How to upgrade Confluence many release versions ahead... painlessly
Asked by Tom:

I have been tasked with updating Confluence from 3.2 to 4.x. Note that we use Crowd for User Management and SSO, and we have an external DB. I successfully migrated our PROD 3.2 version to a TEST environment (pointing at the existing Crowd) and then successfully upgraded that to 3.5 (as the instructions say you can't go straight to 4.x \<sigh\>). All was well. When I went to update the plug-ins in that 3.5 environment, something went wrong because Crowd stopped working and now the browser just hangs and spins eternally. I thought it might be something in the seraph-config.xml but I have tried every combination I can find; nothing works.

What I want to know is, can I install a virgin 4.x copy and import what is needed from the old 3.2 copy? Where can I find \*complete\* instructions for doing something like that?


Answers:
author: Tom
body: This finally succeeded after doing a reinstall as described in <https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Upgrading+Confluence+Manually> but first disabling a mess of plug-ins. Also, I had to re-enter the license, even though it seemed to be in place.

My advice for getting caught up from several releases behind (for ANY Atlassian app) -- read the upgrade notes for each version ahead of your version and install the version which subsequent versions require (let's call this a "baseline" release), run with that one for a little while, then upgrade to the next baseline release, and so on. A "baseline" release might be a release from which subsequent releases can use the automated installer, and by all means you should use that if at all possible.


author: Michael S
body: Don't ever export from an old version and import into a new version. Ever. Ever ever ever. Ever.

It's pretty strange that plugins would cause Crowd to stop working, are you able to log in as a local admin? <https://confluence.atlassian.com/x/HIcKDw>

I would take a look at the upgrade log and make sure the upgrade to 3.5 actually completed properly. Pay careful attention to the steps for Crowd integration.

If you have a current license then feel free to raise a support request via [support.atlassian.com](http://support.atlassian.com), make sure you attach the logs from the upgrade and we can take a look.

comments: author: Chandan kumar
body: Hi I am also struggling while upgrading from 3.2 to 3.5. As per the manual instruction I only need to extract the standalone file and change the data directory path and it should work. But I am getting failed.


author: Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]
body: You need to upgrade to 3.5 first.

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Upgrading+Confluence+Manually> clearly says that and has the complete instructions.

comments: author: Tom
body: Thank you for your response, Jobin.

As I described in my original question, yes, I upgraded from 3.2 to 3.5 in my TEST environment (and taking rather painstaking detail to do everything described in the docs), and that initially functioned, but when I continued to the part where I was updating plug-ins, everything stopped working -- it acts as if it is a Crowd issue.

I want to know whether I can install 4.x as if I never had Confluence installed (surely new customers can do this), and then make the various file changes described in the manual procedures, plus install new plug-ins, and anything else like an export from 3.5 and import to 4.x.


author: Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]
body: How will you export from 3.5 if it is not working? If I understood you correctly, you have issues in your upgrade from 3.2 to 3.5. You first need to figure it out and make it working and then do an upgrade from that instance to 4.2.

If I were you, I would spend time to find out the cause of the issue - most likely incompatible plugins?


Tags: upgrade