Get Started with dotCMS

Start up a new Amazon Linux 2 (x86) AMI

Make sure your server has appropriate memory and disk space. We recommend a minimum of 7.5GB of memory and 50GB of disk space.

Memory Size:

• Minimum Memory: 7.5GB or more.
  Examples: Amazon m5.large, and t3.large instance types.

For more information on dotCMS memory usage, see the Memory Configuration documentation.

Disk Space:

• Recommended Disk Space: 50GB or higher for a better testing/development experience.
  Examples: Amazon m5 instance types with additional storage selected, or Amazon m5 or t3.

Security Zone:

Place the box in a Security Zone that allows for access to port 22, 80 and 443

Connect to the server using ssh

Run the following recipe

Cut and paste these commands into your ssh terminal. These commands will download and install docker, set up a dotcms user and fire up an example dotCMS installation.

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install docker git -y

## set elasticsearch virtual memory settings
## Elasticsearch will not start up without this
sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
sudo sysctl -w fs.file-max=100000

## make sure they stick
sudo sh -c "echo 'vm.max_map_count=262144' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo sh -c "echo 'fs.file-max=100000' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo sysctl -p

## edit docker file limits
sudo sh -c "echo \"OPTIONS='--default-ulimit nofile=65536:65536'\" >> /etc/sysconfig/docker"

## Start docker
sudo service docker start

## install docker-compose
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.24.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

## set exec perms
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

## Symlink it to your path
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/docker-compose /usr/bin/docker-compose

## test that it works
docker-compose --version

## dotCMS docker image runs with uid 1000000000
sudo useradd -u 1000000000 -U -G docker  -d /data dotcms

## make data readable
sudo chmod -R 755 /data

## Change to dotcms user
sudo su dotcms -

## mk installation directory
mkdir /data/dotcms && cd /data/dotcms

## copy one of the example docker-compose templates
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dotCMS/core/master/docker/docker-compose-examples/single-node-demo-site/docker-compose.yml

## fire it up!
docker-compose up -d && docker-compose logs -f

Download dotCMS

The latest Agile release and latest LTS releases can be downloaded as a Unix/macOS .tar.gz or as a windows .zip. However, we strongly recommend running dotCMS in Docker — the simplest way to get started on any platform.

Release Type	Version	Docker	Binaries
Agile Release	22.06	dotcms/dotcms:22.06_ce3482a3	.tar.gz .zip
LTS Release	21.06.8	dotcms/dotcms:21.06.8_lts_e13a706	.tar.gz .zip
LTS Release	5.3.8.11	dotcms/dotcms:5.3.8.11_lts_edd8425	.tar.gz .zip
LTS Release	22.03.1	dotcms/dotcms:22.03.1_lts_bd3f20f	.tar.gz .zip

Installing from Release (from Documentation)

The instructions to install dotCMS on bare metal can be found on our documentation site. See:

https://dotcms.com/docs/latest/installing-from-release

for detailed instructions on how to install and configure dotCMS.

Clone the dotCMS Git Repository

Run the following command to clone the repository.

Compile dotCMS

Once you have cloned dotCMS, you can `git checkout` the branch you want to compile. In this case, we will compile the `master` branch. dotCMS uses Gradle as our build tool. You need to be in the `core/dotCMS` branch to use it. The gradle task `createDist` will download and package a complete dotCMS distribution.

cd core
git checkout master
cd dotCMS
./gradlew createDist

After gradle is done, you will find your newly built dotCMS distros (both tar and .zip) under the `/core/dist` folder. This is the complete dotCMS package, including a Tomcat app server needed to run dotCMS.

Run

At this point, the newly minted dotCMS build can be deployed just like our distribution. For instructions on how to do this, see:

https://dotcms.com/docs/latest/installing-from-release

for detailed instructions on how to install and configure dotCMS.