This page last changed on Dec 01, 2009 by ggaskell.
 | These instructions apply to:
- The Standalone Distribution of Confluence. The Standalone distribution includes Apache Tomcat as the standalone application server. If you want to install an EAR/WAR distribution for deployment on your own existing application server, please refer to the Confluence Installation Guide.
- Unix, Linux or Solaris systems. If you are installing Confluence on a Windows or Mac OS X system, please refer to [Installing Confluence Standalone Using the Automatic Installer].
Also, please check the version of Confluence which you are installing. Refer to the documentation home page to verify the latest Confluence version and to find documentation for older versions. |
 | Hint: If you are evaluating Confluence on Unix or you are unsure which version to install, this is the one for you. Just follow the instructions below.
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On this page:
1. Before you Start
Please check the following points:
- Ensure that your system meets the minimum requirements to run Confluence. For more information, please read the detailed system requirements.
- Have your Confluence license key ready. You can obtain a trial, free or commercial license now, or retrieve your existing license key.
- You must be able to use a command prompt and install Java to continue. If not, please contact your system administrator to assist you or consider the Confluence Hosted evaluation option.
- Make sure that you use a Gnu version of zip application - Sun/Solaris and AIX are known to have problems with zip, because they use their own (old) versions instead of the Gnu version.
2. Install the JDK (Java Development Kit)
 | Confluence requires Java 5 (JDK 1.5) or later Confluence needs JDK 1.5 or newer to be installed on your computer.
- A JRE (Java Runtime Environment) is not enough.
- JDK 6 is the preferred platform, because it is faster and more reliable.
- JDK 1.5 is fine.
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 | OpenJDK is currently not supported. A JIRA issue to request support for this JDK has been created. |
- If you are not sure whether you have JDK installed correctly, please confirm by doing the following:
- Open a shell console.
- Type echo $JAVA_HOME in the shell console and then press Enter
- View the result:
- If a line is displayed such as /opt/jdk1.6.0_12 or /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun. If you see something like this, then your JDK is installed and properly configured.
- If nothing is displayed, then you either need to install your JDK or set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable. You can set this environment variable in your user account's 'profile' file. Alternatively, you can set this after installing Confluence (in step 4 below) by defining this path in your Confluence installation's setenv.sh file, usually located in the Confluence bin directory.
- If you have installed a non-Sun JDK and you want to use SSL then you need to install the Sun JSSE package.
- If you need to install the JDK, follow these instructions:
- Go to the Java Sun download page.
- Download the version entitled 'JDK 6 Update XX', where 'XX' stands for some number. (Sun will provide the latest version on that page.)
- When the download has finished, run the Java installer. Detailed installation instructions are provided on Sun's website.
At one point, you will be asked to choose an installation directory. Make a note of this directory for use later.
3. Install X11 Dependencies
On Unix-based operating systems, the Java runtime makes use of certain parts of the platform's native X11 graphics libraries. The X Server does not have to be running, but the libraries must be available on the server. Confluence will run on a server that does not have Xlib installed, but parts of the application that manipulate graphics: PDF exports, image thumbnailing, the image gallery macro, CAPTCHA, and the resizing of profile pictures, will fail.
 | Mac OS X You do not need to install X11 on Mac OS X, as it has its own graphics libraries. |
If X11 is not present, you may see any of the following errors
- "This Confluence installation can not generate thumbnails: no image support in Java runtime"
- "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.2_09/jre/lib/i386/libawt.so: libXp.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" when exporting a PDF
- "NoClassDefFoundError" when uploading a profile picture
 | If This Doesn't Help If you have X11 installed and thumbnailing still does not work, please ensure that you are running Java in headless mode — see the FAQ entitled Confluence doesn't generate thumbnails. |
Specific Installation Instructions
Fedora Core
On Fedora Core, you will need to install the xorg-x11-deprecated-libs package. (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=130239)
Fedora Core 6, RHEL 5
- libXp
- libXp-devel (if you wish to compile against this library)
Debian Linux
On Debian, you will need to instll the following packages (CONF-6411):
apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxt6 libxt6-dbg libxext6 libxtst-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dbg xlibs-dev
 | You'll only need the xlibs-dbg package if you're running an older version of Debian (3.0). It's a dummy package for smoothing the transition to a new set of graphics libraries, so if you can't locate it, you most likely don't need it. |
Gentoo Linux
emerge libICE libSM libX11 libXext libXp libXt libXtst
Solaris 10
Please refer to the following forum for more information.
