Using gdotv on Azure Marketplace (Virtual Machine)

Looking for the Kubernetes version?

This page describes the virtual machine deployment of gdotv Team Edition — a single VM running the full application stack, deployed in a few clicks. If you'd rather run gdotv on your own AKS cluster, see gdotv on Azure Marketplace (Kubernetes).

gdotv Team Edition is available as a virtual machine product on the Azure Marketplace.

It's a graph database client for teams, perfect for developers looking to start on a graph project or support an existing one. It is compatible with Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Gremlin, Amazon Neptune, Neo4j, Memgraph, FalkorDB, JanusGraph, Gremlin Server, Dgraph and many more graph databases.

We provide state of the art development tools with advanced autocomplete, syntax checking and graph visualization.

With gdotv you can:

• View your graph database's schema in 1 click
• Write and run Gremlin, Cypher, SPARQL, GQL and DQL queries against your database
• Visualize query results across a variety of formats such as graph visualization, JSON and tables
• Explore your data interactively with our no-code graph database browser
• Debug Gremlin queries step by step, and access profiling tools for Gremlin and Cypher

It is deployed as a single Azure virtual machine exposing the gdotv web interface over HTTPS (port 443), protected by username/password authentication.

Deploying a gdotv instance

To deploy gdotv from the Azure Marketplace, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the gdotv Team Edition listing on the Azure Marketplace
2. Click Get It Now, then Create — you will land in the standard Azure virtual machine creation wizard
3. On the Basics tab:
   • Select or create a subscription and resource group
   • Enter a virtual machine name and select a region — we recommend using the same region as your database(s)
   • Under Size, select a VM size according to the sizing guide — Standard_D4s_v5 is the recommended default. A minimum of 8 GB of memory is required.
   • Under Administrator account, select SSH public key authentication and choose a username (e.g. azureuser). You will occasionally need to SSH into the instance for operations such as version upgrades or TLS certificate deployment.
   • Under Inbound port rules, allow HTTPS (443) and SSH (22). We recommend restricting SSH access to your organization's IP addresses afterwards (via the network security group).
4. On the Disks tab, keep the default OS disk — it is enough storage for any team size
5. On the Networking tab, ensure a public IP is assigned (default)
6. Click Review + create, then Create

The deployment is fully automatic. On first boot the instance generates its per-instance secrets and TLS certificate, then starts the application — gdotv is typically ready two to three minutes after the VM starts.

Keep the public IP static

The VM creation wizard's default public IP (Standard SKU) uses static assignment, which survives deallocations — keep that default. If your deployment uses a dynamically-assigned public IP, the instance re-detects its address at every boot and reconfigures itself (TLS certificate, authentication hostname) automatically — but the URL your team uses still changes, breaking bookmarks and DNS records, so prefer a static assignment.

Pricing

gdotv Team Edition is priced per vCPU-hour of VM runtime and billed through your Azure account. Charges only accrue while the instance is running — a stopped (deallocated) instance costs nothing in software fees. Azure's standard infrastructure charges (VM, disk, network) are billed separately by Microsoft.

Sizing Guide

The sizing guide below indicates how many users can use gdotv concurrently for a given VM size, and the corresponding software cost.

VM size	vCPU / Memory	Concurrent users	Software cost per hour
Standard_D2s_v5	2 vCPU / 8 GB	Up to 5 users	$0.60
Standard_D4s_v5 (recommended)	4 vCPU / 16 GB	Up to 10 users	$1.20
Standard_D8s_v5	8 vCPU / 32 GB	Up to 20 users	$2.40
Standard_D16s_v5	16 vCPU / 64 GB	Over 20 users	$4.80

Regardless of the VM size, the default OS disk is enough to run the service smoothly.

