Installing CKAN

Note

The currently supported CKAN version is CKAN 2.10.3

Security and performance fixes are also provided for CKAN 2.9.10.

Read more about officially supported versions

CKAN 2.10 supports Python 3.7 to Python 3.10.

Before you can use CKAN on your own computer, you need to install it. There are three ways to install CKAN:

  1. Install from an operating system package

  2. Install from source

  3. Install from Docker Compose

Additional deployment tips can be found in our wiki, such as the recommended Hardware Requirements.

Package install

Installing from package is the quickest and easiest way to install CKAN, but it requires Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit or Ubuntu 22.04 64-bit.

You should install CKAN from package if:

  • You want to install CKAN on an Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04, 64-bit server, and

  • You only want to run one CKAN website per server

See Installing CKAN from package.

Source install

You should install CKAN from source if:

  • You want to install CKAN on a 32-bit computer, or

  • You want to install CKAN on a different version of Ubuntu, not 20.04 or 22.04, or

  • You want to install CKAN on another operating system (eg. RHEL, CentOS, OS X), or

  • You want to run multiple CKAN websites on the same server, or

  • You want to install CKAN for development

See Installing CKAN from source.

Docker Compose install

The ckan-docker repository contains the necessary scripts and images to install CKAN using Docker Compose. It provides a clean and quick way to deploy a standard CKAN instance pre-configured with the Filestore and DataStore extension. It also allows the addition (and customization) of extensions. The emphasis leans more towards a Development environment, however the base install can be used as the foundation for progressing to a Production environment. Please note that a fully-fledged CKAN Production system using Docker containers is beyond the scope of the provided setup.

You should install CKAN from Docker Compose if:

  • You want to install CKAN with less effort than a source install and more flexibility than a package install, or

  • You want to run or even develop extensions with the minimum setup effort, or

  • You want to see whether and how CKAN, Docker and your respective infrastructure will fit together.

To install CKAN using Docker Compose, follow the links below:

If you’ve already setup a CKAN website and want to upgrade it to a newer version of CKAN, see Upgrading CKAN.