You need MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis and Riak up and running. MySQL should be accepting TCP connections on localhost:3306. PostgreSQL should be accepting TCP connections on localhost:5432. Redis should be accepting TCP connections on localhost:6379. Riak should be accepting TCP connections on localhost:8087. MySQL and PostgreSQL should grant full access to user 'ejabberd_test' with password 'ejabberd_test' on database 'ejabberd_test'. Riak should be configured with leveldb as a database backend and -pz should be pointed to the directory with ejabberd BEAM files. Here is a quick setup example: ------------------ PostgreSQL ------------------ $ psql template1 template1=# CREATE USER ejabberd_test WITH PASSWORD 'ejabberd_test'; template1=# CREATE DATABASE ejabberd_test; template1=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE ejabberd_test TO ejabberd_test; ------------------- MySQL ------------------- $ mysql mysql> CREATE USER 'ejabberd_test'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ejabberd_test'; mysql> CREATE DATABASE ejabberd_test; mysql> GRANT ALL ON ejabberd_test.* TO 'ejabberd_test'@'localhost'; ------------------- Riak ------------------- $ cat /etc/riak/vm.args ... ## Map/Reduce path -pz /path/to/ejabberd/ebin ... For version < 2.x: $ cat /etc/riak/app.config: ... {riak_kv, [ {storage_backend, riak_kv_eleveldb_backend}, ... For version >= 2.x: $ cat /etc/riak/riak.conf: ... storage_backend = leveldb ...