Deploying Gel to a Bare Metal Server​

Install the Gel Package​

The steps for installing the Gel package will be slightly different depending on your Linux distribution. Once you have the package installed you can jump to Enable a systemd unit.

$ 
  
  
  

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/keyrings && \
  sudo curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf \
  -o /usr/local/share/keyrings/gel-keyring.gpg \
  https://packages.geldata.com/keys/gel-keyring.gpg

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echo deb [signed-by=/usr/local/share/keyrings/gel-keyring.gpg] \
  https://packages.geldata.com/apt \
  $(grep "VERSION_CODENAME=" /etc/os-release | cut -d= -f2) main \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gel.list

$ 

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gel-6

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sudo curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSfL \
 https://packages.geldata.com/rpm/gel-rhel.repo \
 > /etc/yum.repos.d/gel.repo

$ 

sudo yum install gel-6

Enable a systemd unit​

The Gel package comes bundled with a systemd unit that is disabled by default. You can start the server by enabling the unit.

$ 

sudo systemctl enable --now gel-server-6

This will start the server on port 5656, and the data directory will be /var/lib/gel/1/data.

Set environment variables​

To set environment variables when running Gel with systemctl,

$ 

systemctl edit --full gel-server-6

This opens a systemd unit file. Set the desired environment variables under the [Service] section. View the supported environment variables at Reference > Environment Variables.

[Service]
Environment="GEL_SERVER_TLS_CERT_MODE=generate_self_signed"
Environment="GEL_SERVER_ADMIN_UI=enabled"

Save the file and exit, then restart the service.

$ 

systemctl restart gel-server-6

Set a password​

There is no default password. To set one, you will first need to get the Unix socket directory. You can find this by looking at your system.d unit file.

$ 

sudo systemctl cat gel-server-6

Set a password by connecting from localhost.

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echo -n "> " && read -s PASSWORD

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RUNSTATE_DIR=$(systemctl show gel-server-6 -P ExecStart | \
 grep -o -m 1 -- "--runstate-dir=[^ ]\+" | \
 awk -F "=" '{print $2}')

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sudo gel --port 5656 --tls-security insecure --admin \
 --unix-path $RUNSTATE_DIR \
 query "ALTER ROLE admin SET password := '$PASSWORD'"

The server listens on localhost by default. Changing this looks like this.

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gel --port 5656 --tls-security insecure --password query \
 "CONFIGURE INSTANCE SET listen_addresses := {'0.0.0.0'};"

The listen port can be changed from the default 5656 if your deployment scenario requires a different value.

$ 
  

gel --port 5656 --tls-security insecure --password query \
 "CONFIGURE INSTANCE SET listen_port := 1234;"

You may need to restart the server after changing the listen port or addresses.

$ 

sudo systemctl restart gel-server-6

Link the instance with the CLI​

The following is an example of linking a bare metal instance that is running on localhost. This command assigns a name to the instance, to make it more convenient to refer to when running CLI commands.

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gel instance link \
 --host localhost \
 --port 5656 \
 --user admin \
 --branch main \
 --trust-tls-cert \
 bare_metal_instance

This allows connecting to the instance with its name.

$ 

gel -I bare_metal_instance

Upgrading Gel​

When you want to upgrade to the newest point release upgrade the package and restart the gel-server-6 unit.

$ 

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade gel-6

$ 

sudo systemctl restart gel-server-6

$ 

sudo yum update gel-6

$ 

sudo systemctl restart gel-server-6

Health Checks​

Using an HTTP client, you can perform health checks to monitor the status of your Gel instance. Learn how to use them with our health checks guide.