FAQ
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The Bitbucket Server product
Q: Why did you create a new product for Git repository management? Couldn't you build this into Fisheye?
A: In Fisheye 2.7 we added basic capabilities to host and manage Git repositories within Fisheye. However, as we were planning future releases, we realized that the architecture of Fisheye, built to index, browse and search across various SCMs, was not adequate for a DVCS repository management tool.
Therefore we have made the decision to build a new product, with a clear focus: hosting and managing Git repositories. Instead of a "Jack of all trades", we will have two products that are focused on 2 very different tasks:
- Bitbucket Server – Host, manage and collaborate on Git repositories, and
- Fisheye – Track, search and browse Subversion, Perforce, Git, Mercurial and CVS repositories in one place.
Q: What about Git repository management in Fisheye and Crucible?
A: Internally managed Git repositories were deprecated in Fisheye and Crucible 2.8, and support for these was removed for the Fisheye and Crucible 3.2 releases. We encourage those interested in Git repository management to check out Bitbucket Server.
Fisheye and Crucible will continue to deliver new features and enhancements to help users browse, search, review and visualize across different Version Control Systems including Git, Subversion, Mercurial, Perforce and CVS.
Q: Does Fisheye require Bitbucket Server? Does Bitbucket Server require Fisheye? Can they be used together?
A: Fisheye and Bitbucket Server are two separate standalone products that do not require each other.
If you are using multiple source code management systems (SCM) at your organization it makes sense to use both Fisheye and Bitbucket Server. While you are managing your Git repositories with Bitbucket Server, you can use Fisheye to browse, search and reference code from other SCMs including Subversion.
Also, if you are using Git, Bitbucket Server will provide your Git repository management, and Fisheye will be a central place to keep track of changes and search for code across your repositories.
Q: Will Bitbucket Server be available for Atlassian Cloud?
A: Bitbucket Server will not be available in Atlassian Cloud. If you are looking for a distributed version control solution to use with Atlassian Cloud, we recommend using Bitbucket, our cloud-based Git and Mercurial source code hosting solution.
Q: What is the difference between Bitbucket Server and Bitbucket Data Center?
Bitbucket Server is a single instance of Bitbucket Server running on a single machine. It can only handle as much load as a single machine is capable of handling before performance degrades, and if the machine goes down for any reason (for example, hardware failure, network fault, or planned maintenance), then Bitbucket Server is unavailable to users for the duration of the downtime.
Bitbucket Data Center, on the other hand, looks like a single instance of Bitbucket Server to users, but under the hood consists of a cluster of multiple machines ("cluster nodes") each running the Bitbucket Server web application, behind a load balancer. This provides important benefits over Bitbucket Server:
Performance at scale: A cluster of many machines running Bitbucket Server can handle more load than a single machine.
High availability: If one cluster node goes down, then the remaining cluster node(s) can continue servicing requests so users should see little or no loss of availability.
- Instant scalability: You can rapidly provision extra capacity without downtime.
For more information see Bitbucket Data Center and the Bitbucket Data Center FAQ.
Repositories
Q: Does Bitbucket Server support Mercurial (Hg)? What about other version control systems?
A: Currently Bitbucket Server does not support Mercurial. We will be gauging demand for Mercurial support as we move forward - STASH-2469 - Getting issue details... STATUS
Integration
Q: Does Bitbucket Server work with Jira Software? If so, what version of Jira Software do I need to run Bitbucket Server?
A: Bitbucket Server works with Jira 4.3+. However, you will require the latest version of the Jira/Fisheye plugin to view commits in Jira Software. See our documentation on Jira Software integration.
Q: Will Bitbucket Server integrate with any other Atlassian Tools? Crowd? Bitbucket? Sourcetree?
A: Bitbucket Server currently integrates with Jira Software, Sourcetree DVCS Mac client and Crowd user management solution. You can also connect to Bitbucket Server via Bamboo to run your builds and deployments and we are planning even tighter integrations in the future.
