# Start eXo community

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • The minimum system requirements needed to run the stack of tools used by eXo platform
  • The software prerequisites needed to be installed before running the eXo platform stack

# System requirements

WARNING

The requirements cited below are provisional and may change according to quality tests findings.

To run the Docker compose of eXo Platform 6.5, your system is required to meet the following specifications or higher:

  • CPU: Multi-core recommended, 2GHz minimum.
  • Memory: The eXo Platform package is optimized with default settings: max heap size = 4GB and non-heap size = 256MB; so the available memory should be at least 4GB. It is recommended you have a memory of 8GB (4GB free for database, Elasticsearch, Jitsi and Onlyoffice services and file system caches).
  • Free disk space: 10GB minimum
  • Browser Compatibility: Check Browser compatibility section in Supported Environments (opens new window)

Note

The eXo server will run on the port 80 by default, so make sure this port is not currently in use or configure eXo Platform to use another port.

# Prerequisites

The full environment will be provided as Docker containers assembled together using a Docker Compose file. To install and try eXo platform community edition, you need to install Docker (opens new window) and Docker Compose (opens new window)

WARNING

If you are using Docker desktop, there is a default limitation for resources that may prevent eXo platform server from starting. Make sure to allow enough resources (Memory, disk, CPU) to the docker containers as explained in Docker desktop documentation (opens new window) for different Operating systems.

# Start eXo platform

# With Dockerfile

  • Create a new folder $EXO_HOME, this folder will contain all files needed to run the eXo platform environment.

WARNING

It is recommended to add $EXO_HOME as an environment variable in your system, it will be used in all the tutorials.

  • Download the Docker Compose from here (opens new window) and save it under $EXO_HOME
  • Create the folder conf which will contain configuration files needed for the services deployed in docker images
  • Download the file configuration file of Nginx server from here (opens new window) and save it under the folder conf
  • Using your preferred console, move in the $EXO_HOME, then start the environment with the command:
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up
  • Open your browser and open the URL : http://localhost/ (opens new window)
  • You can create a new user using the form that will be displayed with the first server startup
  • If you skip the step above, you can still connect with the super-user of the platform. Its username is root and password password

# With separated containers

Alternatively, you may want to run each component separately with containers. Required images are :

To do this, you can use properties described in this page (opens new window) to configure eXo Community docker image.

The prerequisites are :

  • Docker daemon version 12+ + internet access
  • 4GB of available RAM + 1GB of disk

The most basic way to start eXo Platform Community edition for evaluation purpose is to execute theses steps :

  • Create the network
docker network create -d bridge exo-network
  • Start Mongo Server
docker run -v mongo_data:/data/db -p 27017:27017 --name mongo --network=exo-network mongo:4.4
  • Start ElasticSearch Server
docker run -e ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Xms2048m -Xmx2048m" -e node.name=exo -e cluster.name=exo -e cluster.initial_master_nodes=exo -e network.host=_site_ -v search_data:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data --name es --network=exo-network exoplatform/elasticsearch:2.0.4
  • Start eXo Platform Server
docker run -v exo_data:/srv/exo -p 8080:8080 -e EXO_ES_HOST=es --name exo --network=exo-network exoplatform/exo-community:6.5

and then waiting the log line which say that the server is started

exo_1    | 2022-09-20 16:55:43,009 | INFO  | Server startup in [58805] milliseconds [org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina<main>] 

When ready just go to http://localhost (opens new window) and follow the instructions 😉

Once containers successfully start, you can stop/start them with

docker stop $CONTAINER_NAME
docker start $CONTAINER_NAME