Building Python Real-Time Applications with Storm

Installing Petrel

Let's set up our Python development environment. We assume here that you have already followed the instructions in Chapter 1, Getting Acquainted with Storm, to install Storm 0.9.3:

1. First, we need to install virtualenv, a tool for managing Python libraries. On Ubuntu, simply run this command:

   sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv

2. Next, we create a Python virtual environment. This provides a way to install Python libraries without requiring root access to the machine and without interfering with the system's Python packages:

   virtualenv petrel

   You will see something like the following output:

   New python executable in petrel/bin/python
   Installing distribute.............................................................................................................................................................................................done ...