Qdrant

Qdrant is an open-source vector database and similarity-search engine built for storing and querying high-dimensional embeddings. It powers semantic search, recommendations, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workloads, exposing both a REST and a gRPC API plus a built-in web dashboard.

Software included

Component	Version
Qdrant	1.18.2
Docker	Latest stable
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS

Getting started

1. Connect to your VM

ssh ubuntu@<your-vm-ip>

2. Wait for first-boot configuration

On the first boot, a setup script generates the API key and starts Qdrant with Docker Compose. Track progress:

sudo journalctl -u qdrant-first-boot.service -f

The login message (MOTD) confirms when Qdrant is ready. You can also verify the container directly:

cd /opt/qdrant && docker compose ps

3. Retrieve the API key

The generated connection details and API key are stored in a root-only file:

sudo cat /etc/qdrant/credentials.txt

Field	Value
API key	Generated securely on first boot

4. Access Qdrant

The REST API and dashboard are available at:

http://<your-vm-ip>:6333
http://<your-vm-ip>:6333/dashboard

The gRPC API is available at <your-vm-ip>:6334. Verify the REST API locally with the API key from the credentials file:

curl -H "api-key: <your-api-key>" http://127.0.0.1:6333/healthz

Managing Qdrant

Qdrant runs as a Docker Compose stack in /opt/qdrant.

# Check status
cd /opt/qdrant && docker compose ps

# Restart
cd /opt/qdrant && docker compose restart

# View logs
cd /opt/qdrant && docker compose logs -f

Path	Purpose
`/opt/qdrant/docker-compose.yml`	Docker Compose configuration
`/opt/qdrant/.env`	Qdrant API key environment
`/var/lib/qdrant/storage/`	Collections and persistent data
`/etc/qdrant/credentials.txt`	API key and connection details

Security

The REST API and dashboard use port 6333, and the gRPC API uses port 6334. UFW is enabled and allows SSH (port 22) plus ports 6333 and 6334 by default. Qdrant requires the generated API key for access.

To restrict API access to a specific IP:

sudo ufw delete allow 6333/tcp
sudo ufw delete allow 6334/tcp
sudo ufw allow from <trusted-ip> to any port 6333
sudo ufw allow from <trusted-ip> to any port 6334

To access the dashboard without leaving port 6333 open, use an SSH tunnel:

# Run this on your local machine
ssh -L 6333:localhost:6333 ubuntu@<your-vm-ip>

# Then open in your browser
http://localhost:6333/dashboard

For production use, place Qdrant behind a reverse proxy so you can serve the REST API and dashboard over HTTPS with a trusted TLS certificate. Keep the gRPC API on a trusted private network or configure a TLS-capable proxy for it.