🌍 Open Source Geospatial Platform

Build, Deploy & Share Geospatial Infrastructure at Scale

GeoServer is the industry-standard open source server for sharing geospatial data. It implements OGC standards including WMS, WFS, WCS, WMTS, and provides a powerful REST API for programmatic management.

📦 Get Started 📖 Read the Docs 🐙 GitHub (22k ⭐)

22,400+

GitHub Stars

3,200+

Contributors

15+

Years Active

OGC

Compliant

Overview

Welcome to GeoServer. This documentation covers everything from initial installation to advanced clustering configurations.

What is GeoServer?

GeoServer is a Java-based open source server that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards.

As an OGC-compliant server, GeoServer supports:

WMS — Web Map Service for rendering map images
WFS — Web Feature Service for feature-level data access
WCS — Web Coverage Service for raw coverage data
WMTS — Web Map Tile Service for tiled map delivery
CSW — Catalog Service for the Web
REST API — Full configuration management via HTTP

ℹ️

Note GeoServer 3.2 introduces a new modular plugin architecture, improved WMTS performance, and native support for PostGIS 17+.

Architecture

GeoServer follows a layered architecture with core components interacting through well-defined interfaces.

Clients

🖥️ QGIS / ArcGIS

🌐 Leaflet / OpenLayers

📱 Mobile Apps

🔧 Custom Apps

GeoServer Core

🌐 WMS Engine

📡 WFS Engine

🖼️ WCS Engine

🗂️ REST Controller

🎨 SLD Styling

Data Stores

🗄️ PostGIS

📁 GeoPackage

🖼️ GeoTIFF

📊 Shapefile

☁️ Cloud Storage

Quick Start

Get up and running with GeoServer in four steps:

Install Java

JDK 17+ required

Download

Get the latest WAR or binary

Deploy

Run with java -jar

Publish

Configure via web UI

Installation

terminal

# 1. Install Java 17
$ sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk

# 2. Download GeoServer
$ wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/geoserver/GeoServer/3.2.0/geoserver-3.2.0-war.zip
$ unzip geoserver-3.2.0-war.zip

# 3. Start GeoServer
$ java -Djetty.port=8080 -jar geoserver.war

# Visit http://localhost:8080/geoserver
                        

terminal

# Using Homebrew
$ brew install openjdk@17

# Download and start
$ curl -L https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/geoserver/GeoServer/3.2.0/geoserver-3.2.0-war.zip \
    -o geoserver.zip
$ java -Djetty.port=8080 -jar geoserver.war
                        

Download the Windows .exe installer from the downloads page. The installer includes a bundled JRE and will set up a Windows service automatically.

Download the Windows installer (.exe) from the downloads page
Run the installer and follow the wizard
GeoServer will start automatically as a Windows service
Open http://localhost:8080/geoserver in your browser

docker

# Pull the latest image
$ docker pull geoserver/geoserver:latest

# Run with data directory persistence
$ docker run -d -p 8080:8080 \
    -v $(pwd)/gs-data-dir:/var/geoserver/data_dir \
    --name geoserver \
    geoserver/geoserver:latest

# Open http://localhost:8080/geoserver
$ open http://localhost:8080/geoserver
                        

⚠️

Default Credentials The default username is admin and password is geoserver. Change these immediately in Production deployments.

Configuration

GeoServer is configured through a combination of the web Admin Console, the REST API, and configuration files on the filesystem.

Key Configuration Paths

File / Path	Purpose	Status
`web.xml`	Jetty / Servlet container configuration	Required
`userstores.xml`	Store definitions for data sources	Required
`global.xml`	Global GeoServer settings (metadata, timeouts)	Required
`security/`	Auth, filters, and permission rules	Active
`styles/`	SLD style files (.sld, .xml)	Active
`coveragestore/`	Raster data store configurations	Active

REST API Reference

GeoServer's REST API provides full CRUD access to all configuration objects. The base URL is http://host:8080/geoserver/rest.

