How To Install Apache CouchDB on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache CouchDB on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, CouchDB is an open-source project and NoSQL, document-oriented database server.  It has a document-oriented NoSQL database architecture and is implemented in the concurrency-oriented language Erlang; it uses JSON to store data, JavaScript as its query language using MapReduce, and HTTP for an API.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of Apache CouchDB open source NoSQL database management system on a Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Apache CouchDB on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt-get commands in the terminal.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Step 2. Installing Apache CouchDB.

First, Add the official CouchDB PPA repository using the add-apt-repository command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:couchdb/stable

Then, update apt and install Apache CouchDB:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install couchdb

Once installed, run the following commands to start and enable CouchDB on boot:

sudo systemctl enable couchdb
sudo systemctl start couchdb

Next, Fixing ownership and permission:

sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/bin/couchdb /etc/couchdb /usr/share/couchdb
sudo chmod -R 0770 /usr/bin/couchdb /etc/couchdb /usr/share/couchdb

Step 3. Accessing Apache CouchDB

Apache CouchDB will be available on HTTP port 80 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to http://you-server-ip-address:5984 and complete the required steps to finish the installation.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Apache CouchDB. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest stable version of Apache CouchDB open source NoSQL database management on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS  (Xenial Xerus) system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Apache CouchDB website.