1---
2title: Download and build
3weight: 1
4---
5
6## System requirements
7
8The etcd performance benchmarks run etcd on 8 vCPU, 16GB RAM, 50GB SSD GCE instances, but any relatively modern machine with low latency storage and a few gigabytes of memory should suffice for most use cases. Applications with large v2 data stores will require more memory than a large v3 data store since data is kept in anonymous memory instead of memory mapped from a file. For running etcd on a cloud provider, see the [Example hardware configuration][example-hardware-configurations] documentation.
9
10## Download the pre-built binary
11
12The easiest way to get etcd is to use one of the pre-built release binaries which are available for OSX, Linux, Windows, appc, and Docker. Instructions for using these binaries are on the [GitHub releases page][github-release].
13
14## Build the latest version
15
16For those wanting to try the very latest version, build etcd from the `master` branch. [Go](https://golang.org/) version 1.9+ is required to build the latest version of etcd. To ensure etcd is built against well-tested libraries, etcd vendors its dependencies for official release binaries. However, etcd's vendoring is also optional to avoid potential import conflicts when embedding the etcd server or using the etcd client.
17
18To build `etcd` from the `master` branch without a `GOPATH` using the official `build` script:
19
20```sh
21$ git clone https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd.git
22$ cd etcd
23$ ./build
24```
25
26To build a vendored `etcd` from the `master` branch via `go get`:
27
28```sh
29# GOPATH should be set
30$ echo $GOPATH
31/Users/example/go
32$ go get -v go.etcd.io/etcd
33$ go get -v go.etcd.io/etcd/etcdctl
34```
35
36## Test the installation
37
38Check the etcd binary is built correctly by starting etcd and setting a key.
39
40### Starting etcd
41
42If etcd is built without using `go get`, run the following:
43
44```sh
45$ ./bin/etcd
46```
47If etcd is built using `go get`, run the following:
48
49```sh
50$ $GOPATH/bin/etcd
51```
52
53### Setting a key
54
55Run the following:
56
57```sh
58$ ./bin/etcdctl put foo bar
59OK
60```
61
62(or `$GOPATH/bin/etcdctl put foo bar` if etcdctl was installed with `go get`)
63
64If OK is printed, then etcd is working!
65
66[github-release]: https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/
67[go]: https://golang.org/doc/install
68[build-script]: ../build
69[cmd-directory]: ../cmd
70[example-hardware-configurations]: op-guide/hardware.md#example-hardware-configurations
71