Delete shared-home directory

[andrea schneider]

Hi

Can you please tell me what happens when I delete the shared-home folder from a 
Confluence Server installation? Is it something like a cash that gets rebuild with usage or is it not used at all on a server installation (Version 6.15.5)?

I have removed the folder on a TEST installation and couldn't see any side effects. What is it used for?

Thanks for your help

[Johan Soetens _Dumblefy_ · Accepted solution]

Hello Andrea,

the shared-home folder in Server caches files for features as Office document and PDF previews.

When you move to Data Center, you’ll really make it shared for all nodes and it will contain your attachments.

This folder is not listed in the Confluence clear plugins cache KB

[andrea schneider]

Hi Johan

Thanks for your reply.

I still do not understand for what exactly it is used. We do have seperate directories where the attachments and thumbnails are stored. So what is stored in the shared-home then? Wer're not having a Data Center installation, only a normal Server with no cluster.

Could you may give me an example where I could see the negative impact of missing content in the shared-home directory?

Sorry for this for you silly question, but I would like to understand it properly.

Thanks a lot in advance
Andrea

[Johan Soetens _Dumblefy_]

Andrea,

have a look at the official documentation about the Confluence folders but here’s the summary about shared-home.

“This sub-directory is created in your home directory when you install Confluence Server. If you choose move to Data Center, you'll move the contents of this directory to a seperate shared home directory, that is accessible to all nodes.

Cache files for some features, including Office document and PDF previews are also stored in this directory (in both Server and Data Center).”

Hope this helps.

[andrea schneider]

Hi Johan

I'm still confused what it is used for. I have installed a complete new version of the latest Confluence server and got the shared-home directory, but the only content I have there is a version of a confluence.cfg.xml and a config directory with a file cache-settings-overrides.properties.

There aren't any other files. If I have a look into our current installation, this directory has a size of about 10GB.

[andrea schneider]

Hi Johan

It's me again. I have just seen, once I upload attachments to a page the shared-home directory becomes the directory dcl-thumbnail. When I delete the directory, I'm losing the PDF thumbnail preview of my page, but after a reload the directory dcl-thumbnail and its content gets added again.

So to me it looks as it is really "kind of some cached content" and can be recreated with clicking on the pages having attachments. So I'm wondering, for doing an upgrade to a newer version on a new server if it wouldn't make sense to delete all the extra folders dcl-xxxx within the shared-home to get rid of maybe some very old data on pages never used again. And as soon as someone is accessing a page it gets recreated again.

Is this idea wrong?

Thanks a lot for your help
Andrea

[Johan Soetens _Dumblefy_]

Hello Andrea,

unless you’re running into storage issues and need to keep this shared-home folder to an absolute minimum, I wouldn’t worry too much about it as you need it for caching purposes - after all, caching is truly important for your end users. If needed you should consult with Atlassian Support before starting to delete internal folders.

There are quite a few issues about that folder, CONFSERVER-54836 basically has your question, you could add a comment to that one.

There’s another one about the specific files you mentioned: CONFSERVER-53660

[robert_egan_305]

A little late to the party, but I know of at least ONE instance where deleting this folder will have negative effects.

The Smart Courses LMS plugin uses this folder to permanently store it's SCORM files. If you have created courses that contain SCORM content, they will no longer play. You will just get an infinite wait until you reach your Confluence time out.

[sara]

Hi andrea,

Shared home comes only for datacenter installation.

For standalone there is home directory and installation directories.There are no other folders.