Moving to Confluence Data Center
Below is the process for migrating from Confluence Server to Confluence Data Center, which is a clustered solution.
There's also a note on moving the other way, from Confluence Data Center to Server.
Your Confluence license will determine the type of Confluence you have: Server or Data Center. Confluence will auto-detect the license type when you enter your license key on the 'License Details' page in Confluence administration. If you've entered a different type of license, it'll automatically prompt you to begin the migration (from Confluence Server to Data Center, for example)
If you're installing Confluence for the first time (you don't have any existing Confluence data to migrate), see Windows or Linux.
Not sure if you should upgrade from Confluence Server to Data Center? Learn more about the benefits of Confluence Data Center.
Moving from Server to Data Center
Clustering requirements and terminology
To run Confluence in a cluster, you must:
On this page:
- Have a Data Center license (you can purchase a Data Center license or create an evaluation license at my.atlassian.com)
- Use an external database
- Use a load balancer with session affinity in front of the cluster
- Have a shared directory that's accessible by the same path to all cluster nodes (this will be your shared home directory)
- Use OAuth authentication if you have application links to other Atlassian products (like JIRA applications).
If you need a Confluence Data Center evaluation license, get in touch with us.
- installation directory – The directory where Confluence is installed.
- local home directory – The home or data directory on each node (in non-clustered Confluence this is simply known as the home directory).
- shared home directory – The directory you created that is accessible to all nodes in the cluster via the same path.
At the end of the installation process you'll have an installation directory and local home directory on each node, and a single shared home directory (for example, in a two node cluster you'd have a total of 5 directories).
1. Upgrade Confluence Server
If you're switching to Confluence Data Center 5.9 or later follow the normal procedure for backing up and upgrading Confluence first. See upgrading Confluence for information on upgrading and choosing the best upgrade path.
If you're switching to Confluence Data Center 5.8 the process for upgrading is a little different. Refer to our earlier documentation for more information.
2. Apply your Data Center license
Your home directory (configured in confluence\WEB-INF\classes\confluence-init.properties) should still be pointing to your existing (local) home directory.
- Go to
> General administration. - Choose License Details from the sidebar under the Administration heading.
- Enter your Confluence Data Center license key.
- Shut down Confluence.
3. Create a shared home directory
- Create a directory that's accessible to all cluster nodes via the same path. This will be your shared home directory.
- In your existing Confluence home directory, move the contents of
<confluence home>/shared-hometo the new shared home directory you just created.
To prevent confusion, we recommend deleting the empty<confluence home>/shared-homedirectory once you've moved its contents. - Move your attachments directory to the new shared home directory (skip this step if you currently store attachments in the database).
4. Start Confluence
The setup wizard will prompt you to complete the migration, by entering:
- A name for your cluster
- The path to the shared home directory you created earlier
- The network interface Confluence will use to communicate between nodes
- A multicast address (automatically generated or enter your own) or the IP addresses of each cluster node
How you want Confluence to discover cluster nodes:
- Multicast - enter your own multicast address or automatically generate one.
- TCP/IP - enter the IP address of each cluster node
AWS - enter your IAM Role or secret key, and region.
Your first node is now up and running.
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Moving from Data Center to Server
If you need to move from Data Center (clustered) to Server (non-clustered), read on. In these instructions we'll assume that you'll use one of your existing cluster nodes as your new, non-clustered installation.
You'll need a Confluence Server license to switch back to Server.
Before you complete this process
As a precaution, we recommend shutting down all nodes except one, and running Confluence on a single node.
1. Enter your Confluence server license
Your home directory (configured in confluence\WEB-INF\classes\confluence-init.properties) should point to your local home directory.
- Go to > General administration
- Choose License Details from the sidebar under the Administration heading
- Enter your Confluence Server license key
2. Shut down Confluence
Stop any cluster nodes that are still running before proceeding. We also recommend configuring your load balancer to redirect traffic away from Confluence.
3. Move items in the cluster shared home back to local home
- Create a directory called
/shared-homein the<local home>directory on one node (if you removed this directory when installing Data Center) - Move the entire
configdirectory from your<shared home>directory to the <local home>/shared-homedirectory - Move the remaining contents of your
<shared home>directory to the root of your<local home>directory
Your cluster's shared home directory should now be empty.
4. Start Confluence
The setup wizard will guide you through the migration process.
To confirm you're now running the non-clustered edition, go to 
> General Configuration. The 'Cluster Configuration' page should not appear. Instead you'll see information about Confluence Data Center.