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Installation Guide for All Platforms (PDF)

Installation Guide for All Platforms — Chapter 1

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Requirements and Database Compatibility

This chapter introduces MarkLogic Server, lists the product requirements and supported platforms, and describes the database compatibility with previous releases. It includes the following sections:

Introduction

MarkLogic Server is a powerful NoSQL database for harnessing your digital content base, complete with Enterprise features demanded by real world, mission-critical applications. MarkLogic enables you to build complex applications that interact with large volumes of content in JSON, XML, SGML, HTML, and other popular content formats, as well as binary formats. The unique architecture of MarkLogic ensures that your applications are both scalable and high-performance, delivering query results at search-engine speeds while providing transactional integrity over the underlying content repository. MarkLogic can be configured for a distributed environment, enabling you to scale your infrastructure through hardware expansion.

This installation guide explains the procedures needed to install MarkLogic on your system. It is intended for a technical audience, specifically an IT staff with experience in JSON and XML. This document only explains how to install the software, not how to use the software. To learn how to get started using the software, see the rest of the MarkLogic documentation (available on docs.marklogic.com), including the following documents:

MarkLogic Server Assumptions

When MarkLogic installs, it sets memory and other settings based on the size of the computer in which it is running. MarkLogic is a scalable, multi-threaded server product, and as such it assumes it has the entire machine available to it, including the cpu and disk I/O capacity. It is important to follow the guidelines set up in this chapter. Furthermore, MarkLogic assumes there is only one MarkLogic Server process running on any given machine, so it is not recommended to run multiple instances of MarkLogic on a single machine.

Memory, Disk Space, and Swap Space Requirements

Before installing the software, be sure that your system meets the following requirements:

  • 512 MB of system memory, minimum. 2 GB or more recommended, depending on database size.

    The first time it runs, MarkLogic Server automatically configures itself to the amount of memory on the system, reserving as much as it can for its own use. If you need to change the default configuration, you can manually override these defaults at a later time using the Admin Interface.

  • 1.5 times the disk space of the total forest size. Specifically, each forest on a filesystem requires its filesystem to have at least 1.5 times the forest size in disk space (or, for each forest less than 32GB, 3 times the forest size) when the merge max size database merge setting is set to the default of 32GB. This translates to approximately 1.5 times the disk space of the source content after it is loaded. *

    For example, if you plan on loading content that will result in a 200 GB database, reserve at least 300 GB of disk space. The disk space reserve is required for merges.

  • On Linux systems, swap space equal to the amount of physical memory on the machine or 32GB, whichever is lower. MarkLogic also recommends setting Linux Huge Pages on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 systems to 3/8 the size of your physical memory. For details on setting up Huge Pages, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/46111.

    If you have Huge Pages set up on a Linux system, your swap space on that machine should be equal to the size of your physical memory minus the size of your Huge Page (because Linux Huge Pages are not swapped), or 32GB, whichever is lower. For example, if you have 48GB of physical memory, and if you have Huge Pages set to 18 GB, then you need swap space of 30 GB (48 - 18).

    At system startup on Linux machines, MarkLogic Server logs a message to the ErrorLog.txt file showing the Huge Page size, and the message indicates if the size is below the recommended level.

    If you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or 7, you must turn off Transparent Huge Pages (Transparent Huge Pages are configured automatically by the operating system).

  • On Windows systems twice the physical memory is also recommended for the swap (page) file. You configure this in the System Control Panel > Advanced system settings > Performance Settings > Advanced tab. Set the Virtual memory settings on that tab to twice your physical memory.
  • On Solaris systems, swap space at least equal to the amount of physical memory on the machine. Swap space equal to twice the amount of physical memory is highly recommended.

    For example, if you have a Solaris machine with 32 GB of memory, you should ideally configure the swap space to be 64 GB (and at least 32 GB).

* You need at least 2 times the merge max size of free space per forest, regardless of the forest size. Therefore, with the default merge max size of 32GB, you need at least 64GB of free space. Additionally, if your journals are not yet created, you need 2 times the journal size of free disk space (if the journal space is not yet allocated). Therefore, to be safe, you need (with the default merge max size and a 2G journal size) at least 68GB of free space for each forest, no matter what size the forest is.

