Run Apache Superset Locally in 10 Minutes

Apache Superset logo, https://superset.apache.org

Apache Superset is a modern data exploration and visualization platform that is supported and maintained by the open-source community. I can honestly say that this is a must-have service for all companies and I’m sure it’ll be helpful in data exploration and visualization with almost no cost.

Since Superset is free-to-use open-source software, we will start exploring its functionality with you right now.

The first step is to have Docker installed in your system. There are versions of Docker for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Unfortunately, Superset is not currently officially supported on the Windows platform, but you could use it with Docker installed in a virtual machine (e.g., on Ubuntu Linux via VirtualBox). Further instructions located here: https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/. Once you get it installed, check the installation by using this command in the terminal:

$ docker version --format 'Server: {{.Server.Version}}, Client: {{.Client.Version}}'

If you see something like this, you have successfully installed Docker software on your computer:

Server: 20.10.5, Client: 20.10.5

Secondly, we need to pull the Apache Superset image and run it with this command:

$ docker run -d -p 8080:8088 --name data_diving apache/superset

Please notice that if you are on Mac platform, you need to tune Docker Desktop memory settings to 8GB minimum before as indicated here.

It’s time to initialize the local Superset container. The third step is creating of administrative account for your Superset installation:

$ docker exec -it data_diving superset fab create-admin \
               --username admin \
               --firstname Admin \
               --lastname Admin \
               --email admin@superset.com \
               --password admin

Then we have to upgrade the local database to the current version:

$ docker exec -it data_diving superset db upgrade

You may skip the next step. But I really recommend executing this command since it loads example datasets, charts, and dashboards to our installation:

$ docker exec -it data_diving superset load_examples

The last step is initializing of roles in the database:

$ docker exec -it data_diving superset init

That’s it. You may now have an access to your local Apache Superset installation and login via credentials used on step 1 (user: data_diving, password:data_diving). Try to follow the link http://localhost:8080/login/:

Play with provided examples on your own or join me in the next article where I will describe features of Superset and show its power in BI.

I hope, you have enjoyed the article and this piece of information will help you to build useful visualizations. If so, please, follow me on Medium, GitHub, Twitter, and LinkedIn.