This page last changed on Dec 12, 2007 by smaddox.
This install guide is for users running Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Unix or Linux.
Notes
STAGE 1 - Install The Java Developers Kit
Do you already have the Java Developers Kit 1.4 or newer installed?
(Mac users can go straight to STAGE 2, as OS X comes with a Java Development Kit.)
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- JDK 6 is the preferred platform as it is more reliable and faster.
- It is fine to be using JDK 1.4 or 1.5.
- Advance notice: Java 1.4 will be deprecated in a future release. Confluence 2.8 will be the last version that supports Java 1.4.
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JDK 6 Or Earlier
You must confirm the JDK is installed correctly:
- Open a command prompt. On Windows this is done by opening your Start menu and selecting Run, then typing cmd and pressing OK.
- Type the following in the command prompt and then press Enter:
- If you are using Windows OS: echo %JAVA_HOME%
- If you are using Unix: echo $JAVA_HOME
If a line is displayed such as C:\Progra~1\Java\jdk1.5.0_06 with the last two letters being dk, the JDK is installed. If nothing is displayed, or the last two letters in the path are not dk, follow the 'No, or not sure' instructions.
- Users who have installed a non-Sun JDK must install the Sun JSSE package
- Go to STAGE 2
JDK Unknown or Not Installed
Install the JDK:
- Download JDK 6 to the Confluence server
- Once downloaded, run the installer. At one point, you will be asked to choose a directory to install to. Copy or write this directory down for use later
- Windows users follow these instructions to set your JAVA_HOME environment variable to the directory you just installed the JDK in. The default directory is under C:\Program Files\Java
- Go to STAGE 2
STAGE 2 - Download & Unzip Confluence
Select your operating system:
- Windows
- Unix, Linux or Solaris
- Mac
 | The Install Directory is also referred to as the <Confluence-Install> Directory.
The Home Directory is also referred to as the <Confluence-Home> Directory. |
Windows
- The default Windows unzipper cannot unzip Confluence
If you have already unzipped Confluence using the default Windows unzip, delete the directory created now
- You will need a third-party unzip program like 7Zip or Winzip. If you do not have one, download and install one before continuing:
- 7Zip Recommended. If in doubt, download the '32-bit .exe' version
- Winzip
- If you have not downloaded Confluence already, download the Standalone zip
- Use your unzip program to unzip the install file to a directory such as c:\confluence, avoiding directories with spaces. To make upgrades easier, Windows users should aim to create a directory structure like below:
c:\confluence\confluence-2.6.0-std <-- <Confluence-Install> directory, unzipped now
c:\confluence\data <-- <Confluence-Home> directory, created next
You have now created your <Confluence-Install> directory. This is the directory where you unzipped Confluence, for example c:\confluence\confluence-2.6.0-std
- Go to STAGE 3
Unix, Linux or Solaris
- Install these X11 libraries
- If you have not downloaded Confluence already, download the Standalone TAR
- Use your unzip program to unzip the install file to a directory such as /home/jsmith/confluence-2.6.0-std/, avoiding directories with spaces. Linux or Unix users can use any unzip program to unzip Confluence, but Solaris users must use GNU Tar instead of Solaris Tar
/home/jsmith/confluence-2.6.0-std/ <-- <Confluence-Install> directory, unzipped now
/home/jsmith/confluence-data/confluence-2.6.0-std/ <-- <Confluence-Home> directory, created next
You have now created your <Confluence-Install> directory. This is the directory where you unzipped Confluence, for example /home/jsmith/confluence-2.6.0-std/
- Go to STAGE 3
Mac OS X 10.3 or 10.4
- Before you begin, it is recommended that you run Software Update to ensure that your operating system is up to date.
- If you have not downloaded Confluence already, download the Standalone ZIP.
- Find the downloaded file in the Finder. Double-click on the file to extract it to a directory called confluence-2.6.0-std (or similar).
- Move this folder to wherever you want to keep your Confluence installation (for example, under your user's home folder). Ensure that there are no spaces in the folder name, or in the names of any of its parent folders. This folder that includes the Confluence application is called the <Confluence-Install> folder.
- Create a folder named confluence-data. You can create this anywhere, e.g. in your home folder, but not inside the <Confluence-Install> directory. Ensure that there are no spaces in the folder name, or in the names of any of its parent folders. Create this folder in the Finder, using the 'New Folder' command in the 'File' menu. This folder is called the <Confluence-Home> folder.
