Set up a Confluence Data Center cluster

Confluence Data Center allows you to run a cluster of multiple Confluence nodes, providing high availability, scalable capacity, and performance at scale.

This guides walks you through the process of configuring a Data Center cluster on your own infrastructure. 

You’ll need to be logged in as a System Administrator to do this.

Not sure if clustering is right for you? Check out Clustering with Confluence Data Center for a detailed overview.

Clustering with AWS and Azure

You can also choose to deploy a Data Center cluster on public cloud providers, like AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Azure. We have specific guides and deployment templates to help you easily configure a cluster in AWS or Azure. Check them out to find out what's required.

Before you begin

Clustering requirements

See Clustering with Confluence Data Center for a complete overview of hardware and infrastructure considerations.

Security

Terminology

Set up and configure your cluster

We recommend completing this process in a staging environment, and testing your clustered installation, before moving to production. 

1. Back up

We strongly recommend that you backup your existing Confluence local home and install directories and your database before proceeding.

2. Create a shared home directory

1. Create a directory that's accessible to all cluster nodes via the same path. This will be your shared home directory.
2. In your existing Confluence home directory, move the contents of <local home directory>/shared-home to the new shared home directory you just created. To prevent confusion, we recommend deleting the empty <local home directory>/shared-home directory once you've moved its contents.
3. Move your <local home>/attachments> directory to the new <shared home>/attachments directory.

4. Enable cluster mode

Before you enable cluster mode, you should be ready to restart Confluence and configure your cluster. This will require some downtime.

1. Start Confluence.
2. Go to  > General Configuration.
3. Choose Clustering from the sidebar.
4. Select Enable cluster mode.
5. Select Enable to confirm you’re ready to proceed.

5. Restart Confluence

Restart Confluence to configure your cluster. Once you restart, Confluence will be unavailable until you’ve completed the set up process.

6. Configure your cluster

If Synchrony is managed by Confluence, the same network settings will be applied to Synchrony.

Follow the prompts to create the cluster.

When you restart, Confluence will start setting up the cluster. This can take a few minutes. Some core components of Confluence will also change to become cluster compatible. For example, Confluence will switch to a distributed caching layer, managed by Hazelcast.

 Do not restart Confluence until your cluster is set up, and Confluence is back up and running.

Add more Confluence nodes

Your Data Center license doesn’t restrict the number of nodes in your cluster. To achieve the benefits of clustering, such as high availability, you’ll need to add at least one additional cluster node.

We’ve found that typically between 2 and 4 nodes is sufficient for most organizations. In general we recommend starting small and growing as needed.

7. Copy Confluence to the second node

Copying the local home directory ensures the Confluence search index, the database and cluster configuration, and any other settings are copied to node 2.

Make sure your database has sufficient connections available to support the number of nodes.

8. Configure your load balancer

See Clustering with Confluence Data Center for further load balancer guidance.

9. Start Confluence one node at a time

10. Test your Confluence cluster

11. Set up a Synchrony cluster (optional)

Troubleshooting

If you have problems with the above process, check our cluster troubleshooting guide.

We’re here to help

Need help setting up your cluster? There are a range of support services available to help you plan and implement a clustered Data Center installation.

• An Atlassian Technical Account Manager can provide strategic guidance. They work with you to develop best practices for configuring, deploying and managing Confluence in a cluster.
• The Atlassian Premier Support team can provide technical support. Premier Support also offers health check analyses to validate the readiness of your environment.
• Atlassian Enterprise Partners offers a wide array of services to help you get the most out of your Atlassian tools.
• You can also ask questions in the Atlassian Community.