Self-Hosting

Orchard is designed to be self-hosted on your own infrastructure. This page covers system requirements and deployment options.

System Requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	2 cores	4+ cores
RAM	4 GB	8+ GB
Disk	20 GB	50+ GB
Java	25+	25+
Docker	24.0+	24.0+

QEMU

Orchard's default VM provider uses QEMU to provision isolated VMs. Install on Ubuntu/Debian:

code

apt install qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils

KVM acceleration is enabled by default. Ensure your host supports hardware virtualization (/dev/kvm must exist).

For cloud deployments, Orchard has native AWS EC2 support — no nested virtualization required. See the AWS EC2 guide.

Supported Architectures

linux/amd64 — fully supported
linux/arm64 — fully supported
macOS/arm64 — supported via HVF acceleration (build from source required; no prebuilt binary yet)

Database

Orchard uses PostgreSQL for all persistent state. A Docker Compose file is included for running just the database:

code

docker compose up -d postgres

Back up the database regularly:

code

pg_dump -U orchard orchard > orchard-backup.sql

Running the Server

Option A: Download a release (recommended)

Download the latest server binary from the releases page:

code

# Linux amd64
curl -LO https://github.com/orchard-cde/orchard/releases/latest/download/orchard-server-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xzf orchard-server-linux-amd64.tar.gz
 
# Linux arm64
curl -LO https://github.com/orchard-cde/orchard/releases/latest/download/orchard-server-linux-arm64.tar.gz
tar xzf orchard-server-linux-arm64.tar.gz
 
./orchard-server

Option B: Build from source

code

git clone https://github.com/orchard-cde/orchard.git
cd orchard
./gradlew :trellis:bootRun

The API server starts on port 8080.

Network Requirements

Port 8080 accessible to Trowel CLI users (API)
SSH port range 49152–49999 accessible for grove SSH connections (configurable via orchard.qemu.ssh-port-range-start/end in application.yml)

Deployment Options

Docker Compose — start PostgreSQL and the server
Deployment guide — production configuration and health checks
Cloud Providers — provision grove VMs on AWS EC2 and other cloud platforms

VM Providers

Orchard supports pluggable VM providers for grove provisioning. Set the active provider in application.yml:

code

orchard:
  nursery:
    provider: aws   # aws | qemu

Provider	Status	Docs
QEMU	Available	Default for bare-metal and local deployments
AWS EC2	Available	AWS EC2
GCP Compute	Planned	—
Azure VM	Planned	—

Authentication

Cloud Providers