Installing ArangoDB on Windows

Introduction

There are two possible methods to install ArangoDB on 64-bit Windows systems:

  1. Automated, using an NSIS Installer
    • attended (GUI)
    • unattended (command-line, using NSIS silent mode)
  2. Manual, using a ZIP archive (XCopy installation)

Both installation methods have their own pros and cons.

For production environments we highly recommend using Linux.

Installing using the Installer

The default installation directory is C:\Program Files\ArangoDB-3.x.x. During the installation process you may change this. In the following description we will assume that ArangoDB has been installed in the location <ROOTDIR>.

You have to be careful when choosing an installation directory. You need either write permission to this directory or you need to modify the configuration file for the server process. In the latter case the database directory and the Foxx directory have to be writable by the user.

Single- and Multiuser Installation

There are two main modes for the installer of ArangoDB. The installer lets you select:

  • multi user installation (default; admin privileges required) Will install ArangoDB as service.
  • single user installation Allow to install Arangodb as normal user. Requires manual starting of the database server.

Installation Options

The checkboxes allow you to chose weather you want to:

  • chose custom install paths
  • do an automatic upgrade
  • keep an backup of your data
  • add executables to path
  • create a desktop icon

or not.

Custom Install Paths

This checkbox controls if you will be able to override the default paths for the installation in subsequent steps.

The default installation paths are:

Multi User Default:

  • Installation: %PROGRAMFILES%\ArangoDB-3.x.x
  • DataBase: %PROGRAMDATA%\ArangoDB
  • Foxx Service: %PROGRAMDATA%\ArangoDB-apps

Single User Default:

  • Installation: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ArangoDB-3.x.x\
  • DataBase: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ArangoDB\
  • Foxx Service: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ArangoDB-apps\

The environment variables are typically:

  • %PROGRAMFILES%: C:\Program Files
  • %PROGRAMDATA%: C:\ProgramData
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%: C:\Users\<YourName>\AppData\Local

We are not using the roaming part of the user’s profile, because doing so avoids the data being synced to the windows domain controller.

Automatic Upgrade

If this checkbox is selected the installer will attempt to perform an automatic update. For more information please see Upgrading on Windows.

Keep Backup

Select this to create a backup of your database directory during automatic upgrade. The backup will be created next to your current database directory suffixed by a time stamp.

Add to Path

Select this to add the binary directory to your system’s path (multi user installation) or user’s path (single user installation).

Desktop Icon

Select if you want the installer to create Desktop Icons that let you:

  • access the web inteface
  • start the commandline client (arangosh)
  • start the database server (single user installation only)

Starting

If you installed ArangoDB for multiple users (as a service) it is automatically started. Otherwise you need to use the link that was created on you Desktop if you chose to let the installer create desktop icons or

the executable arangod.exe located in <ROOTDIR>\bin. This will use the configuration file arangod.conf located in <ROOTDIR>\etc\arangodb, which you can adjust to your needs and use the data directory <ROOTDIR>\var\lib\arangodb. This is the place where all your data (databases and collections) will be stored by default.

Please check the output of the arangod.exe executable before going on. If the server started successfully, you should see a line ArangoDB is ready for business. Have fun! at the end of its output.

We now wish to check that the installation is working correctly and to do this we will be using the administration web interface. Execute arangod.exe if you have not already done so, then open up your web browser and point it to the page:

  1. http://127.0.0.1:8529/

Advanced Starting

If you want to provide our own start scripts, you can set the environment variable ARANGODB_CONFIG_PATH. This variable should point to a directory containing the configuration files.

Using the Client

To connect to an already running ArangoDB server instance, there is a shell arangosh.exe located in <ROOTDIR>\bin. This starts a shell which can be used – amongst other things – to administer and query a local or remote ArangoDB server.

Note that arangosh.exe does NOT start a separate server, it only starts the shell. To use it you must have a server running somewhere, e.g. by using the arangod.exe executable.

arangosh.exe uses configuration from the file arangosh.conf located in *<ROOTDIR>\etc\arangodb*. Please adjust this to your needs if you want to use different connection settings etc.

Uninstalling

To uninstall the Arango server application you can use the windows control panel (as you would normally uninstall an application). Note however, that any data files created by the Arango server will remain as well as the <ROOTDIR> directory. To complete the uninstallation process, remove the data files and the <ROOTDIR> directory manually.

Unattended installation using the installer

The NSIS based installer requires user interaction by default, but it also offers a Silent Mode which allows you to run it non-interactively from the command-line:

  1. cmd> ArangoDB3-3.x.x_win64.exe /S …

All choices available in the GUI can be passed as arguments. The options can be specified like /OPTIONNAME=value.

Supported options

For Installation:

  • /PASSWORD - Set the database password. Newer versions will also try to evaluate a PASSWORD environment variable

  • /INSTDIR - Installation directory. A directory where you have access to.

  • /DATABASEDIR - Database directory. A directory where you have access to and the databases should be created.
  • /APPDIR - Foxx Services directory. A directory where you have access to.
  • /INSTALL_SCOPE_ALL:
    • 1 - AllUsers +Service - launch the arangodb service via the Windows Services, install it for all users
    • 0 - SingleUser - install it into the home of this user, don’launch a service. Eventually create a desktop Icon so the user can do this.
  • /DESKTOPICON
    • 0: Do not create any shortcuts
    • 1: Create shortcuts on the desktop for arangosh and the web interface
  • /PATH
    • 0 - don’t alter the PATH environment at all
    • 1:
      • INSTALL_SCOPE_ALL = 1 add it to the path for all users
      • INSTALL_SCOPE_ALL = 0 add it to the path of the currently logged in users
  • /STORAGE_ENGINE - which storage engine to use (ArangoDB 3.2 onwards)
    • auto: Use default storage engine (RocksDB from version 3.4 on, MMFiles in 3.3 and older)
    • mmfiles: Use MMFiles storage engine
    • rocksdb: Use RocksDB storage engine

For Uninstallation:

  • PURGE_DB
    • 0 - Database files will remain on the system
    • 1 - Database files ArangoDB created during its lifetime will be removed too.

Installing using the ZIP archive (XCopy installation)

Not all users prefer the guided Installer to install ArangoDB. In order to have a portable application, or easily start different ArangoDB versions on the same machine, and/or for the maximum flexibility, you might want to install using the ZIP archive (XCOPY deployment).

Unzip the archive

Open an explorer, choose a place where you would like ArangoDB to be, and extract the archive there. It will create its own top-level directory with the version number in the name.

Edit the configuration

This step is optional.

If the default configuration of ArangoDB does not suite your needs, you can edit etc\arangodb3\arangod.conf to change or add configuration options.

Start the Server

After installation, you may start ArangoDB in several ways. The exact start-up command depends on the type of ArangoDB deployment you are interested in (Single Instance, Master-Slave, Active Failover or Cluster).

Please refer to the Deployment chapter for details.