Our Formula SAE team had been using Confluence for documentation for many years. However mid-season, due to financial constraints and a security vulnerability, we were forced to migrate to a new platform. It was critical that a new documentation server be put in place within a week, and I took responsibility for the task.
I immediately began researching hosting options and open source alternatives to Confluence. I considered BookStack, XWiki, and wiki.js, but ultimately chose XWiki because it was the only software with a well-documented process for migrating Confluence data to a new open source server.
I decided to host the new server on DigitalOcean because I had experience with their Linux servers and needed a reliable server with a quick configuration time.
Getting everything up and running within a week was a challenge. I ran into multiple installation issues that I had to troubleshoot by diving deep into the documentation. I also encountered some migration issues, such as having to manually remove forward slashes from Confluence file names in order for them to migrate correctly. On top of all this, I had to balance my school work, cyber security internship, and other responsibilities throughout the week.
I documented the entire process as I went so that future members of the team responsible for server maintenance would have a guide to follow. In the end, I was able to migrate years of documentation and register all 40+ members of the team to the new server. Within a week, our team had overcome a major roadblock and was able to continue the design and manufacturing of our ‘23 race car. Our team placed 12th in design out of 120 this year.