pulsar Installation Guide Installation Guide

pulsar is a free and open-source distributed pub-sub messaging platform. Pulsar provides multi-tenancy, geo-replication, and strong durability guarantees, serving as an alternative to Apache Kafka with additional features

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 4+ cores recommended

RAM: 4GB minimum (8GB+ recommended)

Storage: 10GB+ for messages

Network: TCP for brokers

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 6650 (default pulsar port)

Port 8080 for HTTP

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install pulsar
sudo dnf install -y pulsar

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now pulsar

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6650/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install pulsar
sudo apt install -y pulsar

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now pulsar

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 6650

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Install pulsar
sudo pacman -S pulsar

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now pulsar

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Install pulsar
apk add --no-cache pulsar

# Enable and start service
rc-update add pulsar default
rc-service pulsar start

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Install pulsar
sudo zypper install -y pulsar

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now pulsar

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6650/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install pulsar

# Start service
brew services start pulsar

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install pulsar

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'pulsar_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service pulsar start

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install pulsar

# Or using Scoop
scoop install pulsar

# Verify installation
pulsar version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/pulsar

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
pulsar version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable pulsar

# Start service
sudo systemctl start pulsar

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop pulsar

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart pulsar

# Check status
sudo systemctl status pulsar

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u pulsar -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add pulsar default

# Start service
rc-service pulsar start

# Stop service
rc-service pulsar stop

# Restart service
rc-service pulsar restart

# Check status
rc-service pulsar status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'pulsar_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service pulsar start

# Stop service
service pulsar stop

# Restart service
service pulsar restart

# Check status
service pulsar status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start pulsar
brew services stop pulsar
brew services restart pulsar

# Check status
brew services list | grep pulsar

powershell

# Start service
net start pulsar

# Stop service
net stop pulsar

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service pulsar
Stop-Service pulsar
Restart-Service pulsar

# Check status
Get-Service pulsar

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream pulsar_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:6650;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name pulsar.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name pulsar.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/pulsar.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/pulsar.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://pulsar_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName pulsar.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://pulsar.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName pulsar.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/pulsar.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/pulsar.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:6650/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:6650/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend pulsar_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/pulsar.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend pulsar_backend

backend pulsar_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server pulsar1 127.0.0.1:6650 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R pulsar:pulsar /etc/pulsar
sudo chmod 750 /etc/pulsar

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6650/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status pulsar

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u pulsar -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep pulsar)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/pulsar"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/pulsar-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/pulsar /var/lib/pulsar

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/pulsar-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop pulsar

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/pulsar/pulsar-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start pulsar

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u pulsar -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/pulsar/pulsar.log

# Check configuration
pulsar version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/pulsar

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 6650

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 6650

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep pulsar)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep pulsar)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 6650

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  pulsar:
    image: pulsar:latest
    ports:
      - "6650:6650"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/pulsar
      - ./data:/var/lib/pulsar
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update pulsar

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade pulsar

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu pulsar

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade pulsar

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update pulsar

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade pulsar

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/pulsar-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/pulsar

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart pulsar

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/pulsar

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/pulsar -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/pulsar

Official Documentation: https://docs.pulsar.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/pulsar/pulsar

Community Forum: https://forum.pulsar.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.pulsar.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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