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How to Install Virtuoso Open Source (VOS) on Ubuntu Linux

Starting Point

We start from a freshly installed Ubuntu Linux server-edition installation (Maverick Meerkat distribution, 10.10) having chosen the "server" package set.

Ubuntu creates a normal user as part of the installation, with the ability to use sudo where root is required.

Be sure to update the index of available packages: 

sudo apt-get update

Installing Virtuoso

Ubuntu includes packages with pre-built Virtuoso binaries. You can install Virtuoso using these, or, if a newer version is available upstream or you want to specify your own configuration options, you can build directly from source.

Installing Virtuoso with Ubuntu Packages

  1. Ubuntu have split Virtuoso into a handful of packages so you can install only the bits you require; further, the packages cater for both minimal installations and as a database in its own right: 

    tim@ubuntu:~$ apt-cache search '^virtuoso'
virtuoso-opensource - high-performance database
virtuoso-server - high-performance database - server dependency package
virtuoso-minimal - high-performance database - core dependency package
virtuoso-opensource-6.1 - high-performance database - support files
virtuoso-opensource-6.1-bin - high-performance database - binaries
virtuoso-opensource-6.1-common - high-performance database - common files
virtuoso-opensource-6.0 - transitional package for virtuoso-opensource-6.1
virtuoso-vad-bpel - high-performance database - BPEL module
virtuoso-vad-conductor - high-performance database - conductor module
virtuoso-vad-demo - high-performance database - demo module
virtuoso-vad-doc - high-performance database - documentation module
virtuoso-vad-isparql - high-performance database - iSPARQL module
virtuoso-vad-ods - high-performance database - Open Data Spaces module
virtuoso-vad-cartridges - high-performance database - Cartridges module
virtuoso-vad-sparqldemo - high-performance database - SPARQL demo module
virtuoso-vad-syncml - high-performance database - SyncML module
virtuoso-vad-tutorial - high-performance database - tutorial module
virtuoso-vsp-startpage - high-performance database - web interface files
virtuoso-nepomuk - transitional package for virtuoso-minimal
virtuosoconverter - converts nepomuk database to Virtuoso 6.1.0

    (The above output has been manually reordered into logical groupings.) and additionally, 

    libvirtodbc0 - high-performance database - ODBC libraries

  2. The basic installation starts here -- 

    tim@ubuntu:~$ sudo aptitude install  virtuoso-opensource
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ghostscript{a} gsfonts{a} libavahi-client3{a} libavahi-common-data{a} 
  libavahi-common3{a} libcups2{a} libcupsimage2{a} libgomp1{a} libgs8{a} 
  libice6{a} libjasper1{a} libjpeg62{a} liblcms1{a} liblqr-1-0{a} 
  libltdl7{a} libmagickcore3{a} libmagickwand3{a} libpaper-utils{a} 
  libpaper1{a} libreadline5{a} libsm6{a} libtiff4{a} libvirtodbc0{a} 
  libxt6{a} odbcinst{a} odbcinst1debian2{a} virtuoso-opensource 
  virtuoso-opensource-6.1{a} virtuoso-opensource-6.1-bin{a} 
  virtuoso-opensource-6.1-common{a} virtuoso-server{a} 
  virtuoso-vad-conductor{a} virtuoso-vsp-startpage{a} x11-common{a} 
0 packages upgraded, 34 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 19.7MB of archives. After unpacking 61.3MB will be used.

  3. As part of the installation, Ubuntu will ask you for passwords to use for the dba (main database administrative) and dav (WebDAV filesystem administrative) users. If you leave these blank, the Virtuoso service will not start after installation: 





    Setting up libpaper-utils (1.1.24) ...
Setting up libreadline5 (5.2-7build1) ...
Setting up virtuoso-opensource-6.1-common (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-opensource-6.1-bin (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up odbcinst (2.2.14p2-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up odbcinst1debian2 (2.2.14p2-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libvirtodbc0 (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-opensource-6.1 (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
 * Starting Virtuoso OpenSource Edition 6.1  virtuoso-opensource-6.1     [ OK ] 
Setting up virtuoso-opensource (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-vad-conductor (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-vsp-startpage (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-server (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
                                         
tim@ubuntu:~$

  4. At this point Virtuoso is installed and an instance created and running.

Package Contents and Layout

Ubuntu's packaging renames Virtuoso's included isql binary to avoid a conflict with unixODBC, so the executables provided (in the virtuoso-opensource-6.1-bin package) are:

  • /usr/bin/isql-vt -- command-line database-access tool, iSQL
  • /usr/bin/isqlw-vt -- Unicode-enabled iSQL
  • /usr/bin/virt_mail -- SMTP delivery agent for incoming mail
  • /usr/bin/virtuoso-t -- Main daemon executable

In accordance with Debian policy that services should start immediately after they've been installed, Ubuntu have created a default instance based on a configuration file located at /etc/virtuoso-opensource-6.1/virtuoso.ini; the database itself lives in /var/lib/virtuoso-opensource-6.1/db/ (a similar layout to MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc).

