Install & Optimize an OpenStreetMap Tile Server on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

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Hosting your own OSM tiles guarantees independence, performance, and GDPR compliance. This condensed guide goes beyond classic tutorials: it covers installation, performance tuning, security, real-time updates, monitoring, and introduces vector tiles.

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1. Prerequisites & hardware sizing

Why? Proper sizing avoids slowdowns during import and ensures smooth rendering.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS up to date (kernel 6.8).
Minimum 16 GB RAM (France); 64 GB for Europe; 128 GB for the planet.
NVMe SSD ≥ 1 TB for import + cache.
CPU 8 threads+ (osm2pgsql multithread).

2. Step-by-step installation

2.1 Install packages

Why? These packages form the rendering stack (Apache, mod_tile, renderd) and the spatial database (PostgreSQL 16 + PostGIS 3.4).

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-tile renderd git wget unzip bzip2 
  postgresql postgresql-16-postgis-3 postgresql-16-postgis-3-scripts 
  python3-mapnik mapnik-utils gdal-bin lua5.1 npm node-carto osm2pgsql

2.2 Create the PostGIS database

Why? The gis database stores OSM data and serves Mapnik.

sudo -u postgres createuser _renderd
sudo -u postgres createdb -E UTF8 -O _renderd gis
sudo -u postgres psql -d gis -c "CREATE EXTENSION postgis; CREATE EXTENSION hstore;"

2.3 Download the openstreetmap-carto style

Why? It is the OSM “standard” style, ready for all regions.

git clone https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto ~/src/osm-carto
cd ~/src/osm-carto && npm install -g carto
carto project.mml > mapnik.xml

2.4 Import OSM data

Why? Populate the database with your regional data.

wget -P ~/data https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/france/alsace-latest.osm.pbf
sudo -u _renderd osm2pgsql -d gis --create --slim -G --hstore 
  --tag-transform-script ~/src/osm-carto/openstreetmap-carto.lua 
  -C 75% --number-processes $(nproc) 
  -S ~/src/osm-carto/openstreetmap-carto.style 
  ~/data/alsace-latest.osm.pbf

2.5 Configure renderd & Apache

Why? Link the rendering engine to the HTTP server.

sudo tee /etc/renderd.conf >/dev/null <<EOF

[renderd]

num_threads=$(nproc) tile_dir=/var/lib/mod_tile stats_file=/run/renderd/stats

[default]

URI=/osm/ XML=/home/$USER/src/osm-carto/mapnik.xml HOST=localhost TILESIZE=256 EOF sudo systemctl enable –now renderd apache2

Test: http://IP/osm/0/0/0.png

3. Optimizations

Why? Reduce rendering time and increase throughput.

PostgreSQL: shared_buffers=RAM/4, work_mem=128MB.
Pre-render zooms 0-12: render_list -a -z 0 -Z 12.
HTTP cache via Cache-Control: max-age=31536000.

4. Security & Backups

Why? Protect your data and the service.

UFW: only open 80/443, restrict 5432.
fail2ban on Apache.
TLS Let’s Encrypt: sudo certbot --apache --hsts.
Backups: pg_dump -Fc gis | rclone copy - s3://bucket/.

5. Automatic Updates

Why? Keep the database in sync with OSM.

sudo -u _renderd osm2pgsql-replication init -d gis 
  --osm-file ~/data/alsace-latest.osm.pbf
# systemd timer every 5 min

6. Monitoring

Why? Anticipate problems.

Munin: renderd queue size plugin.
Prometheus + Grafana for metrics and alerts.

7. Extensions: vector tiles, Docker, Ansible

Tegola or TileServer-GL for vector tiles.
Docker image overv/openstreetmap-tile-server ready to use.
Ansible playbook for idempotent deployment.

Last update: July 2025.