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Quick Start Guide

📅 Last updated: Oct 24, 2025 👤 GeoServer Team ⏱️ 8 min read

Welcome to the GeoServer Quick Start guide. This tutorial walks you through downloading, installing, and running your first geospatial service in under 10 minutes. By the end, you'll have a fully functional GeoServer instance publishing map and feature data.

💡 Prerequisites

GeoServer requires Java 11+ (JDK or JRE). We recommend using the official OpenJDK or Eclipse Temurin distributions. Ensure java -version returns a compatible version before proceeding.

1. Installation

GeoServer is distributed as a self-contained binary bundle. Choose your preferred method:

Terminal / Bash 
# Download the latest stable release
wget https://downloads.osgeo.org/live/geoserver-stable-bin.zip

# Extract the archive
unzip geoserver-stable-bin.zip

# Navigate to the installation directory
cd geoserver-3.0.2

On Windows, use tar -xf or a compatible archive tool. The extracted directory contains the bin/, lib/, and webapps/ folders required to run the server.

2. Starting GeoServer

GeoServer includes a lightweight embedded Jetty server for development and testing. To launch it:

Linux / macOS 
./bin/startup.sh
Windows 
bin\startup.bat

Once started, GeoServer will listen on http://localhost:8080/geoserver by default. You'll see console output indicating successful initialization. Open your browser to access the web admin interface.

⚠️ Default Credentials

The default admin account uses admin / geoserver. Change these immediately before exposing the server to any network other than localhost. See Security Configuration for details.

3. Verifying Your First Request

Test your installation by querying the OGC capabilities endpoint. This returns an XML document describing available services:

curl 
curl "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/ows"

# Expected: XML response starting with <Capabilities version=\"1.3.0\">

If you see a well-formed XML document listing WMS, WFS, WCS, and WPS capabilities, your installation is successful.

4. Publishing Your First Layer

To visualize spatial data, you need a Workspace, a Data Store, and a Layer:

  1. Create a Workspace: Navigate to Layer → Workspaces and create demo.
  2. Add a Data Store: Go to Data → Stores, choose PostGIS or GeoPackage, and configure your connection.
  3. Publish Layer: Select your store, choose a dataset (e.g., global_admin_boundaries), and click Publish.
  4. Style: Assign a default SLD or use the built-in line style for quick visualization.
Step Configuration Notes
Workspace demo Logical container for resources
Data Store geo_data.gpkg Lightweight, no external DB required
Layer countries_polygons CRS: EPSG:4326 recommended

5. Making a WMS Request

Once published, generate a map image using a standard WMS GetMap request. You can test this directly in the browser or via curl:

Example WMS Request 
http://localhost:8080/geoserver/demo/wms?
  service=WMS&
  version=1.1.1&
  request=GetMap&
  layers=demo:countries_polygons&
  styles=&
  srs=EPSG:4326&
  bbox=-180,-90,180,90&
  width=800&
  height=400&
  format=image/png
✅ Next Steps

Congratulations! Your GeoServer is running and serving spatial data. Explore the WFS Service documentation to fetch raw features, or dive into SLD Styling to customize map appearances.