Install superset on Windows with WSL and docker

Apache Superset is an open-source platform for data visualization and exploration, offering an intuitive web interface for creating interactive dashboards and charts.

It connects to various data sources, supporting real-time data analysis. Superset is efficient with large data sets, provides advanced SQL querying capabilities, and facilitates collaboration by allowing users to share insights easily.

It's designed for data professionals seeking a customizable and comprehensive visualization tool.

Unfortunately, Superset doesn't support Windows directly. In this article, I'll show you how we can install and use Superset on a Windows machine.

1. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on or off. Activate the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
2. Visit the Microsoft Store and install the latest version of Ubuntu.
3. Upon installation, the command prompt will open, prompting you for a UNIX username and password
4. Set Password for root user

   sudo su

   This will ask for the current user password & switch to root user

   passwd

   This will ask you to set password for root user

5. Let's explore the Ubuntu file system we've just installed. In Windows Explorer, paste \\wsl$ into the address bar and press Enter. This might take a moment, depending on your system.By default, this directory appears in the terminal when you launch Ubuntu.
6. Install Docker Desktop, then navigate to Docker settings. Enable integration with my default WSL distro and Enable integration with additional distros, where your Ubuntu version will appear.
7. Launch Ubuntu from the Start menu.
8. Execute docker -vIf all steps were followed correctly, you should see the expected output.
9. If there's an error, revisit step 5
10. To check your current location in Ubuntu, run ls -a
11. Clone Apache Superset with

    git clone --depth=1  https://github.com/apache/superset.git

    • The --depth=1 argument insures a shallow clone meaning only the most recent commit will be cloned, hence it will be faster.
    • You can remove it if you want to clone the entire repository

    
12. After cloning, enter the Superset directory using

    cd superset

    
13. Start Docker and launch Apache Superset by running
    • Option #1 - for an interactive development environment

      docker compose up --build

      The --build argument insures all the layers are up-to-date

    • Option #2 - build a set of immutable images from the local branch

      sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-non-dev.yml up -d

    

    This process may take some time.

14. Once completed, you can access the interface at http://localhost:8088/ The default username and password are both admin. You should also see a new container in Docker Desktop.Follow the instructions of this image to open superset in your browser
15. The default username and password are both admin.
16. For further documentation, refer to Apache Superset Documentation
17. To edit code, open another Ubuntu terminal and execute

    code .

    This will download the necessary packages and open the codebase in VS Code.
18. To stop the container, run

    docker compose down

    Now, if you check your Docker Desktop, you should see the container stopped.