How To Install CouchDB from Source on a CentOS 6 x64 VPS

Introduction

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CouchDB is a NoSQL database developed by The Apache Software Foundation that uses JSON for documents, JavaScript for MapReduce queries, and regular HTTP for an API. Often called “a database that completely embraces the web,” it’s used by many startups as well as corporations due to its flexibility and scalability.

As of this tutorial, the current stable version of CouchDB is 1.4.0.

It’s recommended to complete the Initial Server Setup with CentOS 6 tutorial before starting this one.

Step 1 - Install the Build Tools on your VPS

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In order to compile CouchDB from source, you need to install some tools and dependencies on your virtual server.

The first thing you need to do is update your packages to the latest version:

sudo yum -y update

Next, you have to install the Development Tools:

sudo yum -y groupinstall "Development Tools"

And the dependencies required to compile CouchDB: Erlang and SpiderMoney:

sudo yum -y install libicu-devel curl-devel ncurses-devel libtool libxslt fop java-1.6.0-openjdk java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel unixODBC unixODBC-devel openssl-devel

Step 2 - Installing Erlang

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Erlang is required by CouchDB. The CentOS team is not offering any official packages, so you will have to compile it from source.

First, go to www.erlang.org/download.html and download the latest source code.

wget http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R16B02.tar.gz

After your download is finished, unpack the archive:

tar -zxvf otp_src_R16B02.tar.gz

Now that we have the Erlang source code unpacked, we can start compiling it:

cd otp_src_R16B02
./configure && make

Next you’ll have to install it. By default, Erlang will be installed in /usr/local:

sudo make install

Step 3 - Installing the SpiderMonkey JS Engine

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Mozilla’s SpiderMoney JavaScript Engine is required by CouchDB in order to successfully compile.

CouchDB requires Mozilla’s SpiderMoney version 1.8.5, which you can download from their FTP:

wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/js/js185-1.0.0.tar.gz

After the download is finished, unpack the archive:

tar -zxvf js185-1.0.0.tar.gz 

The next step is to compile and install it on your VPS:

cd js-1.8.5/js/src
./configure && make
sudo make install

Step 4 - Installing CouchDB

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After all dependencies are satisfied, installing CouchDB is pretty straight forward.

First, you’ll have to download and unpack the CouchDB source:

wget http://apache.osuosl.org/couchdb/source/1.4.0/apache-couchdb-1.4.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf apache-couchdb-1.4.0.tar.gz

After we have the source code unpacked, we can start compiling it. This should take just a few minutes:

cd apache-couchdb-1.4.0
./configure && make

If everything is fine, we are now ready to install CouchDB:

sudo make install

Step 5 - Setting up CouchDB

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After CouchDB is installed, you have to create the CouchDB user, set the proper permissions and add the startup scripts.

Let’s start by adding the couchdb user:

sudo adduser --no-create-home couchdb

The couchdb user must to have the proper permissions to access a few directories:

sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb /usr/local/var/log/couchdb /usr/local/var/run/couchdb

Next, we’ll have to create a link for the couchdb init script to /etc/init.d:

sudo ln -sf /usr/local/etc/rc.d/couchdb /etc/init.d/couchdb

If you’d like CouchDB to start automatically at boot, add and enable the init script in chkconfig:

sudo chkconfig --add couchdb
sudo chkconfig couchdb on

By default, CouchDB can be accessed only from the VPS itself. If you’d like to access it from the web, you’ll have to change the configuration file.

Open the configuration file in an editor:

sudo nano /usr/local/etc/couchdb/local.ini

Should you need to access couchdb from the web, in the [httpd] section, look for a setting called bind_address and change it to 0.0.0.0 - this will make CouchDB bind all available addresses.

[httpd]
port = 5984
bind_address = 0.0.0.0

Now we’re ready to start CouchDB:

sudo service couchdb start

To verify that CouchDB is running, connect to it on port 5984:

curl http://localhost:5984

You should see a response like:

{"couchdb":"Welcome","uuid":"a9e7db070cfe85e6a770aa254c49c8c3","version":"1.4.0","vendor":{"name":"The Apache Software Foundation","version":"1.4.0"}}

After you confirm that your server is up and running, you can access it in a browser at http://your.DO.IP.address:5984/\_utils.

<div class=“author”>Submitted by: <a href=“http://www.liviudm.com”>Liviu Damian </a></div>