How to install Apache Airflow on a Cloud VPS

Apache Airflow is the industry-standard platform for programmatically authoring, scheduling and monitoring data pipelines and workflows.

Self-hosted analytics means you own the data, GDPR compliance is straightforward and there are no event or visitor caps.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: Apache Airflow installs automatically at the first boot of a new server.

1. Create a Cloud VPS from the control panel.
2. In the configuration step, pick Apache Airflow from the app catalog.
3. Start the server. The install runs in the background for a few minutes and its status shows on the server page.
4. Access details and generated passwords are saved on the server in /root/app-credentials.txt. The app will be available on port 8080.

Manual install on any Ubuntu server

If you prefer doing it yourself, below is the exact script our automatic install runs. Execute it as root on a fresh Ubuntu server (24.04 recommended). It stops at the first error, and when it finishes you will find the access details in /root/app-credentials.txt.

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
ADMIN_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-16)
mkdir -p /opt/airflow/dags /opt/airflow/logs /opt/airflow/plugins /opt/airflow/config
cd /opt/airflow
curl -LfO https://airflow.apache.org/docker-compose.yaml
printf 'AIRFLOW_UID=50000\n_AIRFLOW_WWW_USER_USERNAME=admin\n_AIRFLOW_WWW_USER_PASSWORD=%s\n' "$ADMIN_PASS" > .env
docker compose up airflow-init
docker compose up -d
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
printf 'Apache Airflow: http://%s:8080\nUtilizator: admin\nParola: %s\nDAG-urile se pun in /opt/airflow/dags\n' "$IP" "$ADMIN_PASS" > /root/app-credentials.txt

You can also save this script as a recipe in your account and reuse it on any new server.