Supported Platforms

MarkLogic Server is supported on the following platforms:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (x64), Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (x64)
  • Windows 7 (x64) or later *
  • Sun Solaris 10 (x64)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (x64) ** *** ****
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (x64) ** *** ****
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x64) SP3 ** ***
  • CentOS 6 (x64) ** *** ****
  • CentOS 7 (x64) ** *** ****
  • Amazon Linux (x64) ** ***
  • Mac OS X 10.8 or later *****

* Microsoft Windows 7 (x64) or later is supported for development only. If MarkLogic Server fails to start up on Windows with the error 'the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150002)', then a dependency is missing from your environment and you need to download and install the following DLL for 64-bit versions of Windows: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=eb4ebe2d-33c0-4a47-9dd4-b9a6d7bd44da&DisplayLang=en. Additionally, if you get an error on startup saying you need MSVCR100.dll, the install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13523.

** Either none, mq-deadline or kyber I/O scheduler is required to ensure efficient disk I/O for MarkLogic Server on Linux. When configuring an I/O scheduler with SSDs in a virtualized environment (including any cloud-based virtual machines), the OS I/O scheduling should be set to none for 4.x kernels or noop/none for older 3.x kernels. For more details, see http://help.marklogic.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/8/0/notes-on-io-schedulers, https://lonesysadmin.net/2013/12/06/use-elevator-noop-for-linux-virtual-machines/, and https://access.redhat.com/solutions/5427.

*** The redhat-lsb, glibc, gdb, and cyrus-sasl-lib packages are required on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Additionally, on 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit glibc packages are required. Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS, Version 6 RPM is the version that should be used to install MarkLogic 8 on Amazon Linux.

**** Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (x64) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (x64) are also supported on VMware ESXi 5.5 and 6.0 (installed on bare metal).

***** Mac OS X is supported for development only. Conversion (Office and PDF) and entity enrichment are not available on Mac OS X. A 64-bit capable processor is required (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3696).

Supported Filesystems

MarkLogic relies on the operating system for filesystem operations. While any filesystem that works properly (including under heavy load) should work, the following table lists the operating systems along with the filesystems under which they are supported. Other filesystems may work but have not been thoroughly tested by MarkLogic.

Operating System Supported Filesystems
Linux (all varieties)

XFS (recommended), EXT3, EXT4, as well as the clustered filesystems for shared-disk failover mentioned in Requirements for Shared-Disk Failover in the Scalability, Availability, and Failover Guide.

Do not use data=writeback with EXT3 and EXT4 filesystems.

NAS is supported on Red Hat 6 and NetAPP.
Sun Solaris UFS, as well as the clustered filesystems for shared-disk failover mentioned in Requirements for Shared-Disk Failover in the Scalability, Availability, and Failover Guide.
Windows NTFS
Mac OS HFS+
All Hadoop HDFS, Amazon S3 (no journaling with S3)

Additionally, HDFS storage is supported with MarkLogic on the HDFS platforms described in HDFS Storage in the Query Performance and Tuning Guide.

Upgrades and Database Compatibility

MarkLogic 8 supports upgrades from MarkLogic 5, MarkLogic 6, or from MarkLogic 7 or later databases. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of MarkLogic Server, you must first upgrade to 5, 6, or 7 before moving to MarkLogic 8. For the procedure for upgrading, see Upgrading from Previous Releases.

During the upgrade, the security database, the schemas database, and the configuration files are automatically upgraded. The security database is upgraded with the latest execute privileges and the schemas database is upgraded with the latest version of the schemas used by MarkLogic Server. The upgrade occurs as part of the installation procedure.

Databases that contain your own content are also upgraded to work with MarkLogic 8; once you upgrade to MarkLogic 8, you will no longer be able to use that database with previous versions of MarkLogic. MarkLogic Corporation strongly recommends performing a backup of your databases before upgrading to MarkLogic 8. Additionally, MarkLogic Corporation recommends that you first upgrade to the latest maintenance release of the major version of MarkLogic you are running before upgrading to MarkLogic 8.

For the procedure for upgrading to MarkLogic 8, see Upgrading from Previous Releases. For details about known incompatibilities between MarkLogic 7 and MarkLogic 8, see Known Incompatibilities with Previous Releases in the Release Notes.

This section contains database compatibility information between various releases, and includes the following sections.

Prerequisites for Application Services Portion of the Upgrade

When Upgrading from releases prior to MarkLogic 5 to MarkLogic 8, the upgrade reconfigures the Docs and App Services App Servers, which by default are on port 8000 and port 8002 in older releases. In order for those App Servers to be upgraded, the following conditions must be met:

  • Either no App Server is running on port 8000 or the App Server on port 8000 has a root of Docs/.
  • Either no App Server is running on port 8002 or the App Server on port 8002 has a root of Apps/ or Apps/appbuilder.

