Help PPGod!How to restore Confluence and Jira through one time backup of home root directory?
Asked by PPGod:

**I backed up the entire home root.**

**I need to keep the basic settings of Confluence and Jira.**

**For example: setting the server home page URL, Application navigator**

**Can I replace the entire home root to restore Confluence and Jira at one time?**

![11111.png](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/135316i74169D87236E0ECC/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "11111.png")

**Or do I just need to back up the application-data?**

![2222.png](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/135315i2707C0D1B25A2156/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "2222.png")


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: It is not quite possible to tell what you need to back up from the file system alone.

A minimal backup of Jira or Confluence contains

* The attachments
* The database

That would allow you to recreate your Jira or Confluence into a new empty system that you'd install from scratch. It would need some work to configure, but would contain all the data from the application

A fuller back up would be

* The database
* The full "home" directory (attachments are a sub-directory of that)

This would be easier to restore to a similar machine, because the home directory contains all the configuration and the index, so you'd be up and running faster, but you would have to check all the customisations that are written to the home directory are still appropriate for the server you are restoring on to

A complete backup would be

* The home directory
* The database
* The installation directory

This backup could be copied to any replacement server in one go and simply started, assuming that server is similar enough to the original

comments: author: PPGod
body: My installation directory, accessories, database, etc. are all in the "home" directory.My everything is installed in a virtual machine. I copy a new one from the original virtual machine. At this time, I backup the "home" directory of the original virtual machine and replace the "home" directory of the new virtual machine. At this time,it is found that confluence and jira services in the new virtual machine cannot be started

![ddd.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/135603i7381F498DF557141/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "ddd.png")

So?I am very confused about how to achieve what you said "This backup could be copied to any replacement server in one go and simply started"


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Sorry, that can be confusing and I forget to explain it sometimes

Confluence has a "home" directory to hold its working data in (things like the attachments, index, log files, backups, temporary files and so-on)

This is not a \*nix user's home directory, it is a dedicated directory for Confluence which could be anywhere you want on the server's storage.

As a couple of examples, it is not unusual to see things similar to these setups:

Confluence example 1:

* Installed in /opt/confluence
* Data (home) in /var/confluence

Confluence example 2:

* Installed in /opt/atlassian/confluence/inst
* Data (home) in /opt/atlassian/confluence/data

But you could install it anywhere and have the data directory anywhere you want (as long they are not nested in the same place). So we tend to talk about them in generic terms because they might be anywhere.

So, taking a backup of an entire VM will cover all of the directories and database you need and restoring that should not be a problem.

The error message you are getting is not about the file and data copy though, it's almost certainly to do with file ownership, which we are discussing over at <https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Confluence-server-start-error/qaq-p/1643917>


author: PPGod
body: I seem to understand what you mean.

In the first picture of the problem, the "confluence" and "jira" directories in the "home"directory are my user files . If I replace the whole "home", Even if the file name is the same, the user will be replaced, resulting in the loss of file ownership.

So according to the picture, In terms of my current installation directory in the picture,I need to back up all the files in the path "/home/atlassian/", right?

But what is the "AtlassianResource" file under the path '/ home /'?Do I need to back it up?


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: I can't tell you what to back up because I do not know where your application home or installation directories are. I can only tell you that you need to back up the four places (two installs and two home directories).

You can see what an application's home directory is very simply - there's a line that says "home" in the "system information" page.


author: PPGod
body: I understand what you mean, thank you


Tags: confluence-server

server