Deploy Couchbase on RamNode VPS | NoSQL Database Guide

Key Features of Couchbase

Memory-first architecture for sub-millisecond latency

Flexible JSON document model with ACID transactions

N1QL query language for SQL-like querying

Built-in full-text search and analytics

Cross-datacenter replication for disaster recovery

Integrated mobile sync via Couchbase Lite

System Requirements

⚠️ Important: Couchbase is memory-intensive. It requires at least 4 GB of RAM for the data service alone. For clusters running multiple services, allocate additional memory accordingly.

Resource Requirements

Workload	RAM	CPU	Storage	RamNode Plan
Development/Testing	4 GB	2 vCPUs	40 GB SSD	Premium 4GB
Light Production	8 GB	4 vCPUs	80 GB SSD	Premium 8GB
Standard Production	16 GB	6 vCPUs	160 GB SSD	Premium 16GB
High Performance	32 GB+	8+ vCPUs	320 GB+ SSD	Premium 32GB+

Network Ports

Port	Service	Description
8091	Web Console	Cluster management UI and REST API
8093	Query	N1QL query service
8094	Search	Full-text search service
11210	Data	Client data operations (memcached)
18091-18096	SSL Services	Encrypted versions of services

Development

• 4GB RAM, 2 vCPU
• 40GB SSD storage
• Single-node setup

View Plans →

Production

• 8GB+ RAM, 4+ vCPU
• 80GB+ SSD storage
• Multi-node cluster

Premium VPS →

Installation

Update System Packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Dependencies

sudo apt install -y wget curl apt-transport-https gnupg2

Download and Install Couchbase Server

Download the latest Couchbase Server package (Community Edition 7.6):

Download and Install Couchbase

# Download Couchbase Server
wget https://packages.couchbase.com/releases/7.6.0/couchbase-server-community_7.6.0-linux_amd64.deb

# Install the package
sudo dpkg -i couchbase-server-community_7.6.0-linux_amd64.deb

# Fix any dependency issues
sudo apt --fix-broken install -y

💡 Tip: For Enterprise Edition, replace 'community' with 'enterprise' in the download URL. Enterprise Edition requires a valid license.

Verify Installation

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status couchbase-server

# Enable Couchbase to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable couchbase-server

# Start if not running
sudo systemctl start couchbase-server

Initial Configuration

Web Console Setup

Access the Couchbase Web Console at:

Web Console URL

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8091

Click 'Setup New Cluster' and configure:

Cluster Name: A descriptive name (e.g., 'ramnode-production')
Admin Username: Strong username (avoid 'admin')
Admin Password: Complex password with 12+ characters

Service Memory Allocation (8 GB VPS)

Service	Memory	Purpose
Data Service	4096 MB	Document storage and retrieval
Index Service	1024 MB	Secondary index management
Search Service	512 MB	Full-text search operations
Query Service	512 MB	N1QL query execution
Analytics	512 MB	Real-time analytics
OS/System	~1200 MB	Reserved for system

Command-Line Configuration

For automation, use the CLI to initialize the cluster:

Initialize Cluster via CLI

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli cluster-init \
  --cluster localhost \
  --cluster-username admin \
  --cluster-password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --cluster-name ramnode-cluster \
  --cluster-ramsize 4096 \
  --cluster-index-ramsize 1024 \
  --cluster-fts-ramsize 512 \
  --cluster-eventing-ramsize 256 \
  --cluster-analytics-ramsize 512 \
  --services data,index,query,search

Create a Bucket

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli bucket-create \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --bucket myapp \
  --bucket-type couchbase \
  --bucket-ramsize 1024 \
  --bucket-replica 1 \
  --enable-flush 0

Create Application User

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli user-manage \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --set \
  --rbac-username appuser \
  --rbac-password APP_USER_PASSWORD \
  --rbac-name "Application User" \
  --roles bucket_full_access[myapp] \
  --auth-domain local

Security Hardening

Firewall Configuration

Configure UFW Firewall

# Enable UFW if not already enabled
sudo ufw enable

# Allow SSH
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

# Allow Couchbase Web Console (restrict to your IP)
sudo ufw allow from YOUR_IP_ADDRESS to any port 8091

# Allow Couchbase services from application servers
sudo ufw allow from APP_SERVER_IP to any port 11210
sudo ufw allow from APP_SERVER_IP to any port 8093

# For cluster nodes (internal network only)
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/8 to any port 8091:8096
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/8 to any port 11210

# Verify rules
sudo ufw status verbose

Enable TLS/SSL

Generate Self-Signed Certificate

# Generate self-signed certificate (for testing)
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 \
  -keyout /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/inbox/pkey.key \
  -out /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/inbox/chain.pem \
  -subj "/CN=couchbase.yourdomain.com"

# Set proper permissions
sudo chown couchbase:couchbase /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/inbox/*
sudo chmod 600 /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/inbox/pkey.key

# Reload certificates
/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli ssl-manage \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --reload-cert /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/inbox

💡 Production Tip: Use certificates from a trusted Certificate Authority. Let's Encrypt certificates work well with Couchbase.

