Stash upgrade to Bitbucket Server on 32-bit Linux?

[Michael_Allen]

I can't seem to find explicit mention of this in the release notes, but it appears that support for 32-bit Linux systems has been dropped with the introduction of Bitbucket Server. There are no 32-bit installers available, so far as I can tell.

I currently use Stash on a 32-bit Linux VM system that is perfectly adequate for my needs. Do I now have to create a new 64-bit Linux VM, install 64-bit Bitbucket Server, migrate across all my Stash data, then import it? Sounds like a nightmare... 

[Ben Humphreys · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

Indeed the 32-bit installers are no longer available, however 32-bit platforms are still very much supported. You will need to download the tarball and follow these instructions https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucketserver/upgrade-bitbucket-server-from-an-archive-file-779292682.html

Only a small fraction of our userbase is running 32-bit and typically install the 32-bit version without fully understanding the consequences, thus the removal of the 32-bit installers. We would appreciate your feedback on your usage of a 32-bit platform and certainly if you have any challenges performing the tarball based upgrade please let us know.

Also note, in upgrading to 4.0 you will need to ensure new versions of any user installed plugins are available. See the note on this page https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucketserver/bitbucket-server-upgrade-guide-776640551.html#BitbucketServerupgradeguide-40BitbucketServer4.0updatenotes

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Ben 

[Michael_Allen]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the response, and for the useful info.

Just out of curiosity, could you elaborate on what you mean by "install the 32-bit version without fully understanding the consequences"? The release notes do not appear to say anything on the subject, so I was not aware that there were any.

Thanks,

Mike

[Ben Humphreys]

Hi Michael, Nothing necessarily serious nor specific to Bitbucket Server. Just that production instances are usually deployed on systems with significantly more more than can be addressed via a 32-bit address space. Certainly if you install a 32-bit OS and JVM on a platform with more than 4GB of RAM you may be limiting how far you can scale your application; in this case Bitbucket Server. On 32-bit Windows for instance it is common that the *maximum* Java heap size will be in the range 1.2 to 1.6 GB. Bitbucket Server actually runs in much less memory, however occasionally (often due to the installation of third party plugins) there is need to use a larger heap. Even if you only run a small VM now, it easy to increase the RAM on your VM from say 4GB to 16GB, right?. Starting with a 64-bit OS and JVM means you don't need to do a re-install to fully take advantage of the extra memory you allocated to your VM. Hope this help.