Architecture

gdotv runs on an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS virtual machine with four Docker containers managed by Docker Compose and a systemd service (gdotv.service):

• gdotv-team: the gdotv web application
• gdotv-postgres: a PostgreSQL instance storing configuration data for gdotv and Keycloak (in separate databases with least-privilege roles)
• gdotv-keycloak: a Keycloak instance providing gdotv with user authentication and federation features, which can be configured further to enable Single Sign On authentication flows, or username/password/2FA login
• gdotv-nginx: an NGINX reverse proxy fronting the application over port 443, with TLS enabled by default

All container images are baked into the VM image — the instance needs no registry access to start, and no software is downloaded at boot. All secrets (database passwords, Keycloak credentials) are randomly generated per instance at first boot and stored in /opt/gdotv/.env, readable by root only.

Accessing gdotv on your web browser

Once deployed, gdotv is served at the virtual machine's public IP address: https://<public-ip>/. The public IP is shown on the VM's Overview page in the Azure portal.

TIP

If you see a "gdotv is starting up" page right after deployment, the application stack is still initializing — this resolves itself within two to three minutes of the VM starting. Refresh the page.

By default, gdotv uses a self-signed TLS certificate to enable traffic over HTTPS. Since the certificate is self-signed, your browser will warn that the connection may not be private. To proceed, click Advanced, then Proceed to {public-ip} (unsafe).

You can replace the self-signed certificate with your own trusted certificate, as described in Configuring a TLS certificate.

Authenticating to gdotv

gdotv uses username/password authentication via Keycloak to secure access to its interface. The initial credentials are:

• Username: gdotv
• Password: the VM's unique identifier (vmId) — a UUID such as 5c73f2a1-8c6e-4f3d-9a2b-1e64c7d90f12

You can retrieve the vmId with the Azure CLI:

az vm show --resource-group <resource-group> --name <vm-name> --query vmId --output tsv

or in the Azure portal: open the virtual machine, click JSON View (top right of the Overview page), and copy the properties.vmId value.

The initial password is temporary: you will be required to set a new password at first login.

The initial gdotv user is an application administrator (it carries the gdotv-admin role).

Managing users

Keycloak is a powerful Identity & Access Management solution that provides user federation, management and authentication functionality. You can use it to add users for your team, and to configure advanced authentication flows such as Single Sign On via your identity provider (including Microsoft Entra ID). For more details, refer to the official Keycloak documentation.

To manage users, log in to the Keycloak admin console:

1. Navigate to https://<public-ip>/super-admin
2. Log in as user admin, with the password stored as KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD in /opt/gdotv/.env on the instance (see Connecting to your instance via SSH):

   sudo grep KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD /opt/gdotv/.env

3. In the realm selector (top left), switch from master to the gdotv realm
4. Under Users, create a user for each team member. Assign the gdotv-admin realm role to users who should administer gdotv itself.

TIP

https://<public-ip>/admin is a shortcut to the gdotv realm's own admin console. It accepts logins from gdotv realm users that hold the realm's admin role — you can grant that role to a trusted user to delegate user management without sharing the master Keycloak credentials.

We recommend changing the master admin password after initial setup (in the master realm: top-right menu → Manage account → Account security → Signing in).

Managed identity access to Azure databases

To connect gdotv to Azure services that authenticate with Microsoft Entra ID, give the VM a managed identity. gdotv's backend uses the Azure SDK's default credential chain: it obtains Entra tokens for the VM's managed identity from the instance metadata service automatically, so no secrets are ever stored on the instance.

1. Enable a system-assigned managed identity on the VM (portal: VM → Security → Identity → System assigned → On, or):

   az vm identity assign --resource-group <rg> --name <vm-name>

2. Grant the identity the roles your databases require — for example the relevant Azure Cosmos DB data-plane role on your Cosmos DB account.

No VM or application restart is needed — the identity is available to gdotv immediately, and tokens are fetched on demand.

Connecting to your gdotv instance via SSH

Day-to-day use of gdotv never requires SSH access — but administrative operations (TLS certificate deployment, version upgrades, custom hostname) do. To connect, use the SSH key pair and username configured at deployment:

ssh -i <path-to-private-key> <username>@<public-ip>

Upon login, a welcome message summarizes the essential operations available on the instance.

