neo4j.md

Installing Neo4j on Linux

We recommend installing Neo4j version 4.4, as it has been tested for compatibility with our setup.

Option 1: Install Neo4j via Tarball

This method is ideal for local testing, running Neo4j as a regular user, and avoiding system-wide interference.

1. Download and extract the tarball

Moving the directory to ~/neo4j is a safe and organized setup. If you chose to move it to a different directory, remember to provide that in step 3.

wget https://dist.neo4j.org/neo4j-community-4.4.44-unix.tar.gz
tar -xvzf neo4j-community-4.4.44-unix.tar.gz
mv neo4j-community-4.4.44 ~/neo4j

2. Start Neo4j

Navigate to the Neo4j directory and start the server:

cd ~/neo4j
./bin/neo4j start

This command will start Neo4j and your installation is successful.

3. Specify Neo4j Home Dir

Use the db config file created by copying the db example and specify the homeDir variable in the Neo4j Configs section. If you used the guide above to move to the ~/neo4j directory, you should put your username in <user>. If you chose a different directory, put it here.

homeDir=/home/<user>/neo4j

Option 2: Install Neo4j via Tarball

This method will require sudo access when starting/stoping neo4j, populating your Sysdig logs or executing ProvQL queries from the command line.

1. Install Neo4j

Visit the official Neo4j Debian repository guide: https://debian.neo4j.com/ to install Neo4j.

2. Start Neo4j

Since the installation from the apt repository stores files in the /var/ directory, elevated access may be required to start Neo4j:

sudo neo4j start

Note: When using Sysdig to parse and populate your Neo4j database, remember to stop database to avoid lock file conflicts.

sudo neo4j stop

3. Specify Neo4j Home Dir

Use the db config file created by copying the db example file and specify the homeDir variable in the Neo4j Configs section. If you used this method, the home dir value should be:

homeDir=/var/lib/neo4j/