Introduction

OrientDB is a multi-model, NoSQL database with support for graph and document databases. It is a Java application and can run on any operating system. It's also fully ACID-complaint with support for multi-master replication.

In this article, you'll learn how to install and configure the latest Community edition of OrientDB on an Ubuntu 14.04 server.

Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you will need the following:

• Ubuntu 14.04 Droplet
• Non-root user with sudo privileges (Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 14.04 explains how to set this up.)

Step 1 — Installing Oracle Java

OrientDB is a Java application that requires Java version 1.6 or higher. Because it's much faster than Java 6 and 7, Java 8 is highly recommended. And that's the version of Java we'll install in this step.

To install Java JRE, add the following Personal Package Archives (PPA):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

Update the package database:

sudo apt-get update

Then install Oracle Java. Installing it using this particular package not only installs it, but also makes it the default Java JRE. When prompted, accept the license agreement:

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-set-default

After installing it, verify that it's now the default Java JRE:

java -version

The expected output is as follows (the exact version may vary):

output
java version "1.8.0_60"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)

Step 2 — Downloading and Installing OrientDB

In this step, we'll download and install the latest Community edition of OrientDB. At the time of this publication, OrientDB Community 2.1.3 is the latest version. If a newer version has been released, change the version number to match:

wget https://orientdb.com/download.php?file=orientdb-community-2.1.3.tar.gz

The downloaded tarball contains pre-compiled binary files that you need to run OrientDB on your system, so all you need to do is untar it to a suitable directory. Since the /opt is the traditional location for third party programs on Linux, let's untar it there:

sudo tar -xf download.php?file=orientdb-community-2.1.3.tar.gz -C /opt

The files are extracted into a directory named orientdb-community-2.1.3. To make it easier to work with, let's rename it:

sudo mv /opt/orientdb-community-2.1.3 /opt/orientdb

Step 3 — Starting the Server

Now that the binary is in place, you can start the server and connect to the console. Before that, navigate to the installation directory:

cd /opt/orientdb

Then start the server:

sudo bin/server.sh

Aside from generating a bunch of output, by starting the server for the first time, you'll be prompted to specify a password for the root user account. This is an internal OrientDB account that will be used to access the server. For example, it's the username and password combination that will be used to access OrientDB Studio, the web-based interface for managing OrientDB. If you don't specify a password, one will be generated automatically. However, it's best to specify one yourself, do so when prompted.

Part of the output generated from starting the server tells you what ports the server and OrientDB Studio are listening on:

Output
2015-10-12 11:27:45:095 INFO  Databases directory: /opt/orientdb/databases [OServer]
2015-10-12 11:27:45:263 INFO  Listening binary connections on 0.0.0.0:2424 (protocol v.32, socket=default) [OServerNetworkListener]
2015-10-12 11:27:45:285 INFO  Listening http connections on 0.0.0.0:2480 (protocol v.10, socket=default) [OServerNetworkListener]

...

2015-10-12 11:27:45:954 INFO  OrientDB Server v2.1.3 (build UNKNOWN@r; 2015-10-04 10:56:30+0000) is active. [OServer]

Since OrientDB is now running in your terminal window, in a second terminal window to the same Droplet, confirm that the server is listening on ports 2424 (for binary connections) and 2480 (for HTTP connections). To confirm that it's listening for binary connections, execute:

sudo netstat -plunt | grep 2424

The output should look similar to

Output
tcp6       0      0 :::2424                 :::*                    LISTEN      1617/java

To confirm that it's listening for HTTP connections, execute:

sudo netstat -plunt | grep 2480

The expected output is as follows:

Output
tcp6       0      0 :::2480                 :::*                    LISTEN      1617/java

Step 4 — Connecting to the Console

Now that the server is running, you can connect to it using the console, that is, the command line interface:

sudo /opt/orientdb/bin/console.sh

You will see the following:

Output
OrientDB console v.2.1.3 (build UNKNOWN@r; 2015-10-04 10:56:30+0000) www.orientdb.com
Type 'help' to display all the supported commands.
Installing extensions for GREMLIN language v.2.6.0

orientdb>

Now, connect to the server instance. The password required is the one you specified when you first started the server in the earlier:

connect remote:127.0.0.1 root root-password

If connected, the output should be:

Output
Connecting to remote Server instance [remote:127.0.0.1] with user 'root'...OK
orientdb {server=remote:127.0.0.1/}>

Type exit to quit:

exit

So you've just installed OrientDB, manually started it, and connected to it. That's all good. However, it also means starting it manually anytime you reboot the server. That's not good. In the next steps, we'll configure and set up OrientDB to run just like any other daemon on the server.

Type CTRL-C in the terminal window with OrientDB still running to stop it.

Step 5 — Configuring OrientDB

At this point OrientDB is installed on your system, but it's just a bunch of scripts on the server. In this step, we'll modify the configuration file, and also configure it to run as a daemon on the system. That involves modifying the /opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh script and the /opt/orientdb/config/orientdb-server-config.xml configuration file.

Let's start by modifying the /opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh script to tell OrientDB the user it should be run as, and to point it to the installation directory.

