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GridGain Quick Start Guide for C++

This chapter explains system requirements for running GridGain and how to install GridGain, start a cluster, and run a simple Hello World example in C++.

Since GridGain is built on top of Apache Ignite, GridGain reuses Ignite’s system properties, environment properties, startup scripts, etc. wherever possible.

Prerequisites

GridGain C++ was officially tested on:

This section describes the platform requirements for machines running GridGain. GridGain system requirements scale depending on the size of the cluster.

JDK

Oracle JDK 8, 11, 17 (in GridGain 8.8.23 and later) or 21 (in GridGain 8.9.10 and later)

Starting with GridGain 8.9.17, some features require JDK 11 or later. Currently, the following features are not supported when running GridGain on Java 8:

  • Full text search

  • Vector search

OS

Linux (any flavor), Windows (10 and up). For Docker environment, we provide Linux docker containers.

ISA

x86-64, SPARC, PowerPC

Network

No restrictions (10G recommended)

and:

Visual Studio

2010 and above

(Optional) Open Ports

Depending on your environment and what your plan is, you may want to open additional ports. GridGain uses the following ports:

  • 47100-47200 — ports used by GridGain nodes to communicate. Specific ports used depend on node configuration.

  • 47500-47600 — ports used by GridGain nodes to discover other nodes in the network. Specific ports used depend on node configuration.

  • 10800 — the port used for thin clients, JDBC and ODBC connections.

  • 8080 — the port used for REST API.

  • 11211 — the port used by control script calls. This port should only be opened on nodes that need to send control script messages to other nodes.

Installing GridGain

GridGain is available in three editions: Community Edition (CE), Enterprise Edition (EE) and Ultimate Edition (UE). For this example, we’ll use the GridGain CE, which is distributed as binary, docker, and cloud images, and via RPM/DEB. This chapter explains how to install the GridGain CE binary distribution.

To get started with the GridGain CE binary distribution:

  1. Download the GridGain binary as a zip archive.

  2. Unzip the zip archive into the installation folder in your system.

  3. Move the ignite-rest-http folder from {gridgain}/libs/optional to {gridgain}/libs to enable the Ignite REST library for the cluster. The library is used by GridGain Nebula for cluster management and monitoring needs.

  4. (Optional) Enable required modules.

  5. (Optional) Set the IGNITE_HOME environment variable or Windows PATH to point to the installation folder and make sure there is no trailing / (or \ for Windows) in the path.

Starting a GridGain Node

You can start a GridGain node from the command line using the default configuration or by passing a custom configuration file. You can start as many nodes as you like and they will all automatically discover each other.

Navigate into the bin folder of GridGain installation directory from the command shell. Your command might look like this:

cd {gridgain}/bin/
cd {gridgain}\bin\

Start a node with a custom configuration file that is passed as a parameter to ignite.sh|bat like this:

./ignite.sh ../examples/config/example-ignite.xml
ignite.bat ..\examples\config\example-ignite.xml

You will see output similar to this:

[08:53:45] Ignite node started OK (id=7b30bc8e)
[08:53:45] Topology snapshot [ver=1, locNode=7b30bc8e, servers=1, clients=0, state=ACTIVE, CPUs=4, offheap=1.6GB, heap=2.0GB]

Open another tab from your command shell and run the same command again:

./ignite.sh ../examples/config/example-ignite.xml
ignite.bat ..\examples\config\example-ignite.xml

Check the Topology snapshot line in the output. Now you have a cluster of two server nodes with more CPUs and RAM available cluster-wide:

[08:54:34] Ignite node started OK (id=3a30b7a4)
[08:54:34] Topology snapshot [ver=2, locNode=3a30b7a4, servers=2, clients=0, state=ACTIVE, CPUs=4, offheap=3.2GB, heap=4.0GB]

Once the cluster is started, you can use the GridGain C++ thin client to perform cache operations (things like getting or putting data, or using SQL).

Building GridGain C++

GridGain ships with a robust C++ client. To get started with GridGain C++, you will need to be familiar with building C++ applications so that you can build GGCE for C++ from the source files.

We suggest CMake for the GridGain C++ build.

Requirements

Common requirements:

  • CMake 3.6 or later

  • For Linux and macOS X, one of the following:

    • Clang 3.9 or later

    • GCC 3.6 or later

  • For Windows:

    • Visual Studio 2010 or later

    • Windows SDK 7.1 or later

Core module requirements: JDK

Thin client module requirements: OpenSSL 1.0 or later

Building

Proceed as follows:

  1. cd $IGNITE_HOME/platforms/cpp

  2. mkdir cmake-build-[release|debug]

  3. cd ./cmake-build-[release|debug]

  4. Run the CMake configuration:

    cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=[Release|Debug] [-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<install_dir>] [-DWITH_THIN_CLIENT=ON] [-DWITH_ODBC=ON] [-DWITH_TESTS=ON]
    cmake .. -DCMAKE_GENERATOR_PLATFORM=[Win32|x64] -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=[Release|Debug] [-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<install_dir>] [-DWITH_THIN_CLIENT=ON] [-DWITH_ODBC=ON] [-DWITH_TESTS=ON]

  5. Build GridGain C++:

    cmake --build . --config [Release|Debug]

  6. Install GridGain C++:

    cmake --build . --target install --config [Release|Debug]

Running the Thick Client Example

Proceed as follows:

  1. cd {gridgain_dir}/platforms/cpp/examples

  2. libtoolize && aclocal && autoheader && automake --add-missing && autoreconf

  3. ./configure

  4. cd put-get-example

  5. make

  6. ./ignite-put-get-example

Next Steps

From here, you may want to:

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Last updated on Jul 16, 2025