# Self-hosted

Deploy and operate SurrealDB on your own infrastructure: deployment models, containers, configuration, backups, monitoring, and upgrades.

Running SurrealDB yourself is quick to start and gives you full control over storage, configuration, and placement. Everything needed to start a server and to import and export data is in the [command-line tool](/docs/reference/cli/surrealdb-cli/overview.md), packaged and distributed as a single executable that can be downloaded, installed, or run from within Docker.

For initial installation, see the [installation guide](/docs/running/installation.md). If you would rather not operate the infrastructure, see [Instances](/docs/manage/instances.md) for the managed option.

## Deployment guides

| Guide | Typical use |
| --- | --- |
| [Deployment models](/docs/manage/self-hosted/deployment-models.md) | Choosing between single-node, multi-node, embedded, and managed |
| [Docker](/docs/manage/self-hosted/docker.md) | Quickest path; RocksDB with a volume mount |
| [Kubernetes](/docs/manage/self-hosted/kubernetes.md) | Single SurrealDB pod with RocksDB on a persistent volume |
| [Managed Kubernetes](/docs/manage/self-hosted/managed-kubernetes.md) | Paths on Amazon EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS |

Most self-hosted workloads use **RocksDB** on disk - one SurrealDB process per database file.

## Operating a self-hosted instance

- [Configuration](/docs/manage/self-hosted/configuration.md) - server startup options, environment variables, and storage engine selection.
- [Backups and recovery](/docs/manage/self-hosted/backups-and-recovery.md) - export and import commands, backup strategies, and disaster recovery.
- [Monitoring and observability](/docs/manage/self-hosted/monitoring-and-observability.md) - health endpoints, metrics, and tracing integration.
- [Upgrades and patching](/docs/manage/self-hosted/upgrades-and-patching.md) - version upgrades, the `surreal fix` migration tool, and compatibility notes.

Once an instance is running, the [Observability](/docs/manage/observability.md) section covers the built-in metrics, audit logs and slow-query logs you can scrape over Prometheus or push over OTLP for production monitoring.