Bitbucket Server Backup fails due to an invalid home directory
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Problem
An attempt to create a backup using the Bitbucket Server Backup Client fails and the following appears in the <path/to/backup/client>/log/atlassian-sbc-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.log:
ERROR [main] c.a.b.i.backup.client.BackupMain A backup could not be created. Reason: The configured BITBUCKET_HOME, <path/to/bitbucket_home/folder>, does not appear to be a valid home directory. Creating a backup requires direct access to the home directory for the running instance to allow it to interact with the repositories.
com.atlassian.bitbucket.internal.backup.client.BackupException: The configured BITBUCKET_HOME, <path/to/bitbucket_home/folder>, does not appear to be a valid home directory. Creating a backup requires direct access to the home directory for the running instance to allow it to interact with the repositories.
at com.atlassian.bitbucket.internal.backup.client.layout.DefaultApplicationHome.verify(DefaultApplicationHome.groovy:82) ~[bitbucket-backup-core-2.0.1.jar:na]
at com.atlassian.bitbucket.internal.backup.client.DefaultBackupClient.doBackup(DefaultBackupClient.groovy:49) ~[bitbucket-backup-client.jar:2.0.1]
Cause
Cause #1: The specified path for the BITBUCKET_HOME or the bitbucket.home variable (for the example above <path/to/bitbucket_home/folder>) is not valid.
Cause #2: The BITBUCKET_HOME needs to be directly accessible by the backup client
It is important to differentiate between the Bitbucket Home directory and the Bitbucket installation directory. This public document can be used as a reference.
Resolution
Resolution #1
To resolve this issue, there are 2 ways of specifying the bitbucket.home property. The details of each one of the options are described on the document below:
Option 1
Use the command line and pass the -Dbitbucket.home=</correct/path/to/bitbucket_home/folder> argument.
For a complete sample working command line refer to document above.
Option 2
Define the bitbucket.home variable by editing the default backup-config.properties file and changing it into </correct/path/to/bitbucket_home/folder>.
Resolution #2
Please run the backup client on the machine where Bitbucket server is running or mount the BITBUCKET_HOME volume on the remote host with read access.