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Couchbase Capella Setup

What is Capella?

Couchbase Capella is the fully-managed Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offering from Couchbase. It provides enterprise-grade Couchbase clusters in the cloud without the operational overhead.

Capella offers two deployment options for FHIR CE. Choose based on your needs:

Single Node Capella Setup​

Perfect for development, testing, and small production workloads.

Step 1: Create New Capella Cluster​

Create Single Node Capella Cluster
Cluster Naming

You can name the cluster anything meaningful (e.g., "fhir-dev-cluster", "hospital-cluster")

Step 2: Configure Services​

Configure Single Node Services

Service Configuration:

  1. Adjust Compute - Select appropriate instance size for your workload
  2. Add Search Service - Required for FHIR full-text search capabilities
Required Services

Your cluster should now have 4 essential services:

  • Data - Document storage
  • Query - N1QL query processing
  • Index - Primary indexes
  • Search - Full-text search (FTS)

Network Security Configuration​

Add Allowed IP Addresses​

Configure Allowed IP Addresses

Configure network access for your FHIR server:

Network Access Control

This setting controls client access to your Capella cluster. You have two options:

Add FHIR Server IP:

  • Add the specific IP address of your FHIR server
  • More secure approach for production environments
  • Requires knowing the exact IP where FHIR CE will run

Database Access Configuration​

Create Cluster Access Credentials​

Configure Database Access Credentials

Create database credentials for FHIR CE to access your Capella cluster:

Important - Save These Credentials

Note down the username and password - you will need these in your FHIR CE config.yaml file!

Access Configuration:

  • Username: Create a meaningful username (e.g., "fhir-service")
  • Password: Generate a strong password
  • Bucket Access: Choose All Buckets
  • Scope Access: Choose All Scopes
  • Collection Access: Choose All Collections
  • Permissions: Grant Read/Write access
FHIR Requirements

FHIR CE requires full read/write access to all buckets, scopes, and collections to properly manage FHIR resources and multi-tenancy.

FHIR Tenant Configuration​

Create Your First Bucket​

Create FHIR Tenant Bucket

Configure your first FHIR tenant bucket:

FHIR Multi-Tenancy

FHIR CE is multi-tenant - Each bucket represents a separate tenant with isolated data. You need at least one bucket to get started.

Bucket Configuration Guidelines:

  • Bucket Name: Choose a meaningful name (e.g., "tenant-1", "hospital-a", "fhir-dev")
  • Memory Quota: Allocate based on your expected data volume
  • Bucket Type: Keep as Couchbase (default)
  • Replicas: Capella handles replication automatically
  • Compression: Enabled by default for better storage efficiency

Recommended Configuration:

Bucket Name: fhir-dev
Memory Quota: 1 GB
Durability: Majority
Compression: Enabled

Perfect for development, testing, and proof-of-concept deployments.

Connection Information​

After completing the setup, you'll need these details for your FHIR CE configuration:

Required for FHIR CE config.yaml
  • Connection String: Available in Capella Connect tab
  • Username: Database access username you created
  • Password: Database access password you created
  • Bucket Name(s): Names of the buckets you created
Next Steps

Congratulations! Your Capella cluster is ready. Now you can install and configure FHIR CE to connect to this managed Couchbase instance.