Install Apache Airflow on macOS | Using SQLite as Metadata DB
In this video, we show you how to install Apache Airflow on macOS using SQLite as the metadata database. Airflow is one of the most popular tools for workflow orchestration, scheduling, and data engineering pipelines, and getting it set up correctly is the first step to mastering it.
We’ll go through a complete step-by-step installation guide for Apache Airflow on Mac, from environment setup to database initialization. You’ll learn how to:
✅ Install Airflow on macOS
✅ Configure SQLite as the metadata database
✅ Initialize the Airflow DB
✅ Start the Airflow Webserver and Scheduler
Installation Steps:
1. Prepare Airflow home
mkdir -p ~/Programs/airflow/airflow_2.11.0 && cd ~/Programs/airflow/airflow_2.11.0
2. Env variables
Add the following line at the end of your ~/.zshrc file:
vim ~/.zshrc
export AIRFLOW_HOME=~/Programs/airflow/airflow_2.11.0
source ~/.zshrc
3. virtual environment
python3 -m venv airflow_venv
source airflow_venv/bin/activate
4. Install Airflow
pip install "apache-airflow==2.11.0"
airflow version
5. Init DB
airflow db init
6. Create admin user
airflow users create \
--username admin \
--firstname First \
--lastname Last \
--role Admin \
--email [email protected] \
--password admin
7. Start services
Terminal 1
airflow scheduler
Terminal 2
cd ~/Programs/airflow/airflow_2.11.0
source airflow_venv/bin/activate
airflow webserver --port 8080
8.
UI login: http://localhost:8080
user: admin pass: admin
This tutorial is beginner-friendly and perfect for anyone preparing for data engineering, big data, or cloud workflow automation. Whether you are learning Airflow for the first time or setting it up for projects, this guide will help you get started quickly.
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