Managing the gdotv service

The application stack is managed by systemd and starts automatically on boot. From an SSH session:

systemctl status gdotv          # service and container status
sudo systemctl stop gdotv       # stop the application
sudo systemctl start gdotv      # start the application
sudo systemctl restart gdotv    # restart (e.g. after configuration changes)
docker ps                       # individual container status
docker logs -f gdotv-team       # follow application logs

Configuring a TLS certificate

By default, gdotv serves its web interface with a self-signed certificate. To use your own trusted certificate:

1. Assign a domain name owned by your organization to the VM's public IP address, and follow Configuring a custom hostname
2. Copy your certificate and private key, in PEM format, over the following files on the instance:
   • Certificate: /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.crt
   • Private key: /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.key
3. Restart the application: sudo systemctl restart gdotv

Startup should complete within a minute.

TIP

Make sure the VM's public IP address uses the Static assignment (Public IP resource → Configuration) before creating the DNS record, so the address survives VM deallocations.

For production deployments, consider terminating public TLS on a managed service instead — see Reference architecture: custom domain with Application Gateway.

Configuring a custom hostname for gdotv

For security reasons, Keycloak strictly validates the hostname it is served under. If you assign a custom domain name to your gdotv instance, you must reflect it in the configuration:

1. Create a DNS record pointing your domain at the VM's public IP, and wait for it to resolve
2. SSH into the instance and edit /opt/gdotv/.env (as root), setting:

   GDOTV_HOSTNAME=<your-domain>

   The hostname must not include a protocol or port, e.g. graph.example.com
3. Deploy a TLS certificate valid for that domain as described in Configuring a TLS certificate
4. Restart the application: sudo systemctl restart gdotv

Reference architecture: custom domain with Application Gateway

For production deployments, the recommended way to give gdotv a custom domain with a trusted certificate is to put an Azure Application Gateway (v2) in front of the VM:

• The Application Gateway terminates public TLS with a CA-issued certificate — supplied by your organization, typically stored in Azure Key Vault (which can also handle rotation)
• It forwards to the VM over HTTPS, trusting the appliance's self-signed certificate by uploading it as a trusted root certificate in the backend settings

Azure Front Door is not compatible with this appliance

Front Door rejects self-signed origin certificates outright and offers no way to upload a custom root — its "certificate subject name check" toggle only relaxes name matching, not chain trust. Connections fail with 502 OriginCertificateSelfSigned. Use Application Gateway, which supports self-signed backends.

Setup:

1. On the VM first — pin the hostname and regenerate the appliance certificate for it (both required: Keycloak validates the public hostname, gdotv's internal call to Keycloak validates the certificate against it, and the Application Gateway will validate it too):

   sudo sed -i "s|^GDOTV_HOSTNAME=.*|GDOTV_HOSTNAME=gdotv.example.com|" /opt/gdotv/.env
   sudo rm /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.crt /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.key
   sudo /opt/gdotv/scripts/firstboot.sh    # regenerates the self-signed cert for the new hostname
   sudo systemctl restart gdotv

   Then copy /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.crt off the VM — it becomes the gateway's backend trusted root.
2. Application Gateway (Standard_v2) in the VM's virtual network (its own subnet), with a static public IP:
   • Listener: HTTPS 443 with your CA-issued certificate for the domain (PFX or Key Vault reference)
   • Backend pool: the VM's private IP
   • Backend settings: HTTPS 443, host name override = your domain, and the appliance certificate uploaded as a trusted root certificate; raise the request timeout (e.g. 180 s) for long-running queries
   • Health probe: HTTPS, host = your domain, path /api/application/is_ready (unauthenticated; returns 200 only once the application is fully up)
3. DNS: create an A record pointing your domain at the Application Gateway's public IP
4. Lock down: restrict the VM's network security group so port 443 is only reachable from the Application Gateway's subnet, and remove the public 443/80 rules

Note: if you later change the appliance certificate (e.g. re-running the hostname procedure), re-upload the new tls.crt as the trusted root — the gateway pins exactly that certificate.

