Upgrade from 5.4-OD-4 to 5.4.4 - Confluence will not start due to build number mismatch
Asked by Sebastian Musahl:

Hi Everyone :)

We migrated from On-Demand to an installed instance of Confluence 5.4-OD-4 a few weeks back.

In the discussion on [this page](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Migrating+from+Confluence+OnDemand+to+a+Confluence+Installed+Site) I was informed that we should upgrade to the latest release version.

So I just ran an upgrade of our Test-Instance to 5.4.4. The upgrade process itself finished without any obvious issues. Unfortunately Confluence will not start up again.

The following Error is shown in the log:

*Confluence will not start up because the build number in the home directory \[4913\] is newer than the Confluence build number \[4733\].*

If I don't get it wrong 4733 is actually the correct build number for 5.4.4, while 4913 is the build number for the OD version. I just checked the versions of the home directory and the database following [this article](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Confluence+will+not+start+up+because+the+build+number+in+the+home+directory+doesn%27t+match+the+build+number+in+the+database,+after+upgrade) and both show 4913.

What has gone wrong and what can / should I do to fix this?

Thanks in advance

Best regards

Sebastian


Answers:
author: Sebastian Musahl
body: As Confluence 5.5 has been released and its build number is 5501 the issue has been resolved for me...


author: ryan goodwin
body: Hi Sebastian,

OnDemand is constantly upgraded to (dogfood) the impending releases of the commercial versions of Confluence. The fact that your build numbers mismatch, signifies that th release of OD that you were running is ahead of the commercial Confluence release. Commercial release of Confluence build number seen here for 5.4.4 is 4733

[](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/CONFDEV/Confluence%20Build%20Information)[https://developer.atlassian.com/display/CONFDEV/Confluence%20Build%20Information](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/CONFDEV/Confluence%2520Build%2520Information)

That being said, there are ways around the build number mismatch. See here:

[https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Confluence+will+not+start+up+because+the+build+number+in+the+home+directory+doesn't+match+the+build+number+in+the+database,+after+upgrade](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Confluence+will+not+start+up+because+the+build+number+in+the+home+directory+doesn%27t+match+the+build+number+in+the+database%2C+after+upgrade)

I would be wary of adjusting the build numbers manually but as you're in a test upgrade, feel free to muck around in there and get your upgraded instance started. You can test for any issues.

The real answer is you need to stay on the locally installed OD release until the commercial release surpasses that of your OD migrated instance (in build numbers).

Hope that helps!

comments: author: Sebastian Musahl
body: Hi Ryan,

thanks for your answer.

I was aware that the current OD is ahead of the current release version, but when I asked a question about this, Denise from Atlassian told me:
> When you're using one of the OD releases...you are required to upgrade to the next official release, in your case 5.4, or 5.4.2 since it's available now...

And on the page that describes the migration Atlassian states:
> ...if you use 5.2 OD-2, you must upgrade to 5.2 when it is formally released for public consumption. **OD releases *are* supported, but only until the official release is available.**

Okay, so to ensure we run a supported version I need to migrate as soon as possible...so I waited until 5.4-OD-4 was well outdated (current OD release is 5.4-OD-20) and a new release version was available (after the migration of our site 5.4.2/3/4 were released) and then started the migration.....luckily I suffer from the usual IT paranoia and did not trust all the info I got from Atlassian, but set up a test environment (5.4-OD-4) first.....

Now you tell me:
> The real answer is you need to stay on the locally installed OD release until the commercial release surpasses that of your OD migrated instance (in build numbers)

Then why was I told by Denise that I should upgrade? She knew the version we are running and as of now there is **no** realease version I could migrate to.

And how comes she wrote
> So 5.4-OD-4 is actually earlier than 5.4.

Of course I can fiddle around with our test environment as much as I like, but in the end I do not do this just for fun.....I want and need to upgrade our production environment.....

Looking at the history of build numbers I fear that the next release number that will surpass build number 4913 might very well be 5.5 (no release date) or 5.6 (release date 07/Jul/14).

Don't get me wrong - I really appreciate your comment - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I am just a little frustrated that Atlassian does not provide reliable info regarding this migration.

Best regards  
Sebastian


author: ryan goodwin
body: Ya I totally understand your frustration, but you're one of the smart ones. At least you used a test instance and didn't drop your production instance down thinking "this will be a piece of cake!"

The information that Denise gave you is correct - that is the standard process. However, from what you've stated about your current build number on the local OD instance you're running, it would seem you've come into an exception.

There is the workaround of removing the build number from the database so that the database build number version does not surpass the build number in your home directory. Doing this is pretty harmless as the upgrade process will then just try to run the steps to upgrade you to match the build number of the application. Since you've got this loaded up in the test env, you could follow the kb instructions and do some testing to ensure things work as expected.

Other than that, you'll need to provide info to support that the steps they provided you with were incorrect and find out if there is an alternative. :/


Tags: confluence-administration