Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, and Amazon Linux (.rpm)
You can deploy Neo4j on Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, or Amazon Linux distributions using the Neo4j RPM package.
Java prerequisites
Neo4j 2025.x requires the Java 21 runtime (default). Starting with Neo4j 2025.10, Java 25 is also supported.
OpenJDK Java 21
Most of the supported Linux distributions have OpenJDK Java 21 available by default. Consequently, no extra setup is required if you are using OpenJDK Java, the correct Java dependency will be installed by the package manager when installing Neo4j.
Zulu JDK 21 or Corretto 21
If you want to use a non-default JDK, it must be installed before starting the Neo4j installation. Otherwise, your package manager installs the default Java distribution for your operating system, usually OpenJDK.
Installation instructions can be found on the manufacturer’s website:
Install on Red Hat, CentOS or Amazon Linux
Set up the repository
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Import the Neo4j GPG public key into the system’s RPM keyring. The key is required to verify the authenticity of the Neo4j packages you will install.
rpm --import https://debian.neo4j.com/neotechnology.gpg.key -
Create a
neo4j.repofile in the/etc/yum.repos.d/directory. This file contains the repository configuration for Neo4j.cat <<EOF > /etc/yum.repos.d/neo4j.repo [neo4j] name=Neo4j RPM Repository baseurl=https://yum.neo4j.com/stable/latest enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 EOFIf you are upgrading from Neo4j 5.x or earlier, you may need to clear the package manager cache before Neo4j packages become available:
yum clean dbcache -
Verify that the Neo4j repository is set up correctly by listing the available Neo4j packages versions:
yum list neo4j --showduplicates
Install Neo4j
Install Neo4j as root using the following commands depending on which edition you are using:
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Neo4j Community Edition
yum install neo4j-2026.08.1 -
Neo4j Enterprise Edition
Accept either the commercial or the evaluation license agreement before running the Neo4j Enterprise Edition. The following are examples of using an interactive prompt and a non-interactive installation:
Interactive installation of Enterprise Edition under the commercial licenseyum install neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1You have to choose either a commercial license or an evaluation license before the interactive installation is allowed to complete.
For a non-interactive installation, you can set the environment variable
NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENTtoyes(for the commercial license) oreval(for the evaluation license). This should be done in the same line as the package is installed, to ensure bash correctly passes the environment variable to the installer process. As in the following example:Non-interactive installation of Enterprise Edition under the commercial licenseNEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=yes yum install neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1
Install on SUSE
For SUSE-based distributions, the steps are as follows:
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Use the following as
rootto add the repository:zypper addrepo --refresh https://yum.neo4j.com/stable/latest neo4j-repository -
Install Neo4j as
rootusing the following commands depending on which edition you are using:-
Community Edition
zypper install neo4j-2026.08.1 -
Enterprise Edition
Accept either the commercial or the evaluation license agreement before running the Neo4j Enterprise Edition. The following are examples of using an interactive prompt and a non-interactive installation:
Interactive installation of Enterprise Edition under the commercial licensezypper install neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1You have to choose either a commercial license or an evaluation license before the interactive installation is allowed to complete.
For a non-interactive installation, you can set the
NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENTtoyes(for the commercial license) oreval(for the evaluation license) as in the following example:Non-interactive installation of Enterprise Edition under the commercial licenseNEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=yes zypper install neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1
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Offline installation
If you cannot reach https://yum.neo4j.com/stable/2026.08 to install Neo4j using RPM, perhaps due to a firewall, you need to obtain Neo4j via an alternative machine that has the relevant access, and then move the RPM package manually.
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It is important to note that using this method means that the offline machine cannot receive the dependencies that are normally downloaded and installed automatically when using |
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Download the Neo4j and Cypher Shell RPM installers from Deployment Center or run the following to obtain the required packages:
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Cypher Shell:
curl -O https://dist.neo4j.org/cypher-shell/cypher-shell-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm -
Neo4j Community Edition:
curl -O https://dist.neo4j.org/rpm/neo4j-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm -
Neo4j Enterprise Edition:
curl -O https://dist.neo4j.org/rpm/neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm
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Manually move the downloaded RPM packages to the offline machine. Before installing Neo4j, you must manually install the required Java 21 packages.
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Install Neo4j and Cypher Shell as
rootusing the following command depending on which edition you are using:If you are upgrading from Neo4j 5.x or earlier, due to strict dependencies between Neo4j and Cypher Shell both packages must be upgraded simultaneously. This must be one single command, and Neo4j Cypher Shell must be the first package in the command.
