Introduction

Docker can be downloaded for MacOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems from https://www.docker.com/get-started. There is an official Neo4j image on DockerHub that provides a standard, ready-to-run package of Neo4j. From the DockerHub repo, it is possible to run Community Edition or Enterprise Edition with a variety of Neo4j versions.

Neo4j editions

Tags are available for both Community Edition and Enterprise Edition. Version-specific Enterprise Edition tags have an -enterprise suffix, for example: neo4j:4.0.12-enterprise. Community Edition tags have no suffix, for example neo4j:4.0.12. The latest Neo4j Enterprise Edition release is available as neo4j:enterprise.

All supported tags can be found at https://hub.docker.com/_/neo4j/?tab=tags.

Neo4j Enterprise Edition license

In order to use Neo4j Enterprise Edition, you must accept the license agreement.

© Network Engine for Objects in Lund AB. 2021. All Rights Reserved. Use of this Software without a proper commercial license with Neo4j, Inc. or its affiliates is prohibited.

Email inquiries can be directed to: [email protected]

More information is also available at: https://neo4j.com/licensing/

To accept the license agreement, set the environment variable NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=yes:

--env NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=yes

Using the Neo4j Docker image

A Neo4j container can be started using the following command:

docker run \
    --restart always \
    --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
    --volume=$HOME/neo4j/data:/data \
    neo4j:4.0

However, there are several options with the docker run command. This table lists some of the options available:

Table 1. Options for docker run
Option Description Example

--name

Name your container to avoid generic ID

docker run --name myneo4j neo4j

-p

Specify which container port to expose

docker run -p7687:7687 neo4j

-d

Detach container to run in background

docker run -d neo4j

-v

Bind mount a volume

docker run -v $HOME/neo4j/data:/data neo4j

--env

Set config as environment variables for Neo4j database

docker run --env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/test

--restart

Control whether Neo4j containers start automatically when they exit, or when Docker restarts.

docker run --restart always

--help

Output full list of docker run options

docker run --help

The --restart always option sets the Neo4j container (and Neo4j) to restart automatically whenever the Docker daemon is restarted.

If you no longer want to have the container auto-start on machine boot, you can disable this setting using the flag no:

docker update --restart=no <containerID>

For more information on Docker restart policies, see The official Docker documentation.

Offline installation of Neo4j Docker image

Docker provides the docker save command for downloading an image into a .tar package so that it can be used offline, or transferred to a machine without internet access.

This is an example command to save the neo4j:4.0 image to a .tar file:

docker save -o neo4j-4.0.tar neo4j:4.0

To load a docker image from a .tar file created by docker save, use the docker load command. For example:

docker load --input neo4j-4.0.tar

For complete instructions on using the docker save and docker load commands, refer to:

Using NEO4J_AUTH to set an initial password

By default, Neo4j requires authentication and prompts you to login with a username/password of neo4j/neo4j at the first connection. You are then prompted to set a new password. For more information about setting the initial password for Neo4j, see Set an initial password.

When using Neo4j in a Docker container, you can set the initial password for the container directly by specifying the NEO4J_AUTH in your run directive:

--env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/your_password

Alternatively, you can disable authentication by specifying NEO4J_AUTH to none:

--env NEO4J_AUTH=none

There is currently no way to change the initial username neo4j.

If you have mounted a /data volume containing an existing database, setting NEO4J_AUTH will have no effect. The Neo4j Docker service will start, but to log in you will need a username and password already associated with the database.

Running Neo4j as a non-root user

For security reasons, Neo4j runs as the neo4j user inside the container. You can specify which user to run as by invoking docker with the --user argument. For example, the following runs Neo4j as your current user:

docker run \
    --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
    --volume=$HOME/neo4j/data:/data \
    --volume=$HOME/neo4j/logs:/logs \
    --user="$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
    neo4j:4.0
The folders that you want to mount must exist before starting Docker, otherwise Neo4j will fail to start due to permissions errors.