Install RethinkDB on CentOS 7 Installing RethinkDB sudo wget http://download.rethinkdb.com/centos/7/`uname -m`/rethinkdb.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/rethinkdb.repo sudo yum install rethinkdb Create Service File Create the service file, /usr/lib/systemd/system/rethinkdb@.service with the following content: [Unit] Description=RethinkDB database server for instance '%i' [Service] User=rethinkdb Group=rethinkdb ExecStart=/usr/bin/rethinkdb serve --config-file /etc/rethinkdb/instances.d/%i.conf KillMode=process PrivateTmp=true [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Make sure that it has a permission of 644: chmod 644 /usr/lib/systemd/system/rethinkdb@.service Creating a Rethink DB Instance Create the RethinkDB data directory: rethinkdb create -d /path/to/your/rethinkdb/directory Set the ownership to RethinkDB user: sudo chown -R rethinkdb.rethinkdb /path/to/your/rethinkdb/directory Copy RethinkDB sample config file: sudo cp /etc/rethinkdb/default.conf.sample /etc/rethinkdb/instances.d/instance1.conf Edit /etc/rethinkdb/instances.d/instance1.conf, the line with directory= must be changed to point to your Rethink DB data directory. Start RethinkDB Instance in this case would be instance1: sudo systemctl enable rethinkdb@ sudo systemctl start rethinkdb@ References RethinkDB Startup Doc