Install CockroachDB on Windows

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Warning:
GA releases for CockroachDB v23.1 are no longer supported. Cockroach Labs will stop providing LTS Assistance Support for v23.1 LTS releases on November 13, 2025. Prior to that date, upgrade to a more recent version to continue receiving support. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

See Release Notes for what's new in the latest release, v23.1.23. To upgrade to this release from an older version, see Cluster Upgrade.

Tip:

To deploy a free CockroachDB Cloud cluster instead of running CockroachDB yourself, see the Quickstart.

Use one of the options below to install CockroachDB.

Download the executable

Warning:
The CockroachDB executable for Windows is experimental and not suitable for production deployments. Windows 8 or higher is required.

  1. Using PowerShell, run the following script to download the CockroachDB v23.1.23 archive for Windows and copy the binary into your PATH:

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    $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"; [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12;$ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'; $null = New-Item -Type Directory -Force $env:appdata/cockroach; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/cockroach-v23.1.23.windows-6.2-amd64.zip -OutFile cockroach.zip; Expand-Archive -Force -Path cockroach.zip; Copy-Item -Force "cockroach/cockroach-v23.1.23.windows-6.2-amd64/cockroach.exe" -Destination $env:appdata/cockroach; $Env:PATH += ";$env:appdata/cockroach"
    
    Tip:

    To run a PowerShell script from a file, use syntax like powershell.exe -Command "{path_to_script}".

    We recommend adding ;$env:appdata/cockroach to the PATH variable for your system environment so you can execute cockroach commands from any shell. See Microsoft's environment variable documentation for more information.

  2. In PowerShell or the Windows terminal, check that the installation succeeded:

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    cockroach version
    
  3. Keep up-to-date with CockroachDB releases and best practices:

Use Kubernetes

To orchestrate CockroachDB locally using Kubernetes, either with configuration files or the Helm package manager, see Orchestrate CockroachDB Locally with Minikube.

Use Docker

Warning:
Running a stateful application like CockroachDB in Docker is more complex and error-prone than most uses of Docker. Unless you are very experienced with Docker, we recommend starting with a different installation and deployment method.

For CockroachDB v22.2.beta-5 and above, Docker images are multi-platform images that contains binaries for both Intel and ARM. CockroachDB on ARM systems is experimental and is not yet qualified for production use and not eligible for support or uptime SLA commitments. Multi-platform images do not take up additional space on your Docker host.

Docker images for previous releases contain Intel binaries only. Intel binaries can run on ARM systems, but with a significant reduction in performance.

  1. Install Docker for Windows.

    Tip:

    Docker for Windows requires 64bit Windows 10 Pro and Microsoft Hyper-V. Please see the official documentation for more details. Note that if your system does not satisfy the stated requirements, you can try using Docker Toolbox.

  2. In PowerShell, confirm that the Docker daemon is running in the background:

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    docker version
    

    If you see an error, start Docker for Windows.

  3. Share your local drives. This makes it possible to mount local directories as data volumes to persist node data after containers are stopped or deleted.

  4. In PowerShell, pull the image for the v23.1.23 release of CockroachDB from Docker Hub:

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    docker pull cockroachdb/cockroach:v23.1.23
    
  5. Keep up-to-date with CockroachDB releases and best practices:

What's next?

Note:
By default, each node of a CockroachDB cluster periodically shares anonymous usage details with Cockroach Labs. For an explanation of the details that get shared and how to opt-out of reporting, see Diagnostics Reporting.

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