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Install HotKV

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This page covers installing the HotKV server on your own machines. If you want a managed instance instead, use HotKV Cloud: there is nothing to install. For the configuration file and installing a license, continue with Quick start: On-Premise once the server runs.

The HotKV server is not offered as a public download, and it is not published in public package repositories or container registries. HotKV On-Premise is supplied to Enterprise customers: when you buy a license, your account team sends you a private download link for the packages and the Docker image. Contact sales@hotkv.com to talk about On-Premise. HotKV Cloud needs no download at all.

What you get

Section titled “What you get”
Format Platforms File name
Debian package Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives; x86_64 (amd64) and ARM64 (arm64) hotkv-enterprise_<version>_<arch>.deb
RPM package RHEL, Rocky Linux, Fedora and derivatives; x86_64 and aarch64 hotkv-enterprise-<version>-1.<arch>.rpm
Docker image Linux containers see Docker and Kubernetes

The packages need systemd. Every package contains:

  • hotkv, the server, and hotkv-cli, the command-line client (hotkv-cli);
  • hotkv-migrate-elasticache, hotkv-migrate-azure-cache and hotkv-migrate-memorystore, tools that copy keys from a running Redis-compatible server (see Migrate from Redis);
  • a systemd service, hotkv, that runs the server as its own hotkv user;
  • a commented configuration file and man pages (man hotkv, man hotkv-cli).

Install a package

Section titled “Install a package”

Download the package for your platform from the private link your account team sent you, then install it from the directory you saved it in:

Terminal window
# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install ./hotkv-enterprise_*.deb


# RHEL / Rocky / Fedora
sudo dnf install ./hotkv-enterprise-*.rpm

Installing creates the hotkv user and group and the data and log directories. It does not start the server: enable and start the service yourself.

Terminal window
sudo systemctl enable --now hotkv

Check the installation

Section titled “Check the installation”
Terminal window
hotkv --version
# HotKV v<version>


systemctl status hotkv


hotkv-cli PING
# PONG

INFO server reports the running version as hotkv_version. The server also reports redis_version:8.4.0 (the compat-redis-version setting): that is the Redis version whose commands HotKV follows, which client libraries use to pick the commands they send.

Terminal window
hotkv-cli INFO server | grep -E 'hotkv_version|redis_version'

The server logs to standard output by default, which systemd keeps in the journal:

Terminal window
journalctl -u hotkv -f

The systemd service

Section titled “The systemd service”

The hotkv service starts /usr/bin/hotkv --config /etc/hotkv/hotkv.conf as the hotkv user, with /var/lib/hotkv as its working directory. Points worth knowing:

  • Ready means ready. The service counts as started once the data is loaded and the server accepts connections, so units ordered after it find it serving.
  • No start or stop time limit. Loading or saving a large data set can take a while; systemd waits for it. Stopping the service (SIGTERM) saves a snapshot first when save points are configured, and with the AOF on every write is already in it.
  • Restarted on failure. The service restarts the server 5 seconds after it exits unexpectedly.
  • Open files. The service allows 65535 open files, which bounds how many clients can connect at once together with maxclients.
  • Read-only system. The server can write only to /var/lib/hotkv, /var/log/hotkv and /run/hotkv. Keep files the server writes there: an aclfile that ACL SAVE writes, a logfile, or a different dir. CONFIG REWRITE cannot update /etc/hotkv/hotkv.conf under this service; edit the file instead.

To change how the service starts, for example to run with /etc/hotkv/hotkv.toml, use sudo systemctl edit hotkv; see Quick start: On-Premise.

File locations

Section titled “File locations”
Path What it is
/usr/bin/hotkv, /usr/bin/hotkv-cli The server and the client
/etc/hotkv/hotkv.conf The configuration the service loads (kept on upgrades)
/etc/hotkv/hotkv.toml.example The same settings in TOML form
/var/lib/hotkv Data: snapshots (dump.hkv) and the AOF (appendonly.hkv)
/var/log/hotkv Log files, when logfile points there (rotated weekly by /etc/logrotate.d/hotkv)
/run/hotkv Runtime files
/lib/systemd/system/hotkv.service The systemd unit

/etc/hotkv/hotkv.conf is readable by root and the hotkv group only, since it can hold passwords. Put your license file in /etc/hotkv too, for example /etc/hotkv/hotkv.license.

Ports

Section titled “Ports”
Port Used for Default
port Client connections (RESP) 6379
tls-port TLS client connections off; see TLS
cluster-port Cluster bus, in cluster mode client port + 10000
Replication port Only with replication.dedicated-port yes: replicas connecting to their primary there. Without it, replicas connect to the primary’s client port. 6389 outside cluster mode (replication.port); client port + 20000 in cluster mode
metrics-port Prometheus metrics over HTTP off (0)

The packaged configuration listens on 127.0.0.1 only. To accept clients from other hosts, set bind and a password; with no password, protected mode refuses clients from other hosts (see Security). Open only the ports you use in your firewall, and keep the cluster bus port (and the replication port, if you use one) reachable from the other nodes only. A cluster node needs only its client port and its bus port; see Deploy on VMs and cloud.

Docker

Section titled “Docker”

The HotKV Docker image runs the same server with the same configuration file, listening on every interface with its data in a /data volume. See Docker and Kubernetes.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”