Getting Started

Install Couchbase Server

Before installing Sync Gateway, you must install and configure Couchbase Server.

Download and install Couchbase Server.

Creating a bucket

  1. Open the Couchbase Server Admin Console on http://localhost:8091 and log on using your administrator credentials.

  2. In the toolbar, select the Buckets tab and click the Add Bucket button.

    cb create bucket

  3. Provide a bucket name, for example staging, and leave the other options to their defaults.

Creating an RBAC user

In order for Sync Gateway to connect to Couchbase Server, you must create an RBAC user. The RBAC user credentials will be used in a later section to start Sync Gateway.

  1. Open the Security tab and click the Add User button.

    create user

  2. The steps to create the RBAC user differ slightly depending on the version of Couchbase Server that you have installed. We explain the differences below.

    • Couchbase Server 5.5 or above

    • Couchbase Server 5.1

    In the pop-up window, provide a Username and Password, those credentials will be used by Sync Gateway to connect later on. Next, you must grant RBAC roles to that user. If you are using Couchbase Server 5.5, you must enable the Application Access and Read Only Admin roles.

    user settings 5 5

    In the pop-up window, provide a Username and Password, those credentials will be used by Sync Gateway to connect later on. Next, you must grant RBAC roles to that user. If you are using Couchbase Server 5.1, you must enable the Bucket Full Access and Read Only Admin roles.

    user settings

Network access

If you’re installing Couchbase Server on the cloud, make sure that network permissions (or firewall settings) allow incoming connections to Couchbase Server ports. In a typical mobile deployment on premise or in the cloud (AWS, Red Hat, etc.), the following ports must be opened on the host for Couchbase Server to operate correctly: 8091, 8092, 8093, 8094, 11207, 11210, 11211, 18091, 18092, 18093. You must verify that any firewall configuration allows communication on the specified ports. If this is not done, the Couchbase Server node can experience difficulty joining a cluster. You can refer to the Couchbase Server Network Configuration guide to see the full list of available ports and their associated services.

Install Sync Gateway

Install Sync Gateway on the operating system of your choice:

Enterprise Edition

  • Ubuntu

  • Red Hat/CentOS

  • Debian

  • Windows

  • macOS

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

Install sync_gateway with the dpkg package manager e.g:

dpkg -i couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

When the installation is complete sync_gateway will be running as a service.

To stop/start the sync_gateway service, use the following.

sudo service sync_gateway start
sudo service sync_gateway stop

The config file and logs are located in /home/sync_gateway.

You can also run the sync_gateway binary directly from the command line. The binary is installed at /opt/couchbase-sync-gateway/bin/sync_gateway.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using the wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.rpm

Install sync_gateway with the rpm package manager e.g:

rpm -i couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.rpm

When the installation is complete sync_gateway will be running as a service.

On CentOS 5:

service sync_gateway start
service sync_gateway stop

On CentOS 6:

initctl start sync_gateway
initctl stop sync_gateway

The initctl restart sync_gateway command does not work in CentOS 6. To restart Sync Gateway, the stop/start commands can be used instead.

On CentOS 7:

systemctl start sync_gateway
systemctl stop sync_gateway

The config file and logs are located in /home/sync_gateway.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using the wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

Install sync_gateway with the dpkg package manager e.g:

dpkg -i couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

When the installation is complete sync_gateway will be running as a service.

systemctl start sync_gateway
systemctl stop sync_gateway

The config file and logs are located in /home/sync_gateway.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page. Open the installer and follow the instructions. If the installation was successful you will see the following.

windows installation complete

Sync Gateway runs as a service (reachable on http://localhost:4985). To stop/start the service, you can use the Services application (Control Panel → Admin Tools → Services).

  • The configuration file is located under C:\Program Files\Couchbase\Sync Gateway\serviceconfig.json.

  • Logs are located under C:\Program Files\Couchbase\Sync Gateway\var\lib\couchbase\logs.

macOS is supported only for development and test environments (see Supported OS).

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using the wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.tar.gz

From here, there are two installation options.

Option 1: Start Sync Gateway from the Command Line

  1. Unpack the tar.gz installer.

    sudo tar -zxvf couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.tar.gz

  2. Launch the sync_gateway program from the command line.

    ~/Downloads/couchbase-sync-gateway/bin/sync_gateway

Option 2: Run Sync Gateway as a service

  1. Unpack the tar.gz installer to the /opt directory.

    sudo tar -zxvf couchbase-sync-gateway-enterprise_2.5.1_x86_64.tar.gz --directory /opt

  2. Create a new macOS user.

    sudo sysadminctl -addUser sync_gateway

    If the operation is successful, you will get the following output.

    sysadminctl ----------------------------
sysadminctl No clear text password or interactive option was specified (adduser, change/reset password will not allow user to use FDE) !
sysadminctl ----------------------------
sysadminctl Creating user record…
sysadminctl Assigning UID: 505
sysadminctl Creating home directory at /Users/sync_gateway

  3. Create a new group and add the sync_gateway user to that group.

    sudo dseditgroup -o create sync_gateway
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a sync_gateway -t user sync_gateway

  4. Run Sync Gateway as a service with the following.

    cd /opt/couchbase-sync-gateway/service
sudo ./sync_gateway_service_install.sh

    Other scripts in that directory are available to update or uninstall the service.

  5. Sync Gateway is now reachable on 0.0.0.0:4984. The configuration file and logs are located in /Users/sync_gateway.

The following sections describe how to install and configure Sync Gateway to run with Couchbase Server.

