2.1. Single Node Setup

Many users simply need a single-node CouchDB 2.x installation. Operationally, it is roughly equivalent to the CouchDB 1.x series. Note that a single-node setup obviously doesn’t take any advantage of the new scaling and fault-tolerance features in CouchDB 2.x.

After installation and initial startup, visit Fauxton at http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils#setup. You will be asked to set up CouchDB as a single-node instance or set up a cluster. When you click “Single-Node-Setup”, you will get asked for an admin username and password. Choose them well and remember them.

You can also bind CouchDB to a public address, so it is accessible within your LAN or the public, if you are doing this on a public VM. Or, you can keep the installation private by binding only to 127.0.0.1 (localhost). Binding to 0.0.0.0 will bind to all addresses. The wizard then configures your admin username and password and creates the three system databases _users, _replicator and _global_changes for you.

Another option is to set the configuration parameter [couchdb] single_node=true in your local.ini file. When doing this, CouchDB will create the system database for you on restart.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to use the Setup Wizard or set that value, and run 3.x as a single node with a server administrator already configured via config file, make sure to create the three system databases manually on startup:

curl -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:5984/_users
curl -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:5984/_replicator
curl -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:5984/_global_changes

Note that the last of these is not necessary if you do not expect to be using the global changes feed. Feel free to delete this database if you have created it, it has grown in size, and you do not need the function (and do not wish to waste system resources on compacting it regularly.)