Enable Audit Logging

Configure Audit Logging

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli setting-audit \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --set \
  --audit-enabled 1 \
  --audit-log-path /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/logs \
  --audit-log-rotate-interval 86400

Multi-Node Cluster Setup

For high availability and increased performance, deploy Couchbase across multiple VPS nodes.

Add Nodes to Cluster

# From the primary node, add a new server
/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli server-add \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --server-add NODE2_IP:8091 \
  --server-add-username admin \
  --server-add-password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --services data,index,query

Rebalance the Cluster

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli rebalance \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD

Node Placement Strategy

Node	Services	RAM Allocation
Node 1 (Primary)	Data, Query	Data: 6GB, Query: 1GB
Node 2	Data, Index	Data: 5GB, Index: 2GB
Node 3	Data, Search, Analytics	Data: 4GB, Search: 1GB, Analytics: 2GB

Backup and Recovery

Create Backup Repository

# Create backup repository
/opt/couchbase/bin/cbbackupmgr config \
  --archive /backup/couchbase \
  --repo couchbase-backup

# Perform a full backup
/opt/couchbase/bin/cbbackupmgr backup \
  --archive /backup/couchbase \
  --repo couchbase-backup \
  --cluster couchbase://localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD

Automated Backup Script

/opt/scripts/couchbase-backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/couchbase"
REPO_NAME="daily-backup"
CB_HOST="localhost"
CB_USER="admin"
CB_PASS="YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
LOG_FILE="/var/log/couchbase-backup.log"

echo "[$DATE] Starting backup..." >> $LOG_FILE

/opt/couchbase/bin/cbbackupmgr backup \
  --archive $BACKUP_DIR \
  --repo $REPO_NAME \
  --cluster couchbase://$CB_HOST \
  --username $CB_USER \
  --password $CB_PASS >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "[$DATE] Backup completed successfully" >> $LOG_FILE
else
  echo "[$DATE] Backup failed!" >> $LOG_FILE
fi

# Remove backups older than 7 days
find $BACKUP_DIR -type d -mtime +7 -exec rm -rf {} \; 2>/dev/null

Schedule Daily Backup (2 AM)

sudo crontab -e

# Add this line:
0 2 * * * /opt/scripts/couchbase-backup.sh

Restore from Backup

/opt/couchbase/bin/cbbackupmgr restore \
  --archive /backup/couchbase \
  --repo couchbase-backup \
  --cluster couchbase://localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --start oldest \
  --end latest

Monitoring and Maintenance

Key Metrics to Monitor

Operations per second (ops/sec)
RAM and disk usage percentage
Cache miss ratio
Replication queue length
Query service response times

Prometheus Integration

Prometheus Scrape Configuration

# Couchbase exposes Prometheus metrics at:
# http://localhost:8091/_prometheus

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'couchbase'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8091']
    basic_auth:
      username: admin
      password: YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD
    metrics_path: /_prometheus

Log Files

Located at /opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/logs/

Log File	Description
couchbase.log	Main server log
error.log	Error messages
audit.log	Security audit events
query.log	N1QL query service logs

Configure Log Rotation

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli setting-log \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --log-rotation-size 50 \
  --log-rotation-period 7

Troubleshooting

Service Won't Start

Check Service Status and Logs

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status couchbase-server

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u couchbase-server -n 100

# Verify available memory
free -h

High Memory Usage

Adjust Memory Quotas

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli setting-cluster \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD \
  --cluster-ramsize 3072

Cluster Node Unreachable

Test Connectivity

# Test connectivity
nc -zv NODE_IP 8091
nc -zv NODE_IP 11210

# Check cluster status
/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli server-list \
  --cluster localhost \
  --username admin \
  --password YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD

Useful Commands Reference

Command	Purpose
couchbase-cli cluster-info	Display cluster information
couchbase-cli server-list	List all cluster nodes
couchbase-cli bucket-list	List all buckets
couchbase-cli failover	Failover a node
couchbase-cli recovery	Recover a failed node
couchbase-cli rebalance	Rebalance cluster data

Deployment Complete!

You've successfully deployed Couchbase Server on your RamNode VPS. This setup provides a solid foundation for building high-performance applications with flexible JSON data modeling and powerful N1QL querying.

Self-Hosted Couchbase Server

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