Single-Host RPM Evaluation Quickstart

Use the bundled quickstart.sh to bring up the control plane on one machine for a hands-on trial. The script installs the RPMs, installs and initializes PostgreSQL, and creates the database and role. It also generates a random password, writes it into the config, starts the control plane, and prints the access URL and default credentials.

This guide is for single-host evaluation only. It sets up a local PostgreSQL instance. The required PostgreSQL packages must be available from an online repository or a pre-staged offline repository, unless PostgreSQL is already installed on the host. For production deployments with an external or HA database, split CP/DP, and security hardening, use the standard path in Deploy with the Offline RPM Bundle.

Run the Quick Start Script

Download the bundle that matches your host. See Obtain the Bundle for how to identify <version>, <dist>, and <arch>:

export API7EE_VERSION="3.10.1"   # the release you are installing
export API7EE_DIST="el9"         # from PLATFORM_ID in /etc/os-release
export API7EE_ARCH="x86_64"      # from uname -m
curl -fSLO "https://run.api7.ai/api7-ee/api7-ee-rpm-${API7EE_VERSION}-${API7EE_DIST}.${API7EE_ARCH}.tar.gz"

Then extract and run the bundled quickstart.sh:

tar -xzf api7-ee-rpm-<version>-<dist>.<arch>.tar.gz
cd api7-ee-rpm-<version>-<dist>.<arch>/
sudo ./quickstart.sh

Follow the on-screen hints after the script finishes:

1. Open the printed https://<host>:7443, log in with admin / admin and change the password, then upload the License until its status is normal.
2. Onboard a data plane: in the console, create a gateway group, click Add Instance, choose RPM, and run the generated script on a host where api7-gateway is installed. See Onboard the data-plane gateway.

Evaluate in a Container

All components are systemd services, so the container must run systemd as PID 1; otherwise quickstart.sh fails at systemctl / postgresql-setup with System has not been booted with systemd as init system. Example:

docker run -d --name api7-eval --privileged \
  -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:rw --cgroupns=host \
  -p 7443:7443 -p 9080:9080 -p 9443:9443 \
  rockylinux:8 /sbin/init        # use rockylinux:9 for an el9 evaluation
docker cp api7-ee-rpm-<version>-<dist>.<arch>.tar.gz api7-eval:/root/
docker exec api7-eval bash -lc 'cd /root && tar -xzf api7-ee-rpm-*.tar.gz'
docker exec -it api7-eval bash -lc 'cd /root/api7-ee-rpm-*/ && ./quickstart.sh'

The base image, such as rockylinux:8, ships without systemd. If /sbin/init is missing, install systemd first (dnf -y install systemd) or use an image that already runs systemd.

Next Steps

• Enable dashboard metrics: Install Prometheus.
• Onboard more gateways via RPM: Deploy an RPM Data Plane from a Docker Script.
• Operations, ports, upgrade, troubleshooting: Deploy with the Offline RPM Bundle.