rethinkdb Installation Guide Installation Guide

rethinkdb is a free and open-source realtime database for modern applications. RethinkDB pushes JSON to your apps in realtime with changefeeds, serving as an open-source alternative to Firebase Realtime Database

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores recommended

RAM: 2GB minimum (4GB+ recommended)

Storage: 10GB+ for data

Network: HTTP and native protocol

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 28015 (default rethinkdb port)

Port 8080 for admin UI

Dependencies:

Python 3.6+ (for driver)

GCC/Clang compiler (for building from source)

libcurl, libprotobuf, libncurses5

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 rethinkdb
sudo dnf install -y rethinkdb

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=28015/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install rethinkdb
sudo apt install -y rethinkdb

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

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 28015

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Install rethinkdb
sudo pacman -S rethinkdb

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

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Install rethinkdb
apk add --no-cache rethinkdb

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

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Install rethinkdb
sudo zypper install -y rethinkdb

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=28015/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install rethinkdb

# Start service
brew services start rethinkdb

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install rethinkdb

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

# Start service
service rethinkdb start

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install rethinkdb

# Or using Scoop
scoop install rethinkdb

# Verify installation
rethinkdb --version

bash

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

# Set up basic configuration
cat > /etc/rethinkdb/rethinkdb.conf << 'EOF'
# RethinkDB configuration file
bind=all
driver-port=28015
http-port=8080
cluster-port=29015

# Cache size in MB
cache-size=2048

# Directory configuration
directory=/var/lib/rethinkdb/default
log-file=/var/log/rethinkdb/rethinkdb.log

# Security
no-http-admin=no
EOF

# Test configuration
rethinkdb --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable rethinkdb

# Start service
sudo systemctl start rethinkdb

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop rethinkdb

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart rethinkdb

# Check status
sudo systemctl status rethinkdb

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u rethinkdb -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add rethinkdb default

# Start service
rc-service rethinkdb start

# Stop service
rc-service rethinkdb stop

# Restart service
rc-service rethinkdb restart

# Check status
rc-service rethinkdb status

bash

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

# Start service
service rethinkdb start

# Stop service
service rethinkdb stop

# Restart service
service rethinkdb restart

# Check status
service rethinkdb status

bash

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

# Check status
brew services list | grep rethinkdb

powershell

# Start service
net start rethinkdb

# Stop service
net stop rethinkdb

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

# Check status
Get-Service rethinkdb

bash

# /etc/rethinkdb/rethinkdb.conf
# Multi-node cluster setup

# Node name
server-name=node1

# Join existing cluster
join=192.168.1.10:29015
join=192.168.1.11:29015

# Cluster discovery
canonical-address=192.168.1.12

# Replication settings
replicas=3
shards=8

bash

# Memory and cache settings
cache-size=4096  # 4GB cache
io-threads=64    # Number of I/O threads

# Query engine settings  
max-concurrent-queries=1000
query-cache-size=512  # MB

# Network settings
max-connections=10000
connection-timeout=20

bash

# Enable authentication
auth-key=your-secret-auth-key

# TLS/SSL configuration
tls-min-protocol=TLSv1.2
tls-ciphers=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
tls-cert-file=/etc/rethinkdb/cert.pem
tls-key-file=/etc/rethinkdb/key.pem

# Bind to specific interface
bind=127.0.0.1
bind-http=127.0.0.1
bind-cluster=10.0.0.5

bash

# Storage engine settings
direct-io=yes
page-cache-size=2048  # MB

# Write durability
durability=hard  # or soft for better performance

# Compaction settings
compaction-concurrency=2
compaction-interval=3600  # seconds

python

import rethinkdb as r

# Connection pool configuration
conn = r.connect(
    host='localhost',
    port=28015,
    db='mydb',
    auth_key='your-auth-key',
    timeout=20,
    ssl={
        'ca_certs': '/path/to/ca.pem',
        'certfile': '/path/to/client-cert.pem', 
        'keyfile': '/path/to/client-key.pem'
    }
)

# Connection pool for production
from rethinkdb import net

pool = r.ConnectionPool(
    host='localhost',
    port=28015,
    max_idle=10,
    max_open=50,
    timeout=20
)

nginx

upstream rethinkdb_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:28015;
}

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

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

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://rethinkdb_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 rethinkdb.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://rethinkdb.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName rethinkdb.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/rethinkdb.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/rethinkdb.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:28015/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:28015/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend rethinkdb_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/rethinkdb.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend rethinkdb_backend

backend rethinkdb_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server rethinkdb1 127.0.0.1:28015 check

bash

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=28015/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

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

python

import rethinkdb as r

# Connect to RethinkDB
conn = r.connect(host='localhost', port=28015)

# Create database
r.db_create('myapp').run(conn)

# Create tables with indexes
r.db('myapp').table_create('users', primary_key='id').run(conn)
r.db('myapp').table('users').index_create('email').run(conn)
r.db('myapp').table('users').index_create('created_at').run(conn)

# Create table with custom settings
r.db('myapp').table_create('logs', 
    primary_key='id',
    durability='soft',  # Better write performance
    shards=3,
    replicas=2
).run(conn)

python

# Real-time updates
for change in r.table('users').changes().run(conn):
    print(change)

# Filtered changefeed
for change in r.table('users')\
    .filter(r.row['status'] == 'active')\
    .changes()\
    .run(conn):
    print(change['new_val'])

python

# Create geo index
r.table('locations').index_create('coordinates', geo=True).run(conn)

# Find nearby locations
r.table('locations').get_nearest(
    r.point(-73.9857, 40.7484),  # NYC coordinates
    index='coordinates',
    max_dist=1000,  # meters
    unit='m'
).run(conn)

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 rethinkdb

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u rethinkdb -f

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

bash

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

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

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

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop rethinkdb

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

# Start service
sudo systemctl start rethinkdb

1. Service won't start:

bash

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

# Check configuration
rethinkdb --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/rethinkdb

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 28015

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 28015

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

3. Performance issues:

bash

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

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

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 28015

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  rethinkdb:
    image: rethinkdb:latest
    ports:
      - "28015:28015"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/rethinkdb
      - ./data:/var/lib/rethinkdb
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

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

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

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu rethinkdb

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade rethinkdb

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update rethinkdb

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade rethinkdb

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

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart rethinkdb

Regular Maintenance

bash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

Cluster Configuration

Performance Tuning

Security Configuration

Storage Configuration

Python Driver Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Initial Database Creation

Changefeeds Example

Geospatial Queries

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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