At this stage you can start using Virtuoso through the Conductor web interface and the iSQL command line utility, or install more options.

Further VAD Packages

Ubuntu have split some of the Virtuoso VAD packages into separate apt packages of their own. When you apt-get install these, all you get is the VAD package on disk ready to be installed into your database; Ubuntu does not install the VAD into any running instance for you (because by this time you might have created your own instances elsewhere on different ports).

tim@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install virtuoso-vad-{isparql,ods,cartridges,tutorial}
[...]
Fetched 8,388kB in 16s (517kB/s)                                               
Selecting previously deselected package virtuoso-vad-isparql.
(Reading database ... 46338 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking virtuoso-vad-isparql (from .../virtuoso-vad-isparql_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package virtuoso-vad-ods.
Unpacking virtuoso-vad-ods (from .../virtuoso-vad-ods_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package virtuoso-vad-cartridges.
Unpacking virtuoso-vad-cartridges (from .../virtuoso-vad-cartridges_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb) ...
Setting up virtuoso-vad-isparql (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-vad-ods (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up virtuoso-vad-cartridges (6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4) ...
tim@ubuntu:~$

In the Conductor (http://localhost:8890/conductor/), go to SysAdmin --> Packages and the iSPARQL, Cartridges and Tutorial, and ODS * (of which there are several) packages will now be available.

Building Virtuoso from Source

There are 2 ways to build Virtuoso from source: using Ubuntu packages or the generic source build that works everywhere.

Rebuilding using Ubuntu packages

  1. First we install the minimum Ubuntu build environment - basic C compilers and development headers. 

    tim@ubuntu:~$ sudo aptitude install dpkg-dev build-essential
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  binutils{a} build-essential dpkg-dev fakeroot{a} g++{a} g++-4.4{a} gcc{a} 
  gcc-4.4{a} libalgorithm-diff-perl{a} libalgorithm-merge-perl{a} 
  libc-dev-bin{a} libc6-dev{a} libdpkg-perl{a} libgomp1{a} 
  libstdc++6-4.4-dev{a} linux-libc-dev{a} manpages-dev{a} patch{a} 
0 packages upgraded, 18 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 19.7MB of archives. After unpacking 59.6MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] 
...

  2. Then we download the Ubuntu source packages: 

    tim@ubuntu:~$ mkdir C
tim@ubuntu:~$ cd C
tim@ubuntu:~/C$ apt-get source virtuoso-opensource
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
NOTICE: 'virtuoso-opensource' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at:
git://scm.alioth.debian.org/git/pkg-virtuoso/pkg-virtuoso.git
Need to get 69.4MB of source archives.
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main virtuoso-opensource 6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4 (dsc) [2,760B]
Get:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main virtuoso-opensource 6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4 (tar) [69.3MB]
...
dfsg1-1ubuntu4.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting virtuoso-opensource in virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1
dpkg-source: info: unpacking virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1.orig.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: applying virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4.diff.gz
tim@ubuntu:~/C$ cd virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1/
tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1$

  3. Install the build-dependencies: because Ubuntu builds Virtuoso with all bells and whistles enabled (language hosting modules in particular), this brings in quite a lot more packages: 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1$ sudo aptitude build-dep virtuoso-opensource
[...]
0 packages upgraded, 286 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 103MB of archives. After unpacking 346MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]

  4. Start the package build using dpkg-buildpackage: 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
dpkg-buildpackage: export CFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: export CPPFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): 
dpkg-buildpackage: export CXXFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: export FFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: export LDFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions
...
dh_md5sums -plibvirtuoso5.5-cil 
dh_builddeb -plibvirtuoso5.5-cil 
dpkg-deb: warning: 'debian/libvirtuoso5.5-cil/DEBIAN/control' contains user-defined field 'Original-Maintainer'
dpkg-deb: building package `libvirtuoso5.5-cil' in `../libvirtuoso5.5-cil_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb'.
dpkg-deb: warning: ignoring 1 warnings about the control file(s)

 dpkg-genchanges  >../virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.changes
dpkg-genchanges: not including original source code in upload
 dpkg-source --after-build virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1
dpkg-buildpackage: binary and diff upload (original source NOT included)
tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1$

