RethinkDB: Getting started

Learn how to set up and secure your RethinkDB instance on Stackhero

Welcome to the Stackhero documentation

Stackhero provides a ready-to-use RethinkDB cloud service designed for reliability and ease of use. You get:

• Seamless updates with a single click
• High performance and strong security on your own private, dedicated infrastructure

Get up and running fast: you can try Stackhero's RethinkDB cloud hosting in just a few minutes. Stackhero handles the setup and management, so you can focus on building your application.

Define your admin password

Securing your RethinkDB instance on Stackhero starts with setting up a strong admin password. To do this, you can connect to the RethinkDB web UI, navigate to the Data Explorer tab, and run the following query:

r.db('rethinkdb').table('users').get('admin').update({ password: '<PASSWORD>' })

Replace <PASSWORD> with your desired secure password.

Connecting to the RethinkDB server with the CLI

If you need to perform dump and restore operations on your RethinkDB instance, you can use the RethinkDB CLI from your local machine or any other server. All Stackhero services use encrypted connections (TLS) by default, so you need to provide the --tls-cert parameter to specify the location of your local CA certificates.

For example, here is how you might back up your RethinkDB database:

rethinkdb dump \
  --tls-cert /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt \
  -c <XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com:29015 \
  -p

Be sure to replace <XXXXXX> with your actual Stackhero instance name.

Connecting Node.js to RethinkDB

Because connections to RethinkDB are secured with TLS, and the official RethinkDB client library does not support TLS, it is a good idea to use the rethinkdbdash library instead.

You can install rethinkdbdash with npm:

npm install rethinkdbdash

Here is a straightforward example showing how you can connect your Node.js application to your RethinkDB database. This setup includes server details like host and port, connection limits, and SSL settings.

const rethinkdbdash = require('rethinkdbdash');

const r = rethinkdbdash({
  servers: [
    {
      host: '<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com',
      port: 28015
    }
  ],
  ssl: true,
  buffer: 20, // Minimum number of connections to keep open
  max: 100,   // Maximum number of connections
  timeoutGb: 30 * 1000, // Time (ms) to keep unused connections
  db: '<DATABASE>',
  authKey: '<PASSWORD>',
  // silent: true, // You can uncomment this line to suppress logging on stderr
});

Replace <XXXXXX>, <DATABASE>, and <PASSWORD> with your own values.

By following these steps, you will have your RethinkDB instance secured and ready to use on Stackhero. If you have any questions or need further guidance, you are welcome to reach out to our support team.