TeamCity Data Directory

Location of the TeamCity Data Directory

The currently used Data Directory location can be seen on the Administration | Global Settings page for a running TeamCity server instance. Clicking the Browse link opens the Administration | Global Settings | Browse Data Directory tab allowing the user to upload new or modify the existing files in the directory.

The current Data Directory location is also available in the logs/teamcity-server.log file (look for " TeamCity Data Directory: " line on the server startup).

Upload Configuration Files to a Version Control

You can configure TeamCity to push files from the .BuildServer/config directory (excluding the _trash subfolder) to an external VCS repository. This setup allows you to:

• Monitor all configuration changes. Each edit to server configuration files is automatically pushed as a separate commit, enabling you to review and investigate the change history.

• Restore your server if its configuration files become corrupted. To roll back, shut down the TeamCity server and pull files from an earlier repository revision into the .BuildServer/config directory.

To set up a repository that should store your server's configuration files:

1. Go to Administration | Configs Repository.

2. Tick Commit changes in configuration files to the configs repository.

3. Enter the path to your repository in the SSH format.

4. Enter a fully specified name (heads/refs/<name>) of the repository branch that should store configuration files.

5. Upload a private key to allow TeamCity to access your repository via SSH.

If you're using the Autoincrementer plugin, we recommend that you update it to the latest version.

Structure of TeamCity Data Directory

The config subdirectory of TeamCity Data Directory contains the configuration of your TeamCity projects, and the system subdirectory contains build logs, artifacts, and database files (if internal database (HSQLDB) is used which is default). You can also review information on Manual Backup and Restore to understand better which data is stored in the database, and which is on the file system.

• BuildServer/config — a directory where projects, build configurations and general server settings are stored.

  • _trash — backup copies of deleted projects, it is OK to delete them manually. For details on restoring the projects check How To.

  • notifications — notification templates and notification configuration settings.

  • logging — internal server logging configuration files, new files can be added to the directory manually.

  • projects — a directory which contains all project-related settings. Each project has its own directory. Project hierarchy is not used and all the projects have a corresponding directory residing directly under "projects".

    • <projectID> — a directory containing all the settings of a project with the <projectID> ID (including build configuration settings and excluding subproject settings). New directories can be created provided they have mandatory nested files. The Root directory contains settings of the root project. Whenever *.xml.N files occur under the directory, they are backup copies of corresponding files created when a project configuration is changed via the web UI. These backup copies are not used by TeamCity.

      • buildNumbers — a directory which contains <buildConfigurationID>.buildNumbers.properties files which store the current build number counter for the corresponding build configuration.

      • buildTypes — a directory with <buildConfiguration or template ID>.xml files with corresponding build configuration or template settings.

      • pluginData — a directory to store optional and plugin-related project-level settings. Bundled plugins settings and auxiliary project settings like custom project tabs are stored in the plugin-settings.xml file in the directory. Credentials stored outside of VCS per Versioned settings are stored in the secure/credentials.json file.

      • vcsRoots — a directory which contains project's VCS roots settings in the files <VcsRootID>.xml.

      • project-config.xml — the project configuration file containing the project settings, such as parameters and clean-up rules.

  • main-config.xml — server-wide configuration settings.

  • database.properties — database connection settings, see more at Setting up an External Database.

  • license.keys — a file which stores the license keys entered into TeamCity.

  • change-viewers.properties — External Changes Viewer configuration properties, if available.

  • internal.properties — file for specifying various internal TeamCity properties. It is not present by default and needs to be created if necessary.

  • auth-config.xml — a file storing server-wide authentication-related settings.

  • ldap-config.properties — LDAP authentication configuration properties.

  • ntlm-config.properties — Windows domain authentication configuration properties.

  • issue-tracker.xml — issue tracker integration settings.

  • cloud-profiles.xml — Cloud (for example, Amazon EC2) integration settings.

  • backup-config.xml — web UI backup configuration settings.

  • roles-config.xml — roles-permissions assignment file.

  • database.*.properties — default template connection settings files for different external databases.

  • *.dtd — DTD files for the XML configuration files.

  • *.dist — default template configuration files for the corresponding files without .dist. See below.

• .BuildServer/plugins — a directory where TeamCity plugins can be stored to be loaded automatically on the TeamCity start. New plugins can be added to the directory. Existing ones can be removed while the server is not running. The structure of a plugin is described in Plugins Packaging.

  • .tools — create this directory to centralize tools to be installed on all agents. Any folder or .zip file under this folder will be distributed to all agents and appear under Agent Home Directory folder.

• .BuildServer/system — a directory where build results data is stored. The content of the directory is generated by TeamCity and is not meant for manual editing.

  • artifacts — the default directory where the builds' artifacts, logs and other data are stored. The format of the artifact storage is <project ID>/<build configuration name>/<internal_build_id> (read more about the internal build ID). If necessary, the files in each build's directory can be added/removed manually — this will be reflected in the corresponding build's artifacts.

    • .teamcity subdirectory stores build's hidden artifacts and build logs (see below). The files can be deleted manually, if necessary, but it is not recommended as the build will lose the corresponding features backed by the files (like the build log, displaying/using finished build parameters including for the build reuse as snapshot dependency, coverage reports, and so on)

      
      

      • logs subdirectory stores the build log in an internal format. The build log stores the build output, compilation errors, test output, and test failure details. The files can be removed manually, if necessary, but corresponding builds will lose build log and failure details (as well as test failure details).

  • messages — a directory stores the files which could not be moved (see the server log on the server start for details).

  • changes — a directory where the remote run changes are stored in internal format. Name of the files inside the directory contains internal personal change id. The files can be deleted manually, if necessary, but corresponding personal builds will lose personal changes in UI and when affected queued builds try to start, they fail or run without personal patch.

  • pluginData — a directory storing various data concerning builds, current system state, and so on. It is not advised to delete or modify this directory. The content of this directory corresponds to the data stored in the database, so when the database is restored, this directory should be restored to the same state to be consistent with the database.

  • audit — directory holding history of the build configuration changes and used to display diff of the changes. Also stores related data in the database.

  • caches — a directory with internal caches (of the VCS repository contents, search index, other). It can be manually deleted to clear caches: they will be restored automatically as needed. It is safer to delete the directory while server is not running.

    • .unpacked — directory that is created automatically to store unpacked server-side plugins. Should not be modified while the server is running. Can be safely deleted if the server is not running.

  • buildserver.* — a set of files pertaining to the embedded HSQLDB.

• .BuildServer/backup — default directory to store backup archives created via web UI. The files in this directory are not used by TeamCity and can be safely removed if they were already copied for safekeeping.

• .BuildServer/lib/jdbc — directory that TeamCity uses to search for database drivers. Create the directory if necessary. TeamCity does not manage the files in the directory, it only scans it for .jar files that store the necessary driver.

Direct Modifications of Configuration Files

The files under the config directory can be edited manually (unless explicitly noted). The changes will be taken into account without the server restart. TeamCity monitors these files for changes and rereads them automatically when modifications or new files are detected. Bear in mind that it is easy to break the physical or logical structure of these files, so edit them with extreme caution. Always back up your data before making any changes.

Note that the format of the files can change with newer TeamCity versions, so the files updating procedure might need adjustments after an upgrade.

The REST API has means for most common settings editing and is more stable in terms of functioning after the server upgrade.