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This page explains how to install the Looker application for customers who are hosting anon-premisesLooker deployment. Throughout our documentation, we refer to these as "customer-hosted" deployments.
We also offer the option for Looker to host your Looker deployment. Throughout our documentation we refer to these as "Looker-hosted" deployments. Using a Looker-hosted instance greatly reduces the effort required toinstall, configure, and maintain the Looker application, because Looker handles all necessary IT functions that are related to the Looker application for you.
To address the potential issue of the Looker Action Hub not being able to communicate with the Looker instance, Looker admins can implement one of thefollowing solutions. The appropriate solution or combination of solutions will depend on the architecture of the Looker instance:
Enable thepublic_host_urllicense feature
Allowlist the egress IP address for the Looker Action Hub
If your customer-hosted Looker instance is not on the same private network as its connected database, be sure to secure your data as well, perhaps using one of the following options:
If you are installing the API Explorer on a customer-hosted Looker instance, for users to view API examples, the server running the Looker instance must be configured to access the public internet server running at the URLhttps://githubusercontent.com.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Customer-hosted installation steps\n\nThis page explains how to install the Looker application for customers who are hosting an [on-premises](/looker/docs/glossary#customer-hosted) Looker deployment. Throughout our documentation, we refer to these as \"customer-hosted\" deployments.\n\nWe also offer the option for Looker to host your Looker deployment. Throughout our documentation we refer to these as \"[Looker-hosted](/looker/docs/glossary#looker-hosted)\" deployments. Using a Looker-hosted instance greatly reduces the effort required to [install](/looker/docs/looker-hosted-installation-steps), configure, and maintain the Looker application, because Looker handles all necessary IT functions that are related to the Looker application for you.\n| **Note:** Hosting the Looker application is independent of where your data resides; data always remains in-database and is not copied to the Looker instance. Some Looker features are not available for customer-hosted deployments, or they may require additional configuration or software. To learn more about feature differences between the two hosted options, see the [Choosing a hosting option for a Looker (original) instance](/looker/docs/choosing-hosting-option) documentation page.\n\nComplete the following steps:\n\n1. Install Looker:\n\n - [Add Looker to your server](/looker/docs/installing-looker-application).\n\n - [Configure Looker startup options](/looker/docs/startup-options).\n\n - [Configure your SSL certificate for proper HTTPS](/looker/docs/ssl-certificate-for-proper-https).\n\n - [Consider port forwarding for a cleaner URL](/looker/docs/port-forwarding).\n\n - [Allow Looker support to access your instance](/looker/docs/support-access-customer-hosted-deployment).\n\n - [Set up Looker monitoring](/looker/docs/monitoring-looker).\n\n - [Set up a MySQL backend database](/looker/docs/migrating-looker-backend-db-to-mysql).\n\n | **Note:** We recommend that all new customer-hosted instances set up a MySQL backend database rather than use the default HyperSQL database.\n - [Set up Looker backups](/looker/docs/creating-backups).\n\n - [Ensure that Looker can access necessary services](/looker/docs/outbound-port-requirements).\n\n - [Install rendering software](/looker/docs/installation-of-rendering-software).\n\n - [Determine if your Looker instance can accommodate the Looker Action Hub](/looker/docs/action-hub#considerations_for_customer-hosted_instances).\n\n2. [Enable secure database access](/looker/docs/enabling-secure-db-access).\n\n3. [Configure your database for Looker](/looker/docs/dialects).\n\n4. [Connect Looker to your database](/looker/docs/connecting-to-your-db).\n\n5. [Test your database connectivity](/looker/docs/testing-db-connectivity).\n\n6. [Configure Looker sign-in options](/looker/docs/getting-started-with-users).\n\nOnce your instance is set up, you're ready to [get started with development](/looker/docs/data-modeling).\n\nFeatures that require additional configuration\n----------------------------------------------\n\nThe following Looker features require additional configuration or software to use:"]]
