XCopy install ArangoDB on Windows

Problem

Even if there is a nice guided installer for windows users, not all users prefer this kind of installation. In order to have a portable application XCOPY deployment is necessary.

Solution

As of Version 2.5.1 ArangoDB doesn't rely on registry entries anymore so we can deploy using a ZIP-file.

Steps

Unzip archive

Open an explorer, choose a place where you want ArangoDB to be and unzip the files there. It will create its own toplevel directory with the version number in the string.

Alter configuration

Optional:

Edit etc\arangodb3\arangod.conf if the default values don't suit your needs like:

• the location of the database files
• ports to bind
• storage engine

and so on.

Create Runtime directories

arangod leans on the existence of some directories in the var subdirectory, so you should create them:

C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.1.11>mkdir var\lib\arangodb
C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.1.11>mkdir var\lib\arangodb-apps

Run arangod

To start the database simply run it:

C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.1.11>usr\bin\arangod

Now it takes a while to open all its databases, load system facilities, bootstrap the JavaScript environments and many more. Once it's ready the output is:

INFO ArangoDB (version 3.1.11 [windows]) is ready for business. Have fun!

Now you can open the administrative webinterface in your browser using http://127.0.0.1:8529/.

Installing as service

If you don't want to run arangod from a cmd-shell each time installing it as a system service is the right thing to do. This requires administrative privileges. You need to Run as Administrator the cmd-shell. First we need to grant the SYSTEM-user access to our database directory, since arangod is going to be running as that user:

C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.1.11>icacls var /grant SYSTEM:F /t

Next we can install the service itself:

C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.1.11>usr\bin\arangod --install-service

Now you will have a new entry in the Services dialog labeled ArangoDB - the multi-purpose database. You can start it there or just do it on the commandline using:

C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.1.11>NET START ArangoDB

It will take a similar amount of time to start from the comandline above till the service is up and running. Since you don't have any console to inspect the startup, messages of the severity FATAL & ERROR are also output into the windows eventlog, so in case of failure you can have a look at the Eventlog in the Managementconsole

Author: Wilfried Goesgens

Tags: #windows #install