Below are instructions on upgrading an existing Crowd installation to the latest version of Crowd, using the procedure that transfers your Crowd data via XML backup.

Before you being 

• Decided on a recommended upgrade procedure for your database server and Crowd version
• Read the Release Notes for the version you are upgrading to.
• Read the Upgrade Notes for any versions you are skipping as well as the version you are upgrading to.

Step 1. Export your Crowd Database to XML

1. In the top-right corner, click   > Backup.
2. Follow the screen prompts to back up your Crowd database to an XML file. For full instructions, see our guide on backing up data.

Step 2. Shut down Crowd and All Integrated Applications

1. Shut down Crowd and all Crowd-connected applications.

Step 3. Back Up your Crowd Files

1. Use your database backup tools to back up your Crowd database. We highly recommend this step, in case something goes wrong during the upgrade process and you need to restore your data from backup.

2. Make backup copies of the following files:

   • Your Crowd JDBC Driver if you have configured Crowd with a database — You will need to copy this file to your new Crowd installation.
   • Your Crowd Home directory, in the location specified in the crowd-init.properties file — Recommended in case something goes wrong during the upgrade process.
3. Rename your existing {CROWD_INSTALL} directory, because legacy files may cause problems if you unzip the new Crowd installation into an existing directory.

Step 4. Download and Re-Install Crowd

1. Download Crowd.
2. Unzip the downloaded archive into a directory of your choice.

   
   

   • Make sure that your new {CROWD_INSTALL} directory has a different name from your old {CROWD_INSTALL} directory.
   • Check your unzip program before extracting the downloaded archive – see the note on the Crowd installation front page.
   • Do not use empty spaces in directory names.
   • We will refer to this installation directory, where you unzipped the archive, as {CROWD_INSTALL}.

3. Specify a new Crowd Home directory for your new Crowd installation by editing the configuration file at {CROWD_INSTALL}\crowd-webapp\WEB-INF\classes\crowd-init.properties. The Crowd Home directory is where Crowd will store its configuration information. If you are using the embedded HSQL database, supplied for evaluation purposes, Crowd will also store its database in this directory. To specify the Crowd Home directory:

   • Open the crowd-init.properties file. This is found at <crowd_install_directory>/crowd-webapp/WEB-INF/classes/crowd-init.properties
   • Choose the appropriate line in the file, depending upon your operating system (see below).
   • Remove the # at the beginning of the line.
   • Enter the name of the directory you want Crowd to use as its Home directory. For example,

     • On Windows:

       crowd.home=c:/data/crowd-home
       

       Note: On Windows, make sure you use forward slashes as shown above, not backward slashes.

     • On Mac and UNIX-based systems:

       crowd.home=/var/crowd-home
       

       Important

       Please, ensure that the Crowd Home directory will not match the Crowd installation directory AND it is writable by the user executing the initialization script.

   • Save the crowd-init.properties file.

   Make sure you point the new Crowd installation to a new Crowd Home directory, so that Crowd will do a clean installation. Do not point it at your existing Crowd Home directory.

4. Copy the following files, saved in Step 3 above, to your new Crowd installation folder:
   
   • Copy your Crowd JDBC Driver if you have configured Crowd with a database.

Step 5. (Optional) Adopt JDK 17

If you're upgrading your instance from an older version to Crowd 6.0 or later, make sure to update your JAVA_HOME to point to the JDK 17 location.

(Optional) If you run Crowd as a service, updating JAVA_HOME may not be enough. In that case, follow the instructions below.

On UNIX-based systems:

1. Edit Crowd service configuration in an editor:

sudo vim /etc/init.d/${crowd.service.name}

1. Edit JAVA_HOME variables to point to your new JDK path.

2. Save the file.

3. Refresh daemon configuration:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

4. Proceed to the next step.

On Windows:

Follow How to point to a different JAVA installation in Crowd Windows Service.

Step 6. Start Crowd and Run the Setup Wizard

1. Run the start-up script, found in your {CROWD_INSTALL} directory:
   • start_crowd.bat for Windows.
   • start_crowd.sh for Mac and Unix-based systems.
2. Point a web browser at http://localhost:8095/crowd where you will see the Crowd Setup Wizard.
3. Enter your license key on the 'License' screen, as described in the instructions on the Setup Wizard.
4. When asked for your Installation Type, choose 'Import data from an XML Backup'. This step is required, to import your Crowd data from the XML file which you created in Step 1 above.
5. The Setup Wizard will now ask you to configure your database. Supply the JNDI datasource or JDBC connection details of a new database.
6. The Import Existing Crowd Data screen will appear. Enter the location of your XML backup file and click 'Continue'.
7. The Setup Wizard is now complete. You are now ready to log in to the Crowd Administration Console, using your administrator account from your earlier Crowd installation.

Step 7. Update your Integrated Applications

If you have installed Crowd on a new server, or changed Crowd's URL or port number, you will also need to edit the crowd.properties file in each integrated application accordingly.

Troubleshooting

If you have any problems during upgrade, please raise a support request at https://support.atlassian.com/ and attach your atlassian-crowd.log file so that we can help you find out what's gone wrong.