Technical documentation for ArchivesSpace
ArchivesSpace has been tested on Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
While ArchivesSpace does include an embedded database, MySQL is required for production use.
(While not officially supported by ArchivesSpace, some community members use MariaDB so there is some community support for version 10.4.10 only.)
The embedded database is for testing purposes only. You should use MySQL or MariaDB for any data intended for production, including data in a test instance that you intend to move over to a production instance.
The quickest way to get ArchivesSpace up and running is to download
the latest distribution .zip file from the following URL:
https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/releases
You will need to have Java 1.8 or 1.11 installed on your machine. You can check your Java version by running the command:
java -version
If you are running an earlier version of java upgrade to 1.8 or 1.11 (not the newest version of Java). If you are running a newer version of Java you should revert back to 1.8 or 1.11 or force your machine to use 1.8 or 1.11 for ArchivesSpace.
When you extract the .zip file, it will create a directory called
archivesspace. Next, follow the instructions for setting up
MySQL, and for version 3.2 and above, Solr.
From any ArchivesSpace version > 3.1.0 external Solr is required. Earlier versions provided an embedded Solr v4 instance, which is now unsupported due to its age.
Do not proceed until MySQL and Solr are running.
To run the system, just execute the appropriate startup script for your platform. On Linux and OSX:
cd /path/to/archivesspace
./archivesspace.sh
and for Windows:
cd \path\to\archivesspace
archivesspace.bat
This will start ArchivesSpace running in foreground mode (so it will
shut down when you close your terminal window). Log output will be
written to the file logs/archivesspace.out (by default).
Note: If you’re running Windows and you get an error message like
unable to resolve type 'size_t' or no such file to load -- bundler,
make sure that there are no spaces in any part of the path name in which the
ArchivesSpace directory is located.
The first time it starts, the system will take a minute or so to start up. Once it is ready, confirm that ArchivesSpace is running correctly by accessing the following URLs in your browser:
To start using the Staff interface application, log in using the adminstrator account:
adminadminThen, you can create a new repository by selecting “System” -> “Manage repositories” at the top right hand side of the screen. From the “System” menu, you can perform a variety of administrative tasks, such as creating and modifying user accounts. Be sure to change the “admin” user’s password at this time.