- You now need to set up an environment variable which tells Confluence where your Java Virtual Machine is installed. Inside the <Confluence-Install> folder, edit the file bin/setenv.sh. Open it with TextEdit, and add the following line as the first line of the file:
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home
- Go to STAGE 3
STAGE 3 - Set Your Home Directory
This stage creates a Home directory where Confluence will store its configuration information, indexes and attachments.
- Open your <Confluence-Install> directory
- Under the install directory, find \confluence\WEB-INF\classes\confluence-init.properties

- Open the file confluence-init.properties in a text editor such as Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac).
- Scroll to the bottom and find the line
# confluence.home=c:/confluence/data
- Remove the '#' and the space at the front of this line to uncomment it. It should now begin with 'confluence.home'
- Choose what your <Confluence-Home> directory will be.
- Windows users should use the default c:\confluence\data for simplicity but you can choose any directory that does not contain a space in the path.
- Mac users should use the <Confluence-Home> folder they created earlier.
- If you are using a different <Confluence-Home> directory from c:\confluence\data, edit the line now.
- Windows users must use / characters to separate each directory in the path. Windows users can save the <Confluence-Home> directory as the default by saving the line as
confluence.home=c:/confluence/data
- Linux users should specify <Confluence-Home> using the absolute path instead of a symbolic link, e.g:
confluence.home=/home/jsmith/confluence-data/confluence-2.6.0-std/
- Mac users should place the cursor after the '=' sign, find the the <Confluence-Home> folder which you created earlier and drag it to TextEdit. This will insert the full path of the folder into the file. It's important to make sure that you deleted the leading '#' character, and that the path after the '=' sign starts with a '/' character. The line should now look something like this:
confluence.home=/Users/jsmith/confluence-data
You have now set your <Confluence-Home> directory.
STAGE 4 - Check the Ports
If you have another Tomcat instance running on the same machine, you may need to change the port which Confluence is listening on. By default, Confluence is listening on port 8080. If this port is already used in your installation, follow these instructions to change the port.
STAGE 5 - Review Release Notes
Review the Release Notes for your Confluence version and apply any patches listed.
STAGE 6 - Prepare for LDAP Integration
Perform this step before setting up Confluence, if you're doing a fresh install of Confluence 2.6.x and you intend to integrate with an LDAP server,
- Change your <Confluence-Install>/confluence/web-inf/classes/atlassian-user.xml to the following:
<atlassian-user>
<repositories>
<hibernate name="Hibernate Repository" key="hibernateRepository" description="Hibernate Repository" cache="true"/>
</repositories>
</atlassian-user>
Incorporating the above changes will allow you to skip the 'User Migration' steps, which are otherwise required during LDAP integration with Confluence.
STAGE 7 - Start Confluence
To start Confluence for the first time,
- Go to your <Confluence-Install> directory
- Under your <Confluence-Install> directory, open the bin directory and run the startup script. Windows users run startup.bat while users with other operating systems run startup.sh

Mac users will be prompted by OS X to choose an application to use. Choose the Terminal application, which is inside
the Utilities folder.
If the window closes immediately when started, click here for assistance
An error is preventing Confluence from starting. To view this error:
1. Open a command prompt. On Windows, do this by clicking on your Start menu, then click Run. In the Run box, type cmd and press OK
3. From the command prompt, go to your <Confluence-Install> directory
4. Go into the bin subdirectory
5. Run startup.bat and read the error message
6. Find the solution to that error in the Troubleshooting section
- Once Confluence is running, open a web browser and visit http://localhost:8080/. (If you changed the port earlier, use the port you specified in STAGE 4 above.)
The Confluence Setup Wizard should appear for you to enter your licence key. If the address shows an error, check the Troubleshooting section
NEXT STEP
Proceed to the Confluence Setup Wizard Guide
TROUBLESHOOTING
Solutions to common issues with installing Confluence. Review your logs by opening the Confluence install directory and checking the /logs/catalina.out and /logs/catalina.out files for errors described below. Click on a problem to show the solution.
Confluence window closes immediately when started
An error is preventing Confluence from starting.
