I have to move an old confluence wiki space from an old busted machine to a fancy new xserve. Confluence 3.x will not allow imports of 2.x exports so I cannot install and license 3.x and then import the old data. Oh and to make it extra fun the owner(s) of the old box won't give me access. They are willing to transfer the attachments folder and the spaces content folder but I'm not a wiki wizard and do not know if that will help me at all.
Oh Stack Overflow I beseech thee! How is one to move a confluence installation?
It is certainly possible to go from 2.7 to 3.x, but you need to follow the steps as detailed by atlassian - we upgraded 2.5.7 to 3.2. by going over 2.7.4 (which is a necessary step) (Probably you will be able to upgrade directly from 2.7.2 to 3.5)
The trick is that you need to setup the 2.7.2 environment,before you can start the upgrade: setup the 2.7.2 home directory, import the database into the appropriate database ... Once that you have the 2.7.2 up and running, upgrading to 3.5 should be straightforward.
Ask the owner if you can get the complete home directory (which contains the attachments) and the xml database.
Francis