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See https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/System+Requirements for newest requirements

OS and Hardware Settings

Virtual: Why not - the benefits are huge

Preferred OS: Linux  Ubuntu LTS 64-bit (this Cookbook is 90% Linux orientated)

Hardware: At least 2 vCPU Bit - 2 CPU's and at lease least 3 GB Ram

Mysql Settings

Preferred Database: MySQL (or Postgres)

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[mysqld]
transaction-isolation = READ-COMMITTED
log-bin=mysql-bin
binlog_format=row
default-table-type=innodb
default-storage-engine=innodb
max_allowed_packet=32M64M

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8

 
[mysqldump]
max_allowed_packet=64M

Notice that max_allowed_packed=64M, where as this link says 32M, I have seen Gliffy updates fail with 32M

On large installations or where indexes are huge, changing innodb_lock_wait_timeout can be an option (Ref: JIRAKB)

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mysql> create database confluence CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin;
mysql> grant all privileges GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,ALTER,INDEX on confluence.* to confluence@localhost identified by '*******';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

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Download Confluence from http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/download

Download the MySQL JDBC from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/

For the binary installer, JAVA is integrated, for EAR or WAR files this must be downloaded and installed separately.

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Follow the required steps (remember path to Confluence_HomeInstall and Confluence_DataHome) and connect to the tomcat instance started; if the MySQL Driver can be found, restart the Tomcat.

Postinstall

This is where the tweaking comes into place, to avoid common problems:

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This file is found in Confluence_DataHome

Change the number of Database connections to higher than standard

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This file is found in the Confluence_HomeInstall/bin

Read Garbage Collector Performance Issues for settings

Add support for UTF-8 File system by adding -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 to the JAVA_OPTS:

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JAVA_OPTS="-Xms2048m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Djava.awt.headless=true -verbose:gc -Xloggc:/pack/confluence/logs/gc.log -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:NewSize=700m -XX:+UseParallelGC -Dsun.rmi.dgc.client.gcInterval=900000 -Dsun.rmi.dgc.server.gcInterval=900000 -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=/backup/hdump -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8"
export JAVA_OPTS

If You are planning to run under the same Fully Qualified Domain - review https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-8726

server.xml

This file is found in Confluence_HomeInstall/conf

Binding to a fixed IP Address, add the address= to the connector. Also the port= can be changed (Under Linux only root can bond to 0-1023):

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If behind a traffic Manager or Apache Proxy, add scheme=, proxyName= and proxyPort to the context t (See Apache2 Proxy Passing or Proxy Passing section belov)::

<Context path="" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true" scheme="https" proxyName="jira.example.com" proxyPort="443">

If the Tomcat needs to travel through symbolic links on the filesystem, add the allowLinking="true" to the context:

Tomcat 7.X - This is in server.xml

<Context path="" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true" allowLinking="true">

Tomcat 8.X - This is in context.xml

<Context>
  <Resources allowLinking="true" />
</Context>

If the Confluence instance need to run below root /, change the path= parameter:

<Context path="/confluence" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true" allowLinking="true">

Its possible to increase maxPostSize for faster page rending - https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Slow+Page+Rendering+of+Large+Pages+Due+to+HTTP+POST+Limitations 

Confluence running as Confluence user

Make sure Confluence is not running as root (for security reasons); look at Confluence_HomeInstall/bin/user.sh for a username:

# START INSTALLER MAGIC ! DO NOT EDIT !
CONF_USER="confluence" ##
# END INSTALLER MAGIC ! DO NOT EDIT !
export CONF_USER ##

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Finally, make sure the confluence user has access:

cd Confluence_HomeInstall
sudo chown -R confluence:confluence confluence
 
cd Confluence_DataHome
sudo chown -R confluence:confluence confluence-data

Other

Proxy passing

There are good reasons for using an Apache or Traffic Manager in front of the Confluence Installation, some are:

• No port changing (non-root users can assign to ports below 1024)
• Use of URL Rewrite
• Use of URL Blocking
• Use of Allow/Denial 
• SSL offloading/handling outside the Confluence

Se my example in Apache2 Proxy Passing

Time And Date Setup

Time and Date should be set up according to 

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Configuring+Time+and+Date+Formats

My formats for danish is:

Time Format           HH:mm
Date Time Format      dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm
Date Format           dd-MM-yyyy

Logfiles

Logrotate

Set up logrotate to avoid ever growing catalina.out log file. Here Confluence_Home is Install is /opt/confluence, logs are rotated daily and keept for 7 days:

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