Community Edition

  • Ubuntu

  • Red Hat/CentOS

  • Debian

  • Windows

  • macOS

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

Install sync_gateway with the dpkg package manager e.g:

dpkg -i couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

When the installation is complete sync_gateway will be running as a service.

To stop/start the sync_gateway service, use the following.

sudo service sync_gateway start
sudo service sync_gateway stop

The config file and logs are located in /home/sync_gateway.

You can also run the sync_gateway binary directly from the command line. The binary is installed at /opt/couchbase-sync-gateway/bin/sync_gateway.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using the wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.rpm

Install sync_gateway with the rpm package manager e.g:

rpm -i couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.rpm

When the installation is complete sync_gateway will be running as a service.

On CentOS 5:

service sync_gateway start
service sync_gateway stop

On CentOS 6:

initctl start sync_gateway
initctl stop sync_gateway

The initctl restart sync_gateway command does not work in CentOS 6. To restart Sync Gateway, the stop/start commands can be used instead.

On CentOS 7:

systemctl start sync_gateway
systemctl stop sync_gateway

The config file and logs are located in /home/sync_gateway.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using the wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

Install sync_gateway with the dpkg package manager e.g:

dpkg -i couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.deb

When the installation is complete sync_gateway will be running as a service.

systemctl start sync_gateway
systemctl stop sync_gateway

The config file and logs are located in /home/sync_gateway.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page. Open the installer and follow the instructions. If the installation was successful you will see the following.

windows installation complete

Sync Gateway runs as a service (reachable on http://localhost:4985). To stop/start the service, you can use the Services application (Control Panel → Admin Tools → Services).

  • The configuration file is located under C:\Program Files\Couchbase\Sync Gateway\serviceconfig.json.

  • Logs are located under C:\Program Files\Couchbase\Sync Gateway\var\lib\couchbase\logs.

Download Sync Gateway from the Couchbase downloads page or using the wget.

wget http://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-sync-gateway/2.5.1/couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.tar.gz

From here, there are two installation options.

Option 1: Start Sync Gateway from the Command Line

  1. Unpack the tar.gz installer.

    sudo tar -zxvf couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.tar.gz

  2. Launch the sync_gateway program from the command line.

    ~/Downloads/couchbase-sync-gateway/bin/sync_gateway

Option 2: Run Sync Gateway as a service

  1. Unpack the tar.gz installer to the /opt directory.

    sudo tar -zxvf couchbase-sync-gateway-community_2.5.1_x86_64.tar.gz --directory /opt

  2. Create a new macOS user.

    sudo sysadminctl -addUser sync_gateway

    If the operation is successful, you will get the following output.

    sysadminctl ----------------------------
sysadminctl No clear text password or interactive option was specified (adduser, change/reset password will not allow user to use FDE) !
sysadminctl ----------------------------
sysadminctl Creating user record…
sysadminctl Assigning UID: 505
sysadminctl Creating home directory at /Users/sync_gateway

  3. Create a new group and add the sync_gateway user to that group.

    sudo dseditgroup -o create sync_gateway
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a sync_gateway -t user sync_gateway

  4. Run Sync Gateway as a service with the following.

    cd /opt/couchbase-sync-gateway/service
sudo ./sync_gateway_service_install.sh

    Other scripts in that directory are available to update or uninstall the service.

  5. Sync Gateway is now reachable on 0.0.0.0:4984. The configuration file and logs are located in /Users/sync_gateway.

Configure Sync Gateway

The following steps explain how to connect Sync Gateway to the Couchbase Server instance.

  • Open a new file called sync-gateway-config.json with the following.

    {
  "log": ["*"],
  "databases": {
    "getting-started-db": {
      "server": "http://localhost:8091",
      "bucket": "getting-started-bucket",
      "username": "sync_gateway", (1)
      "password": "password", (2)
      "enable_shared_bucket_access": true, (3)
      "import_docs": "continuous",
      "num_index_replicas": 0, (4)
      "users": {
        "GUEST": { "disabled": false, "admin_channels": ["*"] }
      },
      "sync": `function (doc, oldDoc) {
        if (doc.sdk) {
          channel(doc.sdk);
        }
      }`
    }
  }
}

    This configuration contains important properties:

    1 The user’s username that you created on the Couchbase Server Admin Console.
    2 The user’s password that you created on the Couchbase Server Admin Console.
    3 The shared bucket access feature allows Couchbase Server SDKs to also perform operations on this bucket.
    4 num_index_replicas is the number of index replicas stored in Couchbase Server, introduced with GSI/N1QL indexing. If you’re running a single Couchbase Server node for development purposes the num_index_replicas must be set to 0.

  • Start Sync Gateway from the command line, or if Sync Gateway is running in a service replace the configuration file and restart the service.

    ~/Downloads/couchbase-sync-gateway/bin/sync_gateway ~/path/to/sync-gateway-config.json

  • Run the application where Couchbase Lite is installed.

  • To verify that documents have been replicated, you can:

    • Monitor the Sync Gateway sequence number returned by the database endpoint (GET /{db}/). The sequence number increments for every change that happens on the Sync Gateway database.

    • Query a document by ID on the Sync Gateway REST API (GET /{db}/{id}).

    • Query a document from the Query Workbench on the Couchbase Server Console.

Network Ports

Sync Gateway uses specific ports for communication with the outside world, mostly Couchbase Lite databases replicating to and from Sync Gateway. The following table lists the ports used for different types of Sync Gateway network communication:

Port Description

4984

Public port. External HTTP port used for replication with Couchbase Lite databases and other applications accessing the REST API on the Internet.

4985

Admin port. Internal HTTP port for unrestricted access to the database and to run administrative tasks.