Installing Confluence on Linux

 Note: It is possible that any anti-virus or other Internet security tools installed on your Linux operating system may interfere with the Confluence installation process and prevent the process from completing successfully. If you experience or anticipate experiencing such an issue with your anti-virus/Internet security tool, disable this tool first before proceeding with the Confluence installation.

You may also wish to consider disabling the Linux OutOfMemory Killer (OOM Killer). This is a Linux function that can kill processes when memory on the server becomes low, and sometimes targets Confluence.

Using the Console Wizard

Use the console wizard if you are installing Confluence on your server for the first time or you wish to specify your installation options.

If you have previously installed Confluence using the installation wizard and wish to re-install Confluence again with the same installation options, you can re-install Confluence in 'unattended mode' without any user input required (see below for details).

1. Download and Install the Confluence 'Linux Installer'

If you execute the Linux Installer with 'root' user privileges, the installer will create and run Confluence using a dedicated user account. You can also execute the Linux Installer without 'root' user privileges, although your installation options will be much more limited and a dedicated user account (to run Confluence) will not be created. To run Confluence as a service, the Linux Installer must be executed with 'root' user privileges.

1. Download the appropriate Confluence 'Linux 64-bit / 32-bit Installer' (.bin) file.
   Please Note:
   The difference between the 64-bit / 32-bit .bin installers relates to their bundled Java platforms that run Confluence. Bear in mind that a Confluence installation installed using the 64-bit installer may require additional memory (to run at a similar level of performance) to a Confluence installation installed using the 32-bit installer. 
2. Open a Linux console and change directory (cd) to the '.bin' file's directory.
   If the '.bin' file is not executable after downloading it, make it executable, for example:
   chmod a+x atlassian-confluence-X.Y.bin
   (where X.Y represents your version of Confluence)
3. Execute the '.bin' file to start the console wizard.
4. When prompted to choose between 'Express Install', 'Custom Install' or 'Upgrade an existing Confluence installation', choose either the 'Express Install' or 'Custom Install' options:
   • Express Install — If you choose this option, Confluence will be installed with default settings which are shown in the next step of the console wizard.
     Please Note:
     • If you are running the installer with 'root' user privileges, Confluence will be installed as a service.
     • If you want to customise any of these options:
     1. 1. Enter 'e' to exit the console wizard.
        2. Execute the console wizard again (step 3 above).
        3. Choose the 'Custom Install' option instead.
   • Custom Install — If you choose this option, Confluence will prompt you to specify the following options (which are presented during subsequent steps of the console wizard and pre-populated with default values):
   • • The 'Destination Directory' in which to install Confluence.
     • The Confluence Home directory (which must be unique for each Confluence installation).
     • The TCP ports (i.e. an HTTP and a Control port) that Confluence will run through.
     • If you are running the installer with 'root' user privileges, you will be prompted to 'Run Confluence as a service' (recommended). You can also do this manually later, as described in Start Confluence Automatically on Linux.
5. The console wizard will install Confluence onto your operating system and will start Confluence automatically when the wizard finishes.

Please Note:

If you executed the Linux Installer with 'root' user privileges, the Linux Installer creates a dedicated Linux user account with username 'confluence', which is used to run Confluence. This account has only:

• • Full write access to your Confluence Home and other important directories.
  • Limited write access to your Confluence Installation Directory.

If you executed the Linux Installer without 'root' user privileges, be aware that Confluence can still be run with 'root' privileges. However, to protect the security of your operating system, this is not recommended.

2. Start Confluence

If Confluence is not already started, you can start Confluence using the appropriate command at the Linux console.

Once Confluence is started, you can access Confluence from a browser on any computer with network access to your Confluence server.

2.1 Starting and Stopping Confluence manually

In the Linux console, enter the bin subdirectory of your Confluence installation directory and execute the appropriate file:

• start-confluence.sh (to start Confluence)
• stop-confluence.sh (to stop Confluence)

Confluence will be ready to access (from a browser window) when the following message appears in the application's log file:

*******************************************************
 ... You can now access Confluence through your web browser.
*******************************************************

2.2 Accessing Confluence from a Browser

You can access Confluence from any computer with network access to your Confluence server by opening a supported web browser on the computer and visiting this URL:

• http://<computer_name_or_IP_address>:<HTTP_port_number>

where:

• <computer_name_or_IP_address> is the name or IP address of the computer on which Confluence is installed and
• <HTTP_port_number> is the HTTP port number specified when you installed Confluence (above).

If Confluence does not appear, you may need to change the port that Confluence runs on.

Note: Application server logs (i.e. for Apache Tomcat) will be written to logs/catalina.out.

3. Run the Setup Wizard

See the Confluence Setup Guide.

4. Next Steps

• See Confluence Getting Started.
• If you did not install Confluence to run as a service, you will need to start Confluence manually every time you restart your computer. To change your Confluence installation to run as a service, please see Start Confluence Automatically on Linux.
• To get the most out of Confluence, please see Performance Tuning.

Performing an Unattended Installation

If you have previously installed Confluence using the console wizard (above), you can use a configuration file from this Confluence installation (called response.varfile) to re-install Confluence in 'unattended mode' without any user input required.

Installing Confluence in unattended mode saves you time if your previous Confluence installation was used for testing purposes and you need to install Confluence on multiple server machines based on the same configuration.

Please Note:

• The response.varfile file contains the options specified during the installation wizard steps of your previous Confluence installation. Hence, do not uninstall your previous Confluence installation just yet.
• If you intend to modify the response.varfile file, please ensure all directory paths specified are absolute, for example, sys.installationDir=/opt/atlassian/confluence
  Unattended installations will fail if any relative directory paths have been specified in this file.

Download and Run the Confluence 'Linux Installer' in Unattended Mode

1. Download the Confluence 'Linux Installer' (.bin) file.
2. Open a Linux console.
3. Copy (cp) the file .install4j/response.varfile located in your previous Confluence installation directory, to the same location as the downloaded 'Linux Installer' file.
   You can uninstall your previous Confluence installation after this step. Save your response.varfile if you need to install Confluence on multiple machines.

4. Change directory (cd) to the location of the 'Linux Installer' file and execute the following command:

   atlassian-confluence-X.Y.bin -q -varfile response.varfile
   

   Where:

   • X.Y — refers to the version of Confluence you are about to install.
   • -q — instructs the installer to operate in unattended mode (i.e. 'quietly').

   • -varfile response.varfile — specifies the configuration file containing the configuration options used by the installer. The location and name of the configuration file should be specified after the -varfileoption.

5. Confluence will start automatically when the silent installation finishes. Continue from the step above, Starting Confluence.