Ubuntu
Execute the following:
> sudo apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxt6 libxt6-dbg libxext6 libxtst-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dbg xlibs-dev
Note: 'sudo' enables you to be superuser for one operation. You will need to supply your user password.
4. Download and Extract the Confluence Installation File
- If you have not downloaded Confluence already, download the Standalone TAR.GZ file.
- Use your unzip program to unzip the installation file to a directory such as /home/jsmith/confluence-2.7.0-std/.
 | Most Linux/UNIX users can use any unzip program (such as GNU Tar) to extract the Confluence installer. However, Solaris users should not use the Solaris Tar program due to a known issue associated with its use in extracting Confluence. Use another application such as GNU Tar instead. |
For example, change directory to your home directory in Linux and enter the following commands in the shell console:
- gunzip confluence-<version>-std.tar.gz
- tar -xf confluence-<version>-std.tar
(where <version> refers to the Confluence version you downloaded.)
5. Define your Confluence Home Directory
Now you need to define the Confluence Home directory. This is where Confluence will store its configuration information, indexes and attachments.
Tip: Another term for 'Home directory' would be 'data directory'.
We suggest using different paths for your installation and home directories. This will facilitate upgrades. Examples of Installation and Home Directories:
- Installation directory: /usr/local/confluence-2.7.0-std/
- Home directory: /usr/local/confluence-data/
- Open your Confluence Installation directory (created when you unzipped Confluence — see above).
- Under the Installation directory, find this file: confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties
- Open the confluence-init.properties file in a text editor.
- Scroll to the bottom and find this line:
# confluence.home=c:/confluence/data
- Remove the '#' and the space at the beginning of this line, so that Confluence no longer regards the line as a comment. The line should now begin with confluence.home
- If you decide to change the Confluence Home directory from the default, use an absolute path rather than a symbolic link to specify the path and file name. For example:
confluence.home=/home/jsmith/confluence-data/
6. Check the Ports
If you have another application running on your machine which is using the same ports that Confluence uses by default, you may need to change the port which Confluence will use. For example, if you have a Standalone installation of JIRA running on this machine, JIRA might be already using the port which Confluence requests by default.
By default, Confluence listens on port '8080'. If this port is already in use in your installation, follow these instructions to change the ports:
To change the ports for Confluence Standalone, open the file conf/server.xml under your Confluence Installation directory. The first four lines of the file look like this:
<Server port="8000" shutdown="SHUTDOWN" debug="0">
<Service name="Tomcat-Standalone">
<Connector className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteConnector" port="8080" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="75"
enableLookups="true" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="10" debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" useURIValidationHack="false"/>
...
You need to modify both the server port (default is 8000) and the connector port (default is 8080) to ports that are free on your machine.
Hint: You can use netstat to identify free ports on your machine. See more information on using netstat on Windows or on Linux.
For example, here are the first four lines of a modified server.xml file, using ports '8015' and '8090':
<Server port="8015" shutdown="SHUTDOWN" debug="0">
<Service name="Tomcat-Standalone">
<Connector className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteConnector" port="8090" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="75"
enableLookups="true" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="10" debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" useURIValidationHack="false"/>
...
To access Confluence in this configuration, point your web browser to http://localhost:8090/.
You will find more information on this page.
7. Select an External Database
This step is optional for evaluation instances of Confluence. It is mandatory for a production instance.
Select one of the supported external databases and follow the corresponding database setup guide. You can learn more about migration from an existing installation or use of the evaluation database here. You will continue to use the Database Setup Guide during the Confluence Setup Wizard. (See step 9 below.)
8. Start Confluence
- Go to your Confluence Installation directory (created when you unzipped Confluence — see above).
- Under your Confluence Installation directory, open the bin directory and run the startup script: startup.sh.
- Once Confluence is running, open a web browser and visit http://localhost:8080/.
Hint: If you changed the port earlier, use the port you specified in step 6 above.
9. Next Step is the Confluence Setup Wizard
The Confluence Setup Wizard should appear in your web browser, prompting you to enter your license key. Follow the instructions on the screens, and read more guidelines on the Confluence Setup Wizard.
If the web browser shows an error instead of the Setup Wizard, check the Installation FAQ.
RELATED TOPICS
Change listen port for Confluence Standalone
Adding SSL for Secure Logins and Page Security
Confluence Setup Guide
Configuration Guide
Documentation Home
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