# Installation on Mac

Auto-creates a complete dev or test environment under macOS.

- Download and install [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/) for your macOS version
- If you have Apple silicon, make sure to install all the updates for your system because newest Docker versions may be incompatible with upatched macOS systems

- Start Docker Desktop, look up an image called **zatosource/zato-4.1** and **pull it** to your macOS

- Once the image is pulled, click **Play** to start a new container and fill out the settings:
  - The container's name can be "Zato"
  - Map port 8183 to 8183
  - Map port 11223 to 11223 - the port that external REST clients connect to
  - Leave all the other ports unmapped for now
  - Add a new environment variable called "Zato\_Password". Provide any value and it will become the password to your environment.

- Click "Run", wait for the container to start and log in to your Dashboard at [http://localhost:8183](http://localhost:8183)
  - Dashboard: [http://localhost:8183](https://localhost:8183)
  - Username: admin
  - Password: The one that you set above

## Using the command line instead {#using-the-command-line-instead}

If you prefer Terminal to Docker Desktop, the same container starts with one command, with your own password given through the `Zato_Password` variable:

```bash
docker run --pull=always -it --rm -p 22022:22 -p 8183:8183 -p 11223:11223 \
  --name zato-4.1 -e Zato_Password=mypassword \
  zatosource/zato-4.1
```

The settings are the same as in Docker Desktop - the command maps the same ports and sets the same variable, and either way you install the same image.

## Verify the environment {#verify-the-environment}

Confirm that the servers accept requests by calling the built-in ping endpoint from Terminal:

```bash
curl http://localhost:11223/zato/ping
```

The environment is ready when the response is a JSON document like this one:

```json
{"is_ok":true, "cid":"20260921-180542-8418-c1e5d65e18f62730a"}
```

If the connection is refused, the container is still starting - give it a moment and check its log in Docker Desktop, the environment reports itself ready there.

## What persists {#what-persists}

Everything created only inside the container - services uploaded through the Dashboard, configuration never exported - disappears when the container is removed. Work that needs to survive belongs in a project directory on your Mac, mounted into the container, as shown in the [deployment tutorial](https://zato.io/tutorials/devops/deployment.html).

## Next steps {#next-steps}

- Start the [in-depth tutorial](https://zato.io/tutorials/main/01.html) - by the end of it you will have built, exposed and invoked a service of your own
- Or browse all the [tutorials](https://zato.io/tutorials/index.html)

## Learn more {#learn-more}

- [Production checklist](https://zato.io/docs/admin/production-checklist.html) - What to confirm before an environment takes real traffic
- [Audit log](https://zato.io/docs/admin/audit-log/) - Every request, response and error, and what you can do with them afterwards
- [Health checks](https://zato.io/docs/admin/health-checks.html) - Have Zato ping your outgoing connections instead of waiting for traffic to fail
- [Logging](https://zato.io/docs/admin/logging.html) - What is written where, and how to ship it to Splunk, Loki, Elastic or Datadog
- [GitOps with enmasse](https://zato.io/docs/admin/enmasse.html) - Keep the whole environment in git as YAML and import it anywhere