Licensing
Q: Does my Bitbucket Server license have to match the number of users in my external directory (LDAP, Active Directory, Crowd or Jira Software)?
A: No. You can control which users in your external directory have access to Bitbucket Server, so that the license limit is not exceeded. A user is by definition any account that has permission to log into the Bitbucket Server application. If you synchronize Bitbucket Server with an external user directory, you can grant access to Bitbucket Server to a subset of users, so as to stay below your license limit. The Global permissions page explains in detail how to manage login rights for users and groups in Bitbucket Server.
Q: The number of users in my instance has exceeded my license count. Will Bitbucket Server still work properly?
A: As stated in the Global permissions document, any user assigned "Bitbucket Server User" permission or higher, granted to the individual or via a group, will count towards the license limit. Bitbucket Server will not allow you to grant the "Bitbucket Server User" permission if this will exceed the license limit while manually adding users using Bitbucket Server UI. If you happen to exceed the license limit by connecting your Bitbucket Server instance to a User Directory that contains more users than your license allows, Bitbucket Server gives you a 24 hour grace period to solve the problem. A banner displaying the remaining grace period will be shown to all users to raise awareness of the issue. If the license is still exceeded after the grace period has expired, Bitbucket Server will display a banner with the content below:
You have more users than your license allows.
Users will not be able to push commits to repositories until you restrict the number of active users to match your license or you upgrade your current license.
You don't have to remove users from the database in order to reduce your license count, instead, you can revoke access to the "Bitbucket Server User" permission through individual or group assignments.
Data recovery and backups
Q: Can I use the Zero Downtime Backup method for versions prior to 4.8?
A: No. Zero Downtime Backup can only be used with with Bitbucket 4.8 or later. See Data recovery and backups to read more about the various backup options available.
Q: Can I restore the .tar file created by the backup client into a database that is different from my original one (i.e. Oracle -> MySQL, etc.)?
A: Yes you can, as long as you specify all the jdbc parameters (jdbc.override, jdbc.driver, etc.) when running the restore. Please read Restoring Bitbucket Server into a newly created DB for more details.
Q: I forgot the user/password for my old database schema. How will I perform the restore using the backup client? How does it work?
A: As described in Restoring Bitbucket Server into a newly created DB, the restore client will only restore into an empty home directory and an empty database. The new database should be configured following the instructions in Connect Bitbucket to an external database and its sub-page that corresponds to your database type. If you want to use a different type of database or a different user/password, you just need to specify all the jdbc parameters (jdbc.override, jdbc.driver, etc) when running the restore.
Q: What is the difference between the parameter pairs "bitbucket.user & bitbucket.password" and " jdbc.user & jdbc.password"?
A: bitbucket.user and bitbucket.password hold the credentials for a Bitbucket Server sys admin user. They are only used during the backup procedure so that the backup client can lock Bitbucket Server and instruct Bitbucket Server to perform the database-agnostic backup. The backup client does not need database credentials because the Bitbucket Server system performs the database backup.
jdbc.user and jdbc.password are only used during the restore procedure when jdbc.override is set to true. They are used to connect to the newly-installed database.
Q: I backed up Bitbucket Server of a particular version using the backup client. Can I restore Bitbucket Server to a newer release version?
A: No. You need to use the same Bitbucket Server binary as the one originally used to back up your instance. Note that using an older Bitbucket Server binary will result in an error – downgrades are not possible. See Bitbucket Server Backup Client for details on the backup/restore procedure.
Once you have restored Bitbucket Server, you can upgrade to a newer version of Bitbucket Server following the instructions in the Bitbucket Server upgrade guide.
Troubleshooting
Q: I'm getting a "broken pipe" error when pushing my commits.
A: This error occurs when the amount of data you’re trying to push in one go exceeds Git’s http post buffer. Just run the following command to increase it to 500MB.
git config http.postBuffer 524288000See Git push fails with 'fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly'.