For those who don’t know, Metabase is a free, open-source platform that helps companies and businesses easily summarize and visualize large data sets without ever writing a line of SQL. It allows users to search through tables, then filter things down to find just what is needed without learning how to run SQL queries. Simply use its flexible GUI to look up data sets. If you’re looking for a free, high-performance database lookup platform for your business, Metabase may just want you to want at your company. For more about Metabase, please visit its homepage. When you’re ready to install Metabase, follow the steps below:

Install Java

Metabase is written in Java so you’ll need Java installed to run it. The open-source Java works great with Metabase. To install the open-source version of Java, run the commands below: After installing Java, the commands below can be used to verify whether Java is installed. You should see similar output as below:

Install MariaDB Database Server

Metabase also requires a database server to store its content. If you’re looking for a truly open-source database server, then MariaDB is a great place to start. To install MariaDB run the commands below: After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service always to start up when the server boots. Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Run these on Ubuntu 18.10 and 18.04 LTS Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation. When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter Set root password? [Y/n]: Y New password: Enter password Re-enter new password: Repeat password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Now that MariaDB is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below. type the root password when prompted. If you see a similar screen as shown above, then the server was successfully installed.

Create Metabase Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Metabase to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank Metabase database. To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below. Then create a database called metabase Create a database user called metabaseuser with a new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and exit.

Install Metabase

Now that Java is installed, run the commands below to download Metabase from its official package repository. At the time of this writing, the current version was 0.34.1. After downloading, move the Metabase Java app to its new home directory at /opt/Metabase. To run Metabase effectively, you’ll want to create dedicated user and group accounts. Simply run the commands below to create a username metabase as well as a group name. Next, change the ownership of the /opt/metabase directory so the user can have full control of the content there. After that, you will also want to create a Metabase systemd service so you can control starting, stopping, and enabling its service. To do that, simply run the commands below to create a service file. Then copy the content below into the file and save it. After saving it, run the commands below to enable the service. To verify if the service is functioning, run the commands below to check it. You should see similar output as below: Next, you need to create a syslog conf to make sure the systemd can handle the logs properly. Run the commands below to create a syslog config file. Then copy and paste the lines below into the file and save. After that, restart the Metabase service by running the commands below: Finally, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address followed by port #3000 You should see the Metabase setup wizard. Click the button to get started and continue. First, create an admin account with a password to continue. Then choose to add a database. For this tutorial, we’re using MySQL or MariaDB. Type in the database information created above and continue with the setup. After that, finish the setup and begin using your platform. Log in and begin setting up your environment, That should do it! Conclusion: This post shows you how to install Metabase Server on Ubuntu 18.04 | 16.04. If you find any errors above, please use the comment form below to report them. You may also like the post below: