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System Prerequisites

Linux limits

For production Linux installations, configure process limits for the MonkDB user (and root/superuser if required by your environment):

  • File descriptors: soft/hard unlimited
  • Memory lock: soft/hard unlimited
  • Threads: soft/hard 4096
  • Virtual memory (Linux): soft/hard unlimited
  • vm.max_map_count (Linux): 262144

Typical files:

  • /etc/security/limits.conf
  • /etc/sysctl.conf or /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf

Example:

# /etc/security/limits.conf
monkdb soft nofile unlimited
monkdb hard nofile unlimited
monkdb soft memlock unlimited
monkdb hard memlock unlimited
monkdb soft nproc 4096
monkdb hard nproc 4096
monkdb soft as unlimited
monkdb hard as unlimited

# /etc/sysctl.d/99-monkdb.conf
vm.max_map_count=262144

Apply sysctl changes:

sudo sysctl --system

JVM and heap

MonkDB is JVM-based. Set heap via MONKDB_HEAP_SIZE.

  • Start with about 25% of machine RAM.
  • Keep heap between 1GB and about 30.5GB for Compressed Oops efficiency.
  • If bootstrap.memory_lock: true is used, ensure memlock limits permit lock.

Swap

Avoid swap for MonkDB processes. Prefer:

  • bootstrap.memory_lock: true
  • Host-level swap tuning/disabling per your ops policy

Network and ports

Default ports commonly used:

  • HTTP: 4200
  • PGWire: 5432
  • Transport: 4300

Use firewall rules and TLS in production.

psql client installation

Install psql client on any machine from which you run SQL administration or tests.

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y postgresql-client

RHEL / CentOS / Rocky / AlmaLinux

sudo dnf install -y postgresql

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install libpq
brew link --force libpq

Verify

psql --version