Installing CKAN

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

For Python 3 installations, the minimum Python version required is 3.6

  • Ubuntu 18.04 includes Python 3.6 as part of its distribution
  • Ubuntu 16.04 includes Python 3.5 as part of its distribution

From package is the quickest and easiest way to install CKAN, but it requires Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04 64-bit. You should install CKAN from package if:

  • You want to install CKAN on an Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04, 64-bit server, and
  • You only want to run one CKAN website per server

See Installing CKAN from package.

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 16.04 / 18.04, 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.

The provided Docker Compose configuration provides a clean and quick way to deploy a vanilla CKAN without extensions, while still allowing the addition (and customization) of extensions. This option comes with the caveat that some further steps need to be taken to deploy a production-ready CKAN. 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.

See Installing CKAN with Docker Compose.

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