Unattended installation

If you've previously installed Confluence using the Windows or Linux installer, you can use a configuration file from your existing Confluence installation (response.varfile) to re-install Confluence in unattended mode, no user input required.

This can be useful when you have installed Confluence on a test server and are ready to install on your production server with the same configuration. 


Good to know

  • The response.varfile file contains the options specified during the installation wizard steps of your previous Confluence installation. Don't uninstall your previous Confluence installation until after you've copied this file to your new install location.
  • If you decide to modify the response.varfile file, make sure all directory paths specified are absolute, for example, sys.installationDir=C\:\‌\Program Files\\Atlassian\‌\Confluence 
    (Windows) or sys.installationDir=/opt/atlassian/confluence (Linux). 

    Unattended installations will fail the file contains relative directory paths.  

  • It's not possible to automate the database configuration step. This must be done via the setup wizard in your browser. 

Install Confluence in unattended mode

These steps cover where you have an existing Confluence installation. 

  1. Download the appropriate installer for your operating system.
     
  2. Copy <installation-directory>/.install4j/response.varfile from your existing Confluence installation to where you downloaded the installer. 
     
  3. In command prompt or terminal change directory (cd) to where you downloaded the installer. 
     

  4. Run the following command to install Confluence:

    Windows
    > atlassian-confluence-X.X.X-x64.exe -q -varfile response.varfile
    Linux
     $ atlassian-confluence-X.X.X-x64.bin -q -varfile response.varfile


    Where X.X.X is the Confluence version you downloaded. 

    -q instructs the installer to run in unattended mode (quietly).  -varfile specifies the location and name of the configuration file containing the options used by the installer.  
     

  5. Confluence will start automatically once the silent installation finishes. 
     

Once Confluence is installed, you will still need to head to http://localhost:<port> to finish setting up Confluence. 

See the Set up Confluence section on Installing Confluence on Windows or Installing Confluence on Linux for more info. 

Create your own response.varfile

It is also possible to create your own response.varfile, rather than one generated by an existing installation, if you are installing Confluence for the first time. 

Example response.varfile
app.confHome=/var/atlassian/application-data/confluence6_15_5
app.install.service$Boolean=false
portChoice=custom
httpPort$Long=26112
rmiPort$Long=8001
launch.application$Boolean=false
sys.adminRights$Boolean=true
sys.confirmedUpdateInstallationString=false
sys.installationDir=/opt/atlassian/confluence6_15_5
sys.languageId=en

The following parameters can be included in the file. 

ParametersAccepted valuesDescription
app.confHome
This is the path to your target local home directory.
app.install.service$Boolean
  • true
  • false

Determines whether Confluence should be installed as a service.

portChoice
  • custom
  • default
Determines whether Confluence should be installed with default ports.
httpPort$Long
If portChoice is custom, this sets the HTTP connector port in Tomcat.
rmiPort$Long
If portChoice is custom, this sets the Tomcat server port.
launch.application$Boolean
  • true
  • false
Determines whether the installer should start Confluence once installation is complete
sys.adminRights$Boolean=true
  • true
  • false
Indicates whether the user running the installer has admin privileges on the machine.
sys.confirmedUpdateInstallationString
  • true
  • false

Set this to false for a fresh unattended installation. Set to true to perform an unattended upgrade.

Always back up your existing site before attempting to upgrade.

sys.installationDirpath to install directoryThis is the path to your target installation directory for a new install, or existing installation directory to be upgraded.
sys.languageId
Default application language.
Last modified on May 25, 2023

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