Advanced installations

This page contains instructions for setting up multiple countries in your Nominatim database. It is assumed that you have already successfully installed the Nominatim software itself, if not return to the installation page.

Importing multiple regions

To import multiple regions in your database, you need to configure and run utils/import_multiple_regions.sh file. This script will set up the update directory which has the following structure:

update
    ├── europe
    │   ├── andorra
    │   │   └── sequence.state
    │   └── monaco
    │       └── sequence.state
    └── tmp
        ├── combined.osm.pbf
        └── europe
                ├── andorra-latest.osm.pbf
                └── monaco-latest.osm.pbf

The sequence.state files will contain the sequence ID, which will be used by pyosmium to get updates. The tmp folder is used for import dump.

Installing PHP prerequisites

The scripts this section still use the old PHP utils. They require the Symphony dotenv parser to work. To install it on Ubuntu/Debian, run:

sudo apt install php-symfony-dotenv

Configuring multiple regions

The file import_multiple_regions.sh needs to be edited as per your requirement:

List of countries. eg:

COUNTRIES="europe/monaco europe/andorra"

Path to Build directory. eg:
```
NOMINATIMBUILD="/srv/nominatim/build"
```
Path to Update directory. eg:
```
UPDATEDIR="/srv/nominatim/update"
```

Replication URL. eg:

BASEURL="https://download.geofabrik.de"
DOWNCOUNTRYPOSTFIX="-latest.osm.pbf"

Setting up multiple regions

Tip

If your database already exists and you want to add more countries, replace the setting up part ${SETUPFILE} --osm-file ${UPDATEDIR}/tmp/combined.osm.pbf --all 2>&1 with ${UPDATEFILE} --import-file ${UPDATEDIR}/tmp/combined.osm.pbf --index --index-instances N 2>&1 where N is the numbers of CPUs in your system.

Run the following command from your Nominatim directory after configuring the file.

bash ./utils/import_multiple_regions.sh

Important

This file uses osmium-tool. It must be installed before executing the import script. Installation instructions can be found here.

Updating multiple regions

To import multiple regions in your database, you need to configure and run utils/update_database.sh. This uses the update directory set up while setting up the DB.

Configuring multiple regions

The file update_database.sh needs to be edited as per your requirement:

List of countries. eg:

COUNTRIES="europe/monaco europe/andorra"

Path to Build directory. eg:
```
NOMINATIMBUILD="/srv/nominatim/build"
```
Path to Update directory. eg:
```
UPDATEDIR="/srv/nominatim/update"
```

Replication URL. eg:

BASEURL="https://download.geofabrik.de"
DOWNCOUNTRYPOSTFIX="-updates"

Followup can be set according to your installation. eg: For Photon,
```
FOLLOWUP="curl http://localhost:2322/nominatim-update"
```
will handle the indexing.

Updating the database

Run the following command from your Nominatim directory after configuring the file.

bash ./utils/update_database.sh

This will get diffs from the replication server, import diffs and index the database. The default replication server in the script(Geofabrik) provides daily updates.

Importing Nominatim to an external PostgreSQL database

You can install Nominatim using a database that runs on a different server when you have physical access to the file system on the other server. Nominatim uses a custom normalization library that needs to be made accessible to the PostgreSQL server. This section explains how to set up the normalization library.

Option 1: Compiling the library on the database server

The most sure way to get a working library is to compile it on the database server. From the prerequisites you need at least cmake, gcc and the PostgreSQL server package.

Clone or unpack the Nominatim source code, enter the source directory and create and enter a build directory.

cd Nominatim
mkdir build
cd build

Now configure cmake to only build the PostgreSQL module and build it:

cmake -DBUILD_IMPORTER=off -DBUILD_API=off -DBUILD_TESTS=off -DBUILD_DOCS=off -DBUILD_OSM2PGSQL=off ..
make

When done, you find the normalization library in build/module/nominatim.so. Copy it to a place where it is readable and executable by the PostgreSQL server process.

Option 2: Compiling the library on the import machine

You can also compile the normalization library on the machine from where you run the import.

Important

You can only do this when the database server and the import machine have the same architecture and run the same version of Linux. Otherwise there is no guarantee that the compiled library is compatible with the PostgreSQL server running on the database server.

Make sure that the PostgreSQL server package is installed on the machine with the same version as on the database server. You do not need to install the PostgreSQL server itself.

Download and compile Nominatim as per standard instructions. Once done, you find the normalization library in build/module/nominatim.so. Copy the file to the database server at a location where it is readable and executable by the PostgreSQL server process.

Running the import

On the client side you now need to configure the import to point to the correct location of the library on the database server. Add the following line to your your .env file:

NOMINATIM_DATABASE_MODULE_PATH="<directory on the database server where nominatim.so resides>"

Now change the NOMINATIM_DATABASE_DSN to point to your remote server and continue to follow the standard instructions for importing.