  5. Some time later, the build will finish, and you will be able to see a lot of *.deb files created in the parent directory: 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C$ ls
libvirtodbc0_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
libvirtuoso5.5-cil_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
virtuoso-minimal_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-nepomuk_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-opensource-6.0_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.2+dfsg1
virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.changes
virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4.diff.gz
virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4.dsc
virtuoso-opensource_6.1.2+dfsg1.orig.tar.gz
virtuoso-opensource-6.1_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
virtuoso-opensource-6.1-bin_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
virtuoso-opensource-6.1-common_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
virtuoso-server_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-bpel_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-conductor_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-demo_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-doc_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-isparql_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-ods_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-cartridges_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-sparqldemo_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-syncml_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vad-tutorial_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb
virtuoso-vsp-startpage_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_all.deb

tim@ubuntu:~/C$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb
[sudo] password for tim: 
Selecting previously deselected package libvirtodbc0.
(Reading database ... 63555 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libvirtodbc0 (from libvirtodbc0_6.1.2+dfsg1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libvirtuoso5.5-cil.
...

Building from Upstream Source

Note: Useful prior reading: please see the VOSBuild and VOSMake pages in the VOS Wiki.

Dependencies

Proceed to install the required build dependencies:

tim@ubuntu:~/C$ sudo aptitude install dpkg-dev build-essential 
...
tim@ubuntu:~/C$ sudo apt-get install autoconf automake libtool flex bison gperf gawk m4 make odbcinst libxml2-dev libssl-dev libreadline-dev
Unpacking

Download the latest VOS archive (source tarball such as virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3.tar.gz) from sourceforge and unpack it:

tim@ubuntu:~/C$ tar xvpfz virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3.tar.gz 
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3/
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3/bin/
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3/bin/installer/
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3/bin/installer/virtuoso.ini
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3/bin/installer/demo.ini
...
Configuring

For the purposes of this demonstration, we use a simple configuration with no frills:

tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/ \
	 --with-readline --program-transform-name="s/isql/isql-v/" 
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane...

There are many other options that can be specified at this stage, to enable/disable the building of language-hosting plugins (Perl, Python, Ruby) or various VAD packages (sub-packages within Virtuoso); for more on these, read the relevant README files in the source distribution and run `./configure
--help'.

Here we settle for asking for read-line support, i.e., the ability to cursor-up/down and use typical read-line key-combinations in the command-line isql tool (once built).

Aside: VOS component locations

Virtuoso instances usually take the form of a designated directory somewhere in the filesystem, centered around a configuration file (nominally virtuoso.ini) which specifies operational parameters such as the filenames of database page files, port numbers, numbers of threads and buffers, etc.

In the above command, we specify a prefix of /usr/local to Virtuoso's ./configure script. This specifies a base directory under which Virtuoso will create/use the following structure:

  • /usr/local/lib/ -- various libraries for Sesame, JDBC, Jena, Hibernate, and hosting
  • /usr/local/bin/ -- where the main executables (virtuoso-t, isql) live
  • /usr/local/share/virtuoso/vad/ -- used to store VAD archives prior to installation in an instance
  • /usr/local/share/virtuoso/doc/ -- local offline documentation
  • /usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/db/ -- the default location for a Virtuoso instance
  • /usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/vsp/ -- various VSP scripts which comprise the default homepage until the Conductor is installed

Other directory-structures are possible by specifying variously --

  • individual configure options such as --bindir, --libdir, etc.
  • --with-layout=[GNU|Debian|Gentoo|RedHat|FreeBSD|opt|OpenLink]

-- where the latter options specify default locations into which the VADs, documentation (HTML and PDF), demo and default instance databases, and hosting libraries will be installed, compatible with the packaging requirements of the various named OS distributions ("opt" means a prefix of /opt and OpenLink is the default, detailed above).

Aside: Ubuntu isql name conflict

Unfortunately, both unixODBC and Virutoso provide a command `isql', used to access data sources from the commandline (in unixODBC, an ODBC DSN; in Virtuoso, the SQL interface).

In order to allow both packages to coexist, Ubuntu rename Virutoso's isql command to isql-vt.

Given that we are installing Virtuoso from source to a different prefix (/usr/local), it is not absolutely necessary to do the same here, but to avoid having to specify different PATH considerations and to otherwise make life easier, the configure command above reflects this change as well.

