

 

Stopping Bitbucket Server

See Start and stop Bitbucket.

Uninstalling Bitbucket Server

To uninstall Bitbucket Server, stop Bitbucket Server as described above and then delete the <Bitbucket Server installation directory> and Set the home directory.

Last modified on May 22, 2024

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