So, first, create the system user that you want OrientDB to run as. The command will also create the orientdb group:

sudo useradd -r orientdb -s /bin/false

Give ownership of the OrientDB directory and files to the newly-created OrientDB user and group:

sudo chown -R orientdb:orientdb /opt/orientdb

Now let's make a few changes to the orientdb.sh script. We start by opening it using:

sudo nano /opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh

First, we need to point it to the proper installation directory, then tell it what user it should be run as. So look for the following two lines at the top of the file:

/opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh
# You have to SET the OrientDB installation directory here
ORIENTDB_DIR="YOUR_ORIENTDB_INSTALLATION_PATH"
ORIENTDB_USER="USER_YOU_WANT_ORIENTDB_RUN_WITH"

And change them to:

/opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh
# You have to SET the OrientDB installation directory here
ORIENTDB_DIR="/opt/orientdb"
ORIENTDB_USER="orientdb"

Now, let's makes it possible for the system user to run the script using sudo.

Further down, under the start function of the script, look for the following line and comment it out by adding the # character in front of it. It must appear as shown:

/opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh
#su -c "cd \"$ORIENTDB_DIR/bin\"; /usr/bin/nohup ./server.sh 1>../log/orientdb.log 2>../log/orientdb.err &" - $ORIENTDB_USER

Copy and paste the following line right after the one you just commented out:

/opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh
sudo -u $ORIENTDB_USER sh -c "cd \"$ORIENTDB_DIR/bin\"; /usr/bin/nohup ./server.sh 1>../log/orientdb.log 2>../log/orientdb.err &"

Under the stop function, look for the following line and comment it out as well. It must appear as shown.

/opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh
#su -c "cd \"$ORIENTDB_DIR/bin\"; /usr/bin/nohup ./shutdown.sh 1>>../log/orientdb.log 2>>../log/orientdb.err &" - $ORIENTDB_USER

Copy and paste the following line right after the one you just commented out:

/opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh
sudo -u $ORIENTDB_USER sh -c "cd \"$ORIENTDB_DIR/bin\"; /usr/bin/nohup ./shutdown.sh 1>>../log/orientdb.log 2>>../log/orientdb.err &"

Save and close the file.

Next, open the configuration file:

sudo nano /opt/orientdb/config/orientdb-server-config.xml

We're going to modify the storages tag and, optionally, add another user to the users tag. So scroll to the storages element and modify it so that it reads like the following. The username and password are your login credentials, that is, those you used to log into your server:

/opt/orientdb/config/orientdb-server-config.xml
<storages>
        <storage path="memory:temp" name="temp" userName="username" userPassword="password" loaded-at-startup="true" />
</storages>

If you scroll to the users tag, you should see the username and password of the root user you specified when you first start the OrientDB server in Step 3. Also listed will be a guest account. You do not have to add any other users, but if you wanted to, you could add the username and password that you used to log into your DigitalOcean server. Below is an example of how to add a user within the users tag:

/opt/orientdb/config/orientdb-server-config.xml
<user name="username" password="password" resources="*"/>

Save and close the file.

Finally, modify the file's permissions to prevent unauthorized users from reading it:

sudo chmod 640 /opt/orientdb/config/orientdb-server-config.xml

Step 6 — Installing the Startup Script

Now that the scripts have been configured, you can now copy them to their respective system directories. For the script responsible for running the console, copy it to the /usr/bin directory:

sudo cp /opt/orientdb/bin/console.sh /usr/bin/orientdb

Then copy the script responsible for starting and stopping the service or daemon to the /etc/init.d directory:

sudo cp /opt/orientdb/bin/orientdb.sh /etc/init.d/orientdb

Change to the /etc/init.d directory:

cd /etc/init.d

Then update the rc.d directory so that the system is aware of the new script and will start it on boot just like the other system daemons.

sudo update-rc.d orientdb defaults

You should get the following output:

Output
update-rc.d: warning: /etc/init.d/orientdb missing LSB information
update-rc.d: see <http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts>
 Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/orientdb ...
   /etc/rc0.d/K20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb
   /etc/rc1.d/K20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb
   /etc/rc6.d/K20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb
   /etc/rc2.d/S20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb
   /etc/rc3.d/S20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb
   /etc/rc4.d/S20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb
   /etc/rc5.d/S20orientdb -> ../init.d/orientdb

Step 7 — Starting OrientDB

With everything in place, you may now start the service:

sudo service orientdb start

Verify that it really did start:

sudo service orientdb status

You may also use the netstat commands from Step 3 to verify that the server is listening on the ports. If the server does not start, check for clues in the error log file in the /opt/orientdb/log directory.

Step 8 — Connecting to OrientDB Studio

OrientDB Studio is the web interface for managing OrientDB. By default, it's listening on port 2480. To connect to it, open your browser and type the following into the address bar:

http://server-ip-address:2480

If the page loads, you should see the login screen. You should be able to login as root and the password you set earlier.

If the page does not load, it's probably because it's being blocked by the firewall. So you'll have to add a rule to the firewall to allow OrientDB traffic on port 2480. To do that, open the IPTables firewall rules file for IPv4 traffic:

sudo /etc/iptables/rules.v4

Within the INPUT chain, add the following rule:

/etc/iptables/rules.v4
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 2480 -j ACCEPT

Restart iptables:

sudo service iptables-persistent reload

That should do it for connecting to the OrientDB Studio.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've just installed the Community edition of OrientDB on your server. To learn more, check out the How To Back Up Your OrientDB Databases on Ubuntu 14.04 and How To Import and Export an OrientDB Database on Ubuntu 14.04 articles.

More information and official OrientDB documentation links can be found on orientdb.com.