Upgrading to a new version of gdotv

gdotv receives frequent updates with new features and improvements. We recommend keeping up to date with the latest version. There are two types of upgrades:

• Application updates: upgrading the gdotv software itself, in place
• VM image updates: new versions of the VM image published on the Marketplace, carrying operating system and dependency updates

Performing an application update

SSH into the instance and run:

sudo gdotv-upgrade <version>

with the version number from the update announcement (e.g. 3.79.2). The upgrade tool:

1. Backs up both databases to /var/lib/gdotv/backups/ — and aborts the upgrade if the backup fails
2. Pulls the new application image and applies it
3. Waits for the application to report healthy
4. Rolls back to the previous version automatically if the new version fails to start

Each upgrade is recorded in /var/lib/gdotv/deploy-history.log. Expected downtime is under two minutes.

Performing a VM image update

To move to a newly published VM image version, deploy a new instance following Deploying a gdotv instance, then migrate your data:

1. On the old instance: docker exec gdotv-postgres pg_dump -U postgres --no-owner --no-privileges gdotv | gzip > gdotv-backup.sql.gz
2. Copy the file to the new instance (e.g. with scp)
3. On the new instance: sudo gdotv-migrate-import gdotv-backup.sql.gz
4. Recreate your team's login users on the new instance (see Managing users), verify everything works, then delete the old instance

Backup and restore

gdotv only stores connection configurations, user workspace settings, saved queries and dashboards — your graph databases themselves are never stored on the instance. We nonetheless recommend regular backups:

• Disk snapshots (simplest): use Azure Backup or scheduled managed disk snapshots for the VM's OS disk. To restore, create a new VM from the restore point or snapshot.
• Database dumps (portable): the pre-upgrade dumps in /var/lib/gdotv/backups/ are full backups (pg_dumpall); you can produce one at any time with:

  docker exec gdotv-postgres pg_dumpall -U postgres | gzip > gdotv-backup-$(date +%F).sql.gz

  and copy it off the instance (e.g. to an Azure Storage account).

Troubleshooting

The application is not reachable over port 443

• Verify the VM is running and systemctl status gdotv reports active
• Check the network security group attached to the VM's network interface or subnet allows inbound TCP 443 from your address
• Verify a public IP is associated with the VM (organizations sometimes restrict public IPs — in that case, access gdotv through your private network / VPN using the VM's private IP)

The application shows "gdotv is starting up"

The stack is initializing — normal for two to three minutes after the VM starts or restarts. If it persists beyond five minutes, SSH in and check systemctl status gdotv and docker logs gdotv-team.

The VM's public IP address changed

If the VM was using a dynamically-assigned public IP and was deallocated and restarted, it received a new address. The instance reconfigures itself for the new address automatically at startup — simply access gdotv at the new IP shown on the VM's Overview page, and switch the public IP resource to Static assignment (Public IP resource → Configuration) so the address stops changing. Automatic re-alignment deliberately never touches a custom hostname you configured.

If the application is still configured for the old address (for example on an instance created before this behavior shipped), re-align manually — SSH in and run:

sudo sed -i "s|^GDOTV_HOSTNAME=.*|GDOTV_HOSTNAME=<new-public-ip>|" /opt/gdotv/.env
sudo rm /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.crt /opt/gdotv/certs/tls.key
sudo /opt/gdotv/scripts/firstboot.sh    # regenerates the TLS certificate for the new address
sudo systemctl restart gdotv

The application is stating that license verification failed

The instance verifies it is running from an Azure Marketplace image. If verification fails, the application displays instructions describing the issue. This can happen if the VM was created by copying the disk to a non-Marketplace image rather than deploying through the Marketplace. Contact us at support@gdotv.com if you believe verification is failing incorrectly.

Additional support

For any support queries, email us at support@gdotv.com. Support is free and we answer all queries within one business day.