Run with Docker

Use this tutorial to run SurrealDB from within Docker.

Running the SurrealDB server using Docker

To get started using Docker, you can use the latest tag. To view all the available versions and tags, or to use a specific tag visit the Docker Hub page. To start a server use the start command. In Docker, SurrealDB listens on port 8000 in all interfaces by default so that the host can connect to the container in the default bridge networking mode.

docker run --rm --pull always -p 8000:8000 surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start

Important

For local development, use the latest-dev image variant (i.e., docker run —rm —pull always -p 8000:8000 surrealdb/surrealdb:latest-dev start). This version includes a shell and package manager, allowing you to install tools and interact with the container’s internals.

In order to persist data when the Docker instance is restarted or shutdown, specify a Docker folder using the Docker -v command line argument, and use the on-disk storage engine in SurrealDB using the path prefix chosen as a Docker folder.

mkdir mydata # Create a directory to store the database, owned by the current user
docker run --rm --pull always -p 8000:8000 --user $(id -u) -v $(pwd)/mydata:/mydata surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start rocksdb:/mydata/mydatabase.db

The default logging level for the database server is info, resulting in any informational logs to be output to the standard output. To control the logging verbosity, specify the --log argument. The following command starts the database with debug level logging, resulting in more logs being output to the terminal. If extra verbosity is not needed, specify a lower level or simply remove the flag, which will default to the info level.

mkdir mydata # Create a directory to store the database, owned by the current user
docker run --rm --pull always -p 8000:8000 --user $(id -u) -v $(pwd)/mydata:/mydata surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start --log debug rocksdb:/mydata/mydatabase.db

Configuring authentication

Authentication is enabled by default since version 2.0, using the --unauthenticated flag to opt out. In versions of SurrealDB before 2.0, authentication was disabled by default and required an --auth flag to enable.

To set up access as an authenticated user, configure your initial root-level user by setting the --user and --pass command-line arguments.

The following command starts the database with a top-level user named root with a password also set to root. The root user will be persisted in storage, which means you don’t have to include the command line arguments next time you start SurrealDB.

docker run --rm --pull always -p 80:8000 -v /mydata:/mydata surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start --user root --pass root rocksdb:mydatabase.db

In order to change the default port that SurrealDB uses for web connections and from database clients you can use the Docker -p command line argument to tunnel the port to the internal SurrealDB port which SurrealDB is served on. The following command starts the database on port 80.

docker run --rm --pull always -p 80:8000 -v /mydata:/mydata surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start --user root --pass root rocksdb:/mydata/mydatabase.db

After running the above command, you should see the SurrealDB server startup successfully.

docker run --rm --pull always -p 80:8000 -v /local-dir:/container-dir surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start --user root --pass root rocksdb:/container-dir/mydatabase.db

2023-08-30T15:06:34.788739Z  INFO surreal::dbs: ✅🔒 Authentication is enabled 🔒✅
2023-08-30T15:06:34.788821Z  INFO surrealdb::kvs::ds: Starting kvs store in rocksdb:/container-dir/mydatabase.db
2023-08-30T15:06:34.788859Z  INFO surrealdb::kvs::ds: Started kvs store in rocksdb:/container-dir/mydatabase.db
2023-08-30T15:06:34.789222Z  INFO surrealdb::kvs::ds: Initial credentials were provided and no existing root-level users were found: create the initial user 'root'.
2023-08-30T15:06:35.205123Z  INFO surrealdb::node: Started node agent
2023-08-30T15:06:35.205827Z  INFO surrealdb::net: Started web server on 0.0.0.0:8080

For details on the start command, and all of the available configuration options and arguments, view the start command documentation.

Using the command-line tools within Docker

The Docker container contains both the server, and the command line tools for importing, exporting, and querying a remote SurrealDB server.

docker run --rm --pull always surrealdb/surrealdb:latest help

The result should look similar to the output below, confirming that the SurrealDB command-line tool was installed successfully.

.d8888b.                                             888 8888888b.  888888b.
d88P  Y88b                                            888 888  'Y88b 888  '88b
Y88b.                                                 888 888    888 888  .88P
 'Y888b.   888  888 888d888 888d888  .d88b.   8888b.  888 888    888 8888888K.
	'Y88b. 888  888 888P'   888P'   d8P  Y8b     '88b 888 888    888 888  'Y88b
	  '888 888  888 888     888     88888888 .d888888 888 888    888 888    888
Y88b  d88P Y88b 888 888     888     Y8b.     888  888 888 888  .d88P 888   d88P
 'Y8888P'   'Y88888 888     888      'Y8888  'Y888888 888 8888888P'  8888888P'


SurrealDB command-line interface and server

To get started using SurrealDB, and for guides on connecting to and building applications
on top of SurrealDB, check out the SurrealDB documentation (https://surrealdb.com/docs).

If you have questions or ideas, join the SurrealDB community (https://surrealdb.com/community).

If you find a bug, submit an issue on Github (https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/issues).

We would love it if you could star the repository (https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb).

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USAGE:
	surreal [SUBCOMMAND]

OPTIONS:
	-h, --help    Print help information

SUBCOMMANDS:
	start      Start the database server
	import     Import a SQL script into an existing database
	export     Export an existing database into a SQL script
	version    Output the command-line tool version information
	sql        Start an SQL REPL in your terminal with pipe support
	help       Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

For details on the different commands available, visit the CLI tool documentation.