Upgrading Stash to Bitbucket and Migrating to a new server

[Chris Tietgen]

We're at the point on our old Stash (v3.6.0) server where we need to add more users and have decided to upgrade to the latest version of Bitbucket Server and move to a new Windows 2016 server as well.

I found this article, but it appears to recommend moving our existing Stash Server to the new Windows 2016 server, then performing the upgrade.

Is this as close as we'll get to a "clean install" on a new server while retaining our existing data? I imagine it's the safest method, if nothing else.

[Reto Gehring [Valiantys]]

Hi Chris,

well that's normally the safest way, if you upgrade on the old server the restore in case of failure is more complicated but yet still feasible. 

I haven't checked the supported platforms and release notes but in some cases we add a dedicated upgrade server.

In this case you move first to the upgrade server  (same version).

Then you upgrade to the target version or to the closest version, by respecting the supported plattforms.

At the last step you move from the upgrade server to the new production server (same version).

This of course requires more downtime but you could come to a "clean install" or at least very close.

On the other hand I don't see the problem. Bitbucket will always create a new install dir or if  you do a manual install you will create a new install dir.

So once the upgrade is completed you just have to remove the install dirs from the different versions. More then that and some registry entries for the services and from the installer you wont have on your new server. If you do a manual install you will be also able to avoid registry entries.

The content of Bitbucket home aka  stash home you will move anyway completely and that's the place where you have most of your legacy.

Reto