Confluence AWS Install

The default EC2 instance type for Jira Data Center, Confluence Data Center, and Bitbucket Data Center application nodes on AWS is the c3.xlarge. While you are free to choose the instance type, whatever you choose must meet each product's system requirements, as noted in their sizing guide. It's critically important also to note that you must not use T2 instance types for your application nodes. T2 instances are not sufficient for production environments, and using such may cause performance issues and outages.https://confluence.atlassian.com/enterprise/node-sizing-overview-for-atlassian-data-center-941612709.html

Assumptions

These assumptions will be met if you have succesfully followed the Jira Service Desk Installation instructions (linked above).

Step-by-Step

If you have previously successfully installed Confluence and you wish to reinstall into a new VPC (probably after deletion of the previous VPC, but it is possible to run two ASIs in separate VPCs in the same account, perhaps in order to use one for test), skip straight to the CloudFormation Create Stack Step i.e. the EC2 Key Pair will likely exist (unless you wish to use a new key pair for this VPC/ASI) and S3 steps will already have been completed (unless you plan to use a different version of the template).

Clone a local copy of the Quick Start templates...

cd ~

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/aws-quickstart/quickstart-atlassian-confluence.git 

Upload the Quick Start templates to the S3 bucket...

cd ~

aws s3 cp quickstart-atlassian-confluence s3://$(whoami)-$(id -u)/quickstart-atlassian-confluence --recursive --acl public-read

Update the bucket name if required

In the AWS Console, navigate to CloudFormation and Create Stack. 

Select "Template is ready"

For the Template Source select "Amazon S3 URL" and provide the URL of the Quick Start template in your S3 bucket.



Use the command below from the Linux shell prompt to generate a URL that you can cut & paste.

https://mybucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/quickstart-atlassian-confluence/templates/quickstart-confluence-master.template.yaml

Specify stack details, referring to the Parameter Guide below...

Jira Service Desk
The BackMac tab refers to the optional "Backup Machine" backup solution provided by Atlassian (see Jira AWS Backups link later)

All fields on the "Configure Stack options" page are optional.

On the "Review" page you need to tick the "Capabilities" check boxes at the bottom of the page.

The stack creation can take some time. Wait for it to complete. 

You can monitor via the Stacks page or using the CLI...aws cloudformation list-stacks --output yaml --stack-status-filter "CREATE_IN_PROGRESS" "CREATE_FAILED" "CREATE_COMPLETE" | grep -E 'StackName|StackStatus'

Use the ServiceURL from the "Outputs" tab for your Stack to Connect to the new Confluence deployment.

If you get an HTTP 503 error it generally means the Confluence application is still starting. Wait 2 minutes and retry.

You can click Next here. You can easily add these apps to Confluence later uf you need them.

If you have a license key, enter it here. Use the link to generate a trial license if necessary.

(Only live Confluence installations need a paid license, Test installations can be licensed with 90-day trial licenses)

When generating a license be sure that the Product and License Type are set correctly. The Server ID should be pre-propulated if you followed the link from the screen shown.

In the event that you get an issue related to "Haelcast instance not active!"; the quickest solution is to terminate the Confluence instance from AWS so that the Autoscaling Group configuration causes the instance to be reinstantiated. In testing this made the error disappear. It did however cause a new server-id to be allocated so a new Confluence evaluation license needed to be generated.

Select an option as appropriate to your needs.

If you plan on any form of LDAP integration or SSO then you should choose the top option. 


The second option is appropriate if your users are logging into Jira using a manually provisioned account and you wish to avoid the need for them to manage their account in both systems.

Assuming you will act as the System Administrator (at least until other System Administrators have been added later) then create an account using your details.

Clicking "Continue" after providing a Space name on this page will start an optional tutorial.

You now have a working Confluence installation. But there are next steps to consider...

Next Steps

Changing the colour scheme is a good idea for a test system in order to avoid confusion. 
It's a good idea to test and understand this process even if you revert back to 1 node when you are done. 

SSL

SSO

Backups

Bibliography