How to Install ClickHouse on Centos

ClickHouse is a high-performance, column-oriented database designed for analytics, logs, metrics, and large-scale read-heavy workloads. CentOS Stream 9 is a solid base for running ClickHouse in production due to its stability and modern kernel.

Step 1: Update System Packages

Start by updating the system to avoid dependency conflicts.

sudo dnf update -y

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

ClickHouse repositories require HTTPS and GPG support.

sudo dnf install -y curl ca-certificates gnupg2

Step 3: Add the ClickHouse Repository

Create the official ClickHouse repository file:

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/clickhouse.repo <<EOF
[clickhouse]
name=ClickHouse
baseurl=https://packages.clickhouse.com/rpm/stable/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.clickhouse.com/rpm/stable/repodata/repomd.xml.key
EOF

Refresh the package cache:

sudo dnf makecache

Step 4: Install ClickHouse Server and Client

Install the server and command-line client:

sudo dnf install -y clickhouse-server clickhouse-client

Step 5: Start and Enable ClickHouse Service

Enable ClickHouse to start on boot and launch it now:

sudo systemctl enable --now clickhouse-server

Verify the service status:

systemctl status clickhouse-server

You should see active (running).

Step 6: Connect to ClickHouse

Access the ClickHouse interactive shell:

clickhouse-client

Run a test query:

SELECT version();

If a version is returned, the installation is successful. ClickHouse is not a general-purpose database. If your workload is transactional, stop here and use PostgreSQL or MySQL. ClickHouse excels at analytics, aggregation, and massive read-heavy datasets — that’s where it belongs.