Base
Hardened build
minimal ports, security patches applied at build time
eXist-db 6.4 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Azure
Databases
eXist-db, a native XML database that stores documents as they are and queries them with XQuery, so structured content is searchable without flattening it into tables.
Overview
eXist-db is an open source native XML database and application platform. Rather than mapping documents onto rows and columns, it stores XML, JSON and binary resources in hierarchical collections and keeps their structure intact, so an XPath or XQuery 3.1 expression can reach any element or attribute directly and range, full text and n gram indexes make those lookups fast over large corpora. That makes it a natural fit for content that is genuinely document shaped: standards and legislation, dictionaries and lexicons, scholarly editions, catalogues, technical documentation and message archives.
It is also a place to build, not only to store. XQuery, XSLT and XForms run inside the database, RESTXQ turns annotated XQuery functions into a REST API, and a plain REST interface handles document storage and retrieval over HTTP, so an application can live next to its data instead of shuttling it across a network. A browser Dashboard manages collections, users and packages, the eXide editor writes and runs queries in place, and the package manager installs applications and libraries into the running instance.
Why the cloudimg image
A stock eXist-db install creates its administrator account with an empty password and a guest account with the password guest, and the vendor installer only closes that gap by prompting a human. cloudimg removes the window entirely: the image ships with no database at all, so there is no default credential to find in any state. On first boot each instance builds its own database from the bundled application catalogue with no network access, rotates the guest account, generates a random administrator password written to a root only file, and then proves that the empty administrator password, guest, SYSTEM and nobody are all rejected before anything is reachable. The public listener is held shut by a marker that first boot writes only after those checks pass, so port 80 is closed for the whole bootstrap and stays closed if it fails. The database engine itself listens only on loopback, the shipped TLS keystore and its publicly known private key are deleted, and a single hardened reverse proxy is the only public listener. The Java heap and the database caches are sized deliberately so the image runs with no swap, and every release is paired with a deployment guide whose commands were executed against the image before it was captured, backed by 24/7 support.
Common uses
- Store and query document shaped content such as legislation, dictionaries or scholarly editions
- Build XQuery and RESTXQ APIs that run inside the database, next to the data
- Search large XML corpora with XPath, full text and n gram indexes
See it running
Real screenshots taken while testing this image against its deployment guide.
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