02-embedded-external-server.md

Lab 02: External self-contained server (no system .NET)

For: machines or CI that do not have .NET installed. You bring a self-contained RavenDB server (it bundles the .NET runtime); the driver runs its native apphost directly and never calls dotnet.

Get a self-contained server

Download the Server package for your platform from the RavenDB downloads page: https://ravendb.net/downloads. You get an archive; extract it, and the server files are in its Server/ subfolder.

Run it

pip install ravendb-embedded
RAVENDB_SELF_CONTAINED_SERVER=/path/to/extracted/Server python labs/02_embedded_external_server.py

The complete example is 02_embedded_external_server.py. The core is:

from ravendb_embedded import EmbeddedServer, ServerOptions

options = ServerOptions()
options.with_external_server("/path/to/extracted/Server")  # a self-contained build
with EmbeddedServer() as server:
    server.start_server(options)
    with server.get_document_store("Lab") as store:
        ...  # ordinary RavenDB client code, with no .NET on the machine

How it decides not to use dotnet

ExternalServerProvider reads Raven.Server.runtimeconfig.json. A self-contained build lists includedFrameworks (its bundled runtime), so the driver marks it "run the native apphost" and launches Raven.Server (or Raven.Server.exe on Windows) directly, with no dotnet. A framework-dependent build (only a framework reference, no bundled runtime) still runs via dotnet Raven.Server.dll and needs a system .NET, which is Lab 01.

Takeaway

No .NET on the box, at the cost of providing and managing the server directory yourself. If you want the package to download and cache the self-contained server, use Lab 03. To run RavenDB in a container and attach test databases to it, use the testdriver's attach lab.