GET /workspaces

List all workspaces

# Response: JSON array of workspaces

  "workspaces": {
    "workspace": [
      {
        "name": "topp",
        "href": "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/topp"
      },
      {
        "name": "gisops",
        "href": "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/gisops"
      }
    ]
  }

                        

POST /workspaces

Create a workspace

curl -u admin:geoserver \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: text/xml" \
  -d "<workspace><name>myworkspace</name></workspace>" \
  http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces

# HTTP 201 Created → Workspace created
                        

GET /workspaces/{ws}/datastores

List data stores in a workspace

# List all data stores
curl -u admin:geoserver \
  http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/topp/datastores.json

# Response

  "dataStores": {
    "dataStore": [
      { "name": "ne", "href": ".../datastores/ne" },
      { "name": "tiger", "href": ".../datastores/tiger" }
    ]
  }

                        

Supported Data Formats

GeoServer supports a wide range of data sources out of the box. Below is a summary of the most commonly used stores:

Format	Type	Store Plugin	Status
PostGIS	Vector / Raster	`postgis`	Supported
GeoPackage	Vector / Raster	`gpkg`	Supported
GeoTIFF	Raster	`gtiff`	Supported
Shapefile	Vector	`shp`	Supported
PostgreSQL Raster	Raster	`postgresqlraster`	Supported
WFS (Remote)	Vector	`wfs`	Supported
Oracle Spatial	Vector / Raster	`oracle`	Beta
MongoDB	Vector	`mongodb`	Beta

✅

New in 3.2 Native support for cloud-optimized GeoTIFF (COG) and cloud-native GDAL backends for S3/GCS storage.

Publishing a Layer

Once your workspace and data store are configured, you can publish layers through the web UI or the REST API.

Navigate to Layers → Add a new layered in the Admin Console
Select the data store you configured (e.g., ne or gis_osm_roads_free_1)
Configure the layer name, title, and abstract
Set the SRS/CRS (e.g., EPSG:4326, EPSG:3857)
Click Save — GeoServer will compute bounding boxes automatically
Configure styling (default SLA or custom SLD)
Publish and test with the Layer Preview

REST API — publish a layer

# Publish layer via REST
curl -u admin:geoserver \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: text/xml" \
  -d "<layer>
      <name>gs:roads</name>
      <title>Global Roads</title>
      <nativeCRS>EPSG:4326</nativeCRS>
    </layer>" \
  http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/topp/datastores/ne/featuretypes
                

Plugins & Extensions

GeoServer's plugin architecture extends functionality beyond the core. Key plugins include:

📊

Charting

Render dynamic charts (bar, pie, line) from vector data on-the-fly with WMS GetMap requests.

View Plugin →

🔐

Security

Advanced authentication with LDAP, OAuth2, JWT, and fine-grained resource-level permissions.

View Plugin →

🖼️

Vector Tiles

Generate MBTiles and vector tile sets for high-performance client-side rendering.

View Plugin →

🔄

Publishing (WPS)

Web Processing Service for server-side geoprocessing: buffering, clipping, overlays, and more.

View Plugin →

📈

Caching

Multiple cache backends: Disk, Redis, Memcached, and cloud-native tile caching with GeoWebCache.

View Plugin →

🌐

WPS (Web Processing)

Run spatial processing workflows server-side with customizable Groovy/JS scripts.

View Plugin →

Deployment Patterns

GeoServer supports multiple deployment architectures depending on your scale and reliability requirements.

🖥️

Standalone

Run GeoServer as a standalone JVM process. Ideal for development, testing, and small deployments.

Setup Guide →

☁️

Docker / Kubernetes

Containerized deployment with horizontal scaling. Use GeoServer's clustering mode for high availability.

K8s Guide →

🔗

Clustered

Multiple GeoServer nodes sharing a centralized data store with replicated configuration. Supports load balancing.

Clustering Docs →

Getting Help

GeoServer has a vibrant open-source community. Here's how to get support:

Geoserver Users Mailing List — Primary forum for questions and discussions
Stack Overflow — Tag questions with geoserver
GitHub Issues — Report bugs and request features
Discord Community — Real-time chat with maintainers
Commercial Support — Enterprise support plans available from the core team

📌

Contribute GeoServer is open source under the GPL v2 license. Contributions welcome via GitHub Pull Requests. Check our Contributing Guide to get started.