Getting started

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Notary on a Linux machine and access the Notary UI.

Prerequisites:

  • A Linux machine that supports snaps

1. Install Notary

Install the snap:

sudo snap install notary --channel=1/stable

The stable channel must be published before installing it. For release testing, use 1/candidate only after a candidate has been published.

Keep the HTTPS port restricted to the operator until initialization is complete: the first account is created without authentication and becomes administrator.

For a local tutorial, generate a certificate and private key:

sudo openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout /var/snap/notary/common/key.pem -x509 -days 1 -out /var/snap/notary/common/cert.pem -subj "/CN=localhost" -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:localhost,IP:127.0.0.1"
sudo chmod 600 /var/snap/notary/common/key.pem

For production, provision a CA-signed certificate covering the service hostname at those paths and arrange renewal. Restart Notary after replacing the files. Choose the encryption backend before first start; the default none leaves the data-encryption key unwrapped in the database. See Vault and HSM limitations.

Start the service and enable it on subsequent boots:

sudo snap start --enable notary.notaryd

Navigate to https://localhost:3000 to access the Notary UI.

Note

For this local tutorial, a browser warning is expected because the certificate is self-signed. Verify that it is the certificate you generated. Do not bypass certificate warnings for a production deployment.

You should be prompted to initialize Notary.

Initialize Notary

2. Initialize Notary

Create the initial user:

  • Email: your administrator email address

  • Password: a unique password stored in your password manager

Click on “Submit”.

You should now be redirected to Notary’s Certificate Request page.

Certificate Request

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Notary and created the initial user. You can now start managing certificates with Notary.

3. Remove Notary (optional)

To remove Notary from your machine, run:

sudo snap remove notary