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Neo4j Community Edition
rpm --install cypher-shell-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm neo4j-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm -
Neo4j Enterprise Edition
Accept either the commercial or the evaluation license agreement before running the Neo4j Enterprise Edition. The following example uses an interactive prompt:
rpm --install cypher-shell-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpmYou have to choose either a commercial license or an evaluation license before the interactive installation is allowed to complete. For a non-interactive installation, you can set the
NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENTtoyes(for the commercial license) oreval(for the evaluation license) as in the following example:NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=yes rpm --install cypher-shell-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm neo4j-enterprise-2026.08.1-1.noarch.rpm
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Start the Neo4j service automatically on system start
To enable Neo4j to start automatically on system boot, run the following command:
systemctl enable neo4j
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Before starting up the database for the first time, it is recommended to use the If the password is not set explicitly using this method, it will be set to the default password For more information, see Set an initial password. |
For more information on operating the Neo4j system service, see Neo4j system service.
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System V (SysV) init scripts, located in /etc/rc.d/init.d/ or /etc/init.d, are included with the Neo4j package installation. However, starting with Neo4j 2026.01, they are considered deprecated and will be removed in a future release. |
Access Neo4j
By default, Neo4j Community Edition does not include graph tools such as visualization, data exploration, and monitoring. However, you can use the Neo4j Aura console to access these features for free. No subscription is required.
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Sign up or log in to the Aura Console.
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On the Instances page, click the Self-managed tab and then + Add deployment button.
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Select URL Connection.
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Provide a Name and Connection URL. If you have installed Neo4j locally on your system, you can connect either via bolt://localhost:7687, neo4j://localhost:7687, or using the secure https://localhost:7473.
For more information about the Neo4j ports, see Ports.
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Click the Connect dropdown to launch various graph tools such as Query, Explore, and Dashboards.
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Type the username
neo4jand your password or the default passwordneo4j. You will be prompted to change the latter upon first login.
You are now connected and can use the Aura Console to run Cypher queries, visualize graphs, and optionally monitor your local Neo4j database in Neo4j Aura. For details, see Get started with Neo4j.
Alternatively, you can use the Neo4j Browser, a web-based user interface for interacting with Neo4j that is included with the Neo4j installation.
To access the Neo4j Browser, open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:7474.
Connect using the username neo4j with your password or the default password neo4j.
If the default password is used, you will be prompted to change it upon first login.
Uninstall Neo4j
Follow these steps to uninstall Neo4j:
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(Optional) Create a backup to avoid losing your data.
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Uninstall Neo4j:
sudo yum remove neo4j
Glossary
- allocator
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A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.
- asynchronous replication
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Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.
- Aura instance
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A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.
- auto-commit transaction
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An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.
- Bolt protocol
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Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.
- bookmark
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A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.
- category (Bloom)
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A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).
- causal consistency
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All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.
- cluster
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A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.
- client application
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Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.
- commit
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A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.
- composite database
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Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.
- constraint
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Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.
- Cypher®
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Neo4j’s graph query language.
- data model
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A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.
- database
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A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.
- database vs graph
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Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.
- Database Management System
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Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.
- database schema
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The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.
- deallocate
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An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.
- degree (of a node)
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The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.
- disaster recovery
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A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.
- driver
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A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.
- election
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In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.
- entity
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A node or a relationship.
- expression (Cypher)
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A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.
- fabric
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Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.
- fault tolerance
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A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.
- follower
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A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.
- Generative AI (GenAI)
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A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.
- graph
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A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.
- index
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Data structure that improves read performance of a database.
- knowledge graph
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A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.
- label
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Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.
- leader
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A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.
- main database
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In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.
- motif
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A description of a specific pattern within a graph.
- node
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A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.
- operator
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A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.
- parameter
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Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.
- path
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A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.
- pattern
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A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.
- perspective (Bloom)
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A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.
- primary
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A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.
- primary vs secondary
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In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.
- project (Aura)
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An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.
- property
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Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.
- query (Cypher)
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A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.
- Raft group
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A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.
- Raft group member
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A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.
- Raft log
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A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.
- Raft protocol
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The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.
- read scaling
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Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).
- relationship
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A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.
- secondary
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An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.
- seed
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A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.
- server
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A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.
- session
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A causally linked sequence of transactions.
- session consistency
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An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.
- standalone
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A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.
- synchronous replication
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Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.
- system database
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A database used by Neo4j to store system information.
- tenant (Aura)
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An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.
- tool asset database
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In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.
- topology
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A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.
- transaction
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A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).