How to Install Samvera Hyrax on Arch Linux

Samvera Hyrax is a powerful open source digital repository solution developed to manage digital assets and metadata. It is built on top of the Rails web application framework and represents a modular and flexible platform for creating digital repositories of various sizes and types.

In this tutorial, we will go through the steps of installing Samvera Hyrax on Arch Linux in a few easy steps!

Prerequisites

Before installing Samvera Hyrax on Arch Linux, you will need to make sure that the following components are present in your environment:

  • Ruby 2.6.3 or greater
  • Rails 5.2 or greater
  • Solr 7.x or greater
  • Fedora Commons 4.x or greater
  • Redis
  • ImageMagick
  • FITS (File Information Tool Set)

If you don't have these components already installed, you can use your package manager to get them. The following command should do it:

sudo pacman -S ruby ruby-rdoc ruby-bundler rails solr fedora redis imagemagick fits

Note: Solr, Fedora, and Redis are all required components for Samvera Hyrax to function correctly. Make sure to configure them correctly before proceeding with the installation.

Step 1: Clone the Samvera Hyrax Repository

The first step in installing Samvera Hyrax is to clone the repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/samvera/hyrax.git
cd hyrax

Step 2: Install Project Dependencies

To install the project dependencies for Samvera Hyrax, run the following command:

bundle install --without development test

This command will install all the required gems for the application but excludes development and test gems.

Step 3: Configure the Application

Next, you need to configure the application by copying over the sample configuration files:

cp config/database.yml.sample config/database.yml
cp config/fedora.yml.sample config/fedora.yml
cp config/redis.yml.sample config/redis.yml

Then, edit each file with the relevant connection details for each component.

Step 4: Create and Migrate the Database

Now that the project dependencies have been installed, and the application has been configured, you can create a database and run the migrations:

rails db:create
rails db:migrate

Step 5: Start Solr and Fedora Services

Before launching the application, you need to start the Solr and Fedora services.

sudo systemctl start solr fedora

Step 6: Start Redis

Start the Redis server by running the command:

sudo systemctl start redis

Step 7: Serve the Application

Finally, you can serve the application using the command:

rails server

Congratulations! You have now installed a working instance of Samvera Hyrax on Arch Linux.

You can now access the Samvera Hyrax application by navigating to http://localhost:3000.