Install Memgraph on Linux with Docker

This article briefly outlines the basic steps necessary to install and run Memgraph on Linux with Docker.

Prerequisites

Before you proceed with the installation guide, make sure that you have:

• Installed Docker. Instructions on how to install Docker can be found on the official Docker website.

info

Memgraph's Docker image was built with Docker version 1.12 and should be compatible with all newer versions.

Installation guide

You can either manually download the Memgraph Docker image or use the convenient docker pull memgraph/memgraph-platform command, which we recommend.

Pull Docker image

1. Download and load the Memgraph Docker image with the following command:

 docker pull memgraph/memgraph-platform

2. Create a new tag for the image so it can be called as memgraph instead of memgraph/memgraph-platform:

docker image tag memgraph/memgraph-platform memgraph

Download Docker image manually

1. Download the latest Memgraph Docker image from the official download center.

2. If you installed Docker correctly, you can import the image using the following command:

docker load -i /path-to/memgraph-<version>-docker.tar.gz

Starting Memgraph

To start Memgraph, use the following command:

docker run -it -p 7687:7687 -p 3000:3000 memgraph

Docker Volumes

Docker containers don’t persist data by default (all changes are lost when the container is stopped). You need to use local volumes to store the data permanently, which is why Memgraph is started with the -v flag.

docker run -it -p 7687:7687 -p 3000:3000 -v mg_lib:/var/lib/memgraph memgraph

More information on Docker Volumes can be found here.

If successful, you should see a message similar to the following :

mgconsole X.X
Connected to 'memgraph://127.0.0.1:7687'
Type :help for shell usage
Quit the shell by typing Ctrl-D(eof) or :quit
memgraph>

If you want to start Memgraph with different configuration settings, check out the section below. At this point, Memgraph is ready for you to submit queries.

info

The username and password for connecting to the database are empty by default.

Stopping Memgraph

To stop a Memgraph database instance, run the following command:

docker stop CONTAINER_NAME

You can find the name of the container (CONTAINER_NAME) by running:

docker ps

Configuration

The Memgraph configuration is available in Docker's named volume mg_etc. On Linux systems, it should be in /var/lib/docker/volumes/mg_etc/_data/memgraph.conf. Keep in mind that this way of specifying configuration options is only valid if Memgraph was started using volumes.

When using Docker, you can also specify the configuration options in the docker run command:

docker run -it -p 7687:7687 -p 3000:3000 -e MEMGRAPH="--bolt-port=7687" memgraph

To learn about all the configuration options, check out the Reference guide.

Named volumes

Accessing configuration files and logs

If you need to access the Memgraph configuration file or logs, you will need to specify the following volumes when starting Memgraph:

docker run -it -p 7687:7687 -p 3000:3000 -e MEMGRAPH="--bolt-port=7687" \
  -v mg_lib:/var/lib/memgraph \
  -v mg_log:/var/log/memgraph \
  -v mg_etc:/etc/memgraph \
  memgraph

The volume mg_etc contains the configuration file while the logs will be saved to mg_log. The location of the volume directories depends on your specific setup but can usually be found in /var/lib/docker/volumes/.

Reusing volumes between Memgraph versions

If it happens that the named volumes are reused between different Memgraph versions, Docker will overwrite a folder within the container with existing data from the host machine. If a new file is introduced, or two versions of Memgraph are not compatible, some features might not work, or Memgraph might not be able to work correctly. We strongly advise you to use different named volumes for different Memgraph versions or to remove the existing volume from the host with the following command:

docker volume rm <volume_name>

Where to next?

If you need more information on working with Docker, check out this guide.
To learn how to query the database, take a look at the Querying guide or Memgraph Playground for interactive tutorials.
Visit the Building applications page if you need to connect to the database programmatically.

Getting help

If you run into problems during the installation process, check out our installation troubleshooting guide to see if we have already covered the topic. For more information on the installation process and for additional questions, visit the Getting help page.