- Open a command prompt. On Windows, do this by clicking on your Start menu, then click Run. In the Run box, type cmd and press OK
- From the command prompt, go to your Confluence install directory
- Go into the bin subdirectory
- Run startup.bat and read the error message
- Find the solution to that error below
Confluence won't start - java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError IntraHibernateAttachmentCopier
If you are seeing "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/atlassian/confluence/pages/persistence/dao/hibernate/AbstractHibernateAttachmentDao$IntraHibernateAttachmentCopier", you have unzipped Confluence using a program that cannot handle long filenames. You must delete your install directory and go back to the point in the instructions that covers unzipping Confluence using a third-party unzip program.
Confluence won't start - Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: ...
If http://localhost:8080 goes to an error page when you run Confluence, go to the install directory and find the /logs/catalina.out. If this file contains a single line error starting with "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError", your install path may contain spaces. The solution is to rename your install directory path so that there are no spaces, then restart Confluence.
Confluence won't start - Error creating Confluence Home directory
The confluence.home variable specified in confluence-init.properties cannot be created. To fix this, edit /confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties and check the path specified exists. Make sure all the directory slashes use / and that the # has been removed. If you're stuck, try using confluence.home=c:/confluence/data
Confluence won't start - JAVA_HOME environment variable is not defined correctly
You have not installed the Java Development Kit, or not set the %JAVA_HOME% to the directory of the JDK. You should re-check your steps in Stage 2.
Confluence won't start - Port 8080 is in use
If you have another Tomcat running on the same machine, you must edit <INSTALL>/conf/server.xml and change both 8080 and 8005 to ports that do not conflict with your other Tomcat instance according to these instructions.
Confluence won't start - Error creating bean with name 'scheduler'
Confluence won't start - Error registering bean with name 'fileSystemAttachmentDataDao'
If you did not use one of the recommended unzipping tools, and happened to use for instance the default Windows XP extractor, one of the classes required for starting up Confluence may not be located due to the lengthy file-path. This is due to the reason that the default Windows tool silently fails to extract files with long names. We suggest you to use other tools such as WinZIP and 7zip and redo the deployment process.
Cause:
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Error registering bean with name 'fileSystemAttachmentDataDao' defined in class path resource [applicationContext.xml]: Class that bean class [com.atlassian.confluence.pages.persistence.dao.FileSystemAttachmentDataDao] depends on not found; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/atlassian/confluence/pages/persistence/dao/FileSystemAttachmentDataDao$FileSystemAttachmentNamingStrategy
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.parseBeanDefinition(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:366)
caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/atlassian/confluence/pages/persistence/dao/FileSystemAttachmentDataDao$FileSystemAttachmentNamingStrategy
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
Confluence starts but localhost:8080 times out
Check the server logs for errors. If you are running Confluence Standalone on Windows, error messages will be printed to the console window that opened when you ran startup.bat. On Unix systems, Confluence will log messages to logs/catalina.out.
Confluence starts but localhost:8080 goes to Tomcat start homepage
The CATALINA_HOME environment variable is set to another instance of Tomcat. You should run shutdown.sh, remove the CATALINA_HOME reference to the other Tomcat version, and run startup.sh again.
Confluence starts but logins fail at login screen
If you try to login with the correct username and password but are always returned to the login screen without any error messages, and you are running Zone Alarm, please check that it is not blocking the Confluence server
BUILD FAILED message when trying to create an EAR file in Confluence 2.6 or 2.7
When trying to create a EAR file, you may encounter with the following error:
This is due to the build.xml file being incorrect for Confluence 2.6.x and 2.7.0. This problem will be fixed for future releases. However for these releases, please open the build.xml file and change the following two lines:
From:
<copy preservelastmodified="true" file="${ant.confluence.etc}/ear-application.xml" tofile="${ant.confluence.build.ear}/META-INF/application.xml" overwrite="yes"/>
<copy preservelastmodified="true" file="${ant.confluence.dist}/${ant.confluence.name}-${ant.confluence.version}.war" tofile="ant.confluence.nameild.ear}/Confluence War Distribution.war" overwrite="yes"/>
To:
<copy preservelastmodified="true" file="ear-application.xml" tofile="${ant.confluence.build.ear}/META-INF/application.xml" overwrite="yes"/>
<copy preservelastmodified="true" file="${ant.confluence.dist}/${ant.confluence.name}-${ant.confluence.version}.war" tofile="${ant.confluence.build.ear}/Confluence War Distribution.war" overwrite="yes"/>
RELATED TOPICS
Change listen port for Confluence Standalone
Adding SSL on Confluence 2.1.5a and earlier
Confluence Setup Guide
Configuration Guide
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