Symptoms

After an upgrade, Confluence does not render. The logs contain something similar to:

2008-04-20 13:18:18,957 ERROR [http-8080-Processor4] [sf.hibernate.util.JDBCExceptionReporter] logExceptions Unknown column 'contentent1_.CHILD_POSITION' in 'field list'
 -- url: /dashboard.action | userName: STAPPEND | action: dashboard
....
Caused by: com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLSyntaxErrorException: Unknown column 'contentent1_.CHILD_POSITION' in 'field list'

Cause

The DB login supplied by confluence does not have sufficient permissions to modify the schema of the DB. The column child_position (from content table), introduced in version 2.8, could not be created. This error can happen from any upgrade prior to 2.8 to 2.8 or above.

Resolution

1. Grant sufficient permissions to the confluence database. The database user and password are stored in the confluence-home/confluence.cfg.xml file as the hibernate user and password.
2. Restore an older version of Confluence and the confluence database.
3. Repeat the upgrade process.
4. Check if the table has been created.