Building and Installing
  1. Having chosen some configure options, run make: 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3$ nice make
Making all in .
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/tim/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3'

  2. Optionally, you can run make check to run the test-suite (beware, it takes some hours and multiple gigabytes of disk-space). 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3$ nice make check

  3. Install it to the directory-structure chosen above: 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3$ sudo make install

Getting Started

  1. Take a copy of the default virtuoso.ini and store it safely in case you make erroneous changes.
  2. Navigate to the default database directory: 

    tim@ubuntu:~/C/virtuoso-opensource-6.1.3$ cd /usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/db/
tim@ubuntu:/usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/db$ 
tim@ubuntu:/usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/db$ ls
virtuoso.ini

    • (At this point, if you wish to run virtuoso as a non-root user you should change the ownership on this directory, e.g., sudo chown -R tim . . Virtuoso only requires root if you wish to use it as a webserver listening on port 80; by default it listens only on high ports (i.e., above 1024).)
  3. Start the server: 

    tim@ubuntu:/usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/db$ virtuoso-t -fd

                Tue Apr 19 2011
16:47:52 INFO: { Loading plugin 1: Type `plain', file `wikiv' in `/usr/local/lib/virtuoso/hosting'
16:47:52 INFO:   WikiV version 0.6 from OpenLink Software
16:47:52 INFO:   Support functions for WikiV collaboration tool
16:47:52 INFO:   SUCCESS plugin 1: loaded from /usr/local/lib/virtuoso/hosting/wikiv.so }
...
16:48:09 INFO: Checkpoint started
16:48:09 INFO: Checkpoint finished, log reused
16:48:10 INFO: Checkpoint started
16:48:10 INFO: Checkpoint finished, log reused
16:48:12 INFO: HTTP/WebDAV server online at 8890
16:48:12 INFO: Server online at 1111 (pid 31949)

  4. Here we see the server running in foreground mode with maximum debugging information. Because it's the first time this instance has been run, Virtuoso creates a bunch of files (virtuoso.db, virtuoso.trx (the transaction log), etc.), and installs the Conductor VAD package (and any other VAD packages now found in the, e.g., /usr/local/share/virtuoso/vad/ directory) into the database.
  5. If you close your terminal while this command is running, Virtuoso will stop. To run it as a daemon instead, omit the "-d" ("+debug") option, or add " &". The latter option will keep full debug information flowing to both console and log.
  6. To keep full debug information flowing to the log, but keep the console clear, you can edit the CommandLine value in the virtuoso.ini file. You can still see most of what's happening by running tail -f virtuoso.log.

Using Virtuoso

Web-based UI

You can access the Conductor interface by pointing your web-browser at http://localhost:8890/conductor/ (substitute hostname as appropriate).

From the Conductor, you can manage users and automated backups, install VAD packages, execute SQL commands in a web-based iSQL tool, configure the Virtuoso Sponger, and loads more.

There are two system users of immediate importance:

  • dba -- the relational data administrative account,) and
  • dav --the WebDAV adminstrative account.

By default each of these accounts has its password set the same as its username. It is strongly advised that you change these as soon as possible for obvious security reasons.

Command-line

Virtuoso provides a SQL/ODBC listener on port 1111/tcp (default). You can connect directly to this and execute SQL statements using the isql tool:

tim@ubuntu:/usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/db$ isql
OpenLink Interactive SQL (Virtuoso), version 0.9849b.
Type HELP; for help and EXIT; to exit.
SQL> tables;
Connected to OpenLink Virtuoso
Driver: 06.01.3127 OpenLink Virtuoso ODBC Driver
Showing SQLTables of tables like 'NULL.NULL.NULL', tabletype/colname like 'NULL'
TABLE_QUALIFIER  TABLE_OWNER      TABLE_NAME       TABLE_TYPE       REMARKS
VARCHAR          VARCHAR          VARCHAR          VARCHAR          VARCHAR
_______________________________________________________________________________

DB               DBA              ADMIN_SESSION    SYSTEM TABLE     NULL
DB               DBA              ADM_OPT_ARRAY_TO_RS_PVIEW  SYSTEM TABLE     NULL
[...]

Resource Usage

Virtuoso is highly configurable: the same executables and packages will service anything from a small "lite-mode" installation with a database of 10Mb up to a huge multi-user enterprise installation with terabytes of data.

The default settings for Virtuoso Open-Source create about 29MB of database filesize, with a 160MB process size in memory, and a total of about 237MB disk footprint; this has 20 client-access threads running for database and/or web-server use.

We also provide detailed documentation of how to scale Virtuoso.

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