If the above conditions are met, then those App Servers are reconfigured during the MarkLogic 8 upgrade and the resulting configurations have the following settings:

App-Services:

App-Services App Server
Port 
8000
Name 
App-Services
Root 
Apps/
Error Handler 
error-handler.xqy
URL Rewriter 
rewriter.xqy
Database 
App-Services

Manage:

Manage App Server
Port 
8002
Name 
Manage
Root 
Apps/
Error Handler 
manage/error-handler.xqy
URL Rewriter 
manage/rewriter.xqy
Database 
App-Services
Privilege 
manage

If the conditions are not met, then the upgrade logs an error to the ErrorLog.txt file and the Application Services portion of the upgrade is skipped. MarkLogic Server will still operate, but you will not be able to use Query Console, the Management API, and the rest of the Application Services features. To restore the Application Services functionality after a failed upgrade, create two App Servers with the configuration shown above. If you have any problems, contact MarkLogic technical support.

MarkLogic 8 Databases are Compatible With MarkLogic 6 and MarkLogic 7

MarkLogic 8 does not require a reindex from MarkLogic 6 or MarkLogic 7 databases. Therefore, if you are upgrading from MarkLogic 6 or MarkLogic 7, the database will not reindex, even if reindex enable is set to true.

MarkLogic 8 Database Compatibility With MarkLogic 5

To take advantage of index improvements, MarkLogic 8 does require a reindex when upgrading from MarkLogic 5 and earlier databases. When you upgrade to MarkLogic 8, all databases with reindex enable set to true will automatically begin reindexing immediately. If you do not want the databases to reindex, you must set reindex enable to false before upgrading (that is, you must set reindex enable to false in MarkLogic 5). You can always reindex your content later by changing this setting back to true after installing MarkLogic 8.

Also, you can reindex your content a little bit at a time by enabling reindexing for a while, then disabling it for a while, then enabling it, and so on. You might want to use this technique to reindex your database during non-peak hours, for example, over a period of hours or days or weeks, depending on how large your database is. Always ensure that you have the proper system requirements, as defined in Memory, Disk Space, and Swap Space Requirements.

MarkLogic Converters Installation Changes in Version 8 Releases Starting at 8.0-8

MarkLogic converters are used to convert Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, as well as Adobe PDF files, to XHTML. MarkLogic filters are used to filter a variety of document formats, extract metadata and text from them, and return XHTML. The following MarkLogic XQuery API functions, described in the MarkLogic XQuery and XSLT Function Reference, provide this functionality:

xdmp:word-convert
xdmp:excel-convert
xdmp:powerpoint-convert
xdmp:pdf-convert
xdmp:document-filter

Converters/filters are also used as part of conversion pipeline in Content Processing Framework. For more details, see The Default Conversion Option in the Content Processing Framework Guide.

Prior to MarkLogic release 8.0-8, converters/filters were bundled and automatically installed with MarkLogic Server. In MarkLogic version 8 releases starting at 8.0-8, converters/filters are offered as a separate package, MarkLogic Converters.

This change provides better flexibility and enables you to install/uninstall MarkLogic converters/filters separately from MarkLogic Server.

With this change, MarkLogic Server does not include MarkLogic Converters. To use converters/filters, install both packages: MarkLogic Server and MarkLogic Converters. An XDMP-CVTNOTFOUND error will be thrown upon an attempt to use converters/filters on a MarkLogic node with no MarkLogic Converters installed.

The version of MarkLogic Converters is synchronized with the version of MarkLogic Server. For example, MarkLogic Converters 8.0-8 corresponds to MarkLogic Server 8.0-8 and may be installed with it.

You can obtain the version of MarkLogic Converters installed on a node by calling to MarkLogic server-side API function xdmp:host-status and examining the value of the converters-version element in the response. If the converters package is not installed on a node, the converters-version element will be empty.

MarkLogic Converters packages for all supported platforms are available for download at the same location where MarkLogic Server packages are available, namely at http://developer.marklogic.com.

If you want to use the converters package with MarkLogic 8.0-8 or later version 8 release, you will have to perform a two-step installation: first install MarkLogic Server and then install MarkLogic Converters.

For details on MarkLogic Server and MarkLogic Converters installation for all supported platforms, see Installing MarkLogic.

If you want to uninstall MarkLogic 8.0-8 or later version 8 release, and if the converters package was previously installed with it, you will have to perform a two-step uninstall: first uninstall MarkLogic Converters and then uninstall MarkLogic Server.

For details on MarkLogic Server and MarkLogic Converters uninstall for all supported platforms, see Removing MarkLogic.

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