Install HarperDB
This documentation contains information for installing HarperDB locally. Note that if you’d like to get up and running quickly, you can try a managed instance with HarperDB Cloud. HarperDB is a cross-platform database; we recommend Linux for production use, but HarperDB can run on Windows and Mac as well, for development purposes. Installation is usually very simple and just takes a few steps, but there are a few different options documented here.
HarperDB runs on Node.js, so if you do not have it installed, you need to do that first (if you have installed, you can skip to installing HarperDB, itself). Node.js can be downloaded and installed from their site. For Linux and Mac, we recommend installing and managing Node versions with NVM, which has instructions for installation, but generally NVM can be installed with:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.3/install.sh | bash
And then logout and login, and then install Node.js using nvm. We recommend using LTS, but support all currently maintained Node versions (which is currently version 14 and newer, and make sure to always uses latest minor/patch for the major version):
nvm install 18
Then you can install HarperDB with NPM and start it:
npm install -g harperdb
harperdb
HarperDB will automatically start after installation.
If you are setting up a production server on Linux, we have much more extensive documentation on how to configure volumes for database storage, set up a systemd script, configure your operating system for use a database server in our linux installation guide.
If you would like to run HarperDB in Docker, install Docker Desktop on your Mac or Windows computer. Otherwise, install the Docker Engine on your Linux server.
Once Docker Desktop or Docker Engine is installed, visit our Docker Hub page for information and examples on how to run a HarperDB container.
If you need to install HarperDB on a device that doesn't have an Internet connection, you can choose your version and download the npm package and install it directly (you’ll still need Node.js and NPM):
Once you’ve downloaded the .tgz file, run the following command from the directory where you’ve placed it:
npm install -g harperdb-X.X.X.tgz harperdb install
HarperDB comes with binaries for standard AMD64/x64 or ARM64 CPU architectures on Linux, Windows (x64 only), and Mac (including Apple Silicon). However, if you are installing on a less common platform (Alpine, for example), you will need to ensure that you have build tools installed for the installation process to compile the binaries (this is handled automatically), including:
- GCC
- Make
- Python v3.7, v3.8, v3.9, or v3.10
Last modified 5mo ago