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Installing HDDS on Windows

This guide covers installing HDDS from source on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Prerequisites​

  • Windows 10 1903+ or Windows 11
  • Visual Studio 2019+ with C++ workload (for C/C++ development)
  • Rust 1.75+: rustup.rs
  • Git
# Install Rust via winget
winget install Rustlang.Rust.MSVC

# Or via rustup
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://win.rustup.rs -OutFile rustup-init.exe
.\rustup-init.exe

# Verify Rust version
rustc --version  # Should be 1.75.0 or higher

Clone and Build​

# Clone the repository
git clone https://git.hdds.io/hdds/hdds.git
cd hdds

# Build in release mode
cargo build --release

# Run tests to verify
cargo test

Using HDDS in Your Project​

Add HDDS as a path dependency in your project's Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
hdds = { path = "C:/path/to/hdds/crates/hdds" }

With optional features:

[dependencies]
hdds = { path = "C:/path/to/hdds/crates/hdds", features = ["xtypes", "security"] }

Available Features​

FeatureDescription
xtypesXTypes type system (default)
securityDDS Security 1.1 support
tcp-tlsTLS encryption for TCP transport
cloud-discoveryAWS/Azure/Consul discovery
k8sKubernetes discovery
rpcDDS-RPC Request/Reply
telemetryMetrics collection

Code Generator (hdds_gen)​

# Clone hdds_gen
git clone https://git.hdds.io/hdds/hdds_gen.git
cd hdds_gen

# Build
cargo build --release

# Add to PATH (optional)
$env:PATH += ";$(Get-Location)\target\release"

# Verify
.\target\release\hdds_gen.exe --version

C/C++ Development​

Visual Studio​

After building HDDS:

# Build the C bindings
cd C:\path\to\hdds
cargo build --release -p hdds-c

# The library will be at target\release\hdds.dll

Configure project properties:

Include Directories:

C:\path\to\hdds\crates\hdds-c\include

Library Directories:

C:\path\to\hdds\target\release

Linker Input:

hdds.dll.lib

CMake​

# Point to your HDDS build
set(HDDS_ROOT "C:/path/to/hdds")

add_executable(myapp main.cpp)
target_include_directories(myapp PRIVATE ${HDDS_ROOT}/crates/hdds-c/include)
target_link_directories(myapp PRIVATE ${HDDS_ROOT}/target/release)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE hdds)

Configure with:

cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

Verify Installation​

# Check version
hdds --version

# Run self-test
hdds self-test

# List interfaces
hdds interfaces

Expected output:

HDDS 1.0.0
Platform: Windows x86_64
RTPS Version: 2.5
Security: Enabled

Self-test: PASSED (12/12 tests)

Network Interfaces:
  - Ethernet: 192.168.1.100 (multicast: enabled)
  - Loopback: 127.0.0.1 (multicast: disabled)

Windows Firewall Configuration​

DDS uses UDP multicast. Configure Windows Firewall:

Using PowerShell (Administrator)​

# Allow HDDS through firewall
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "HDDS DDS" `
    -Direction Inbound `
    -Protocol UDP `
    -LocalPort 7400-7500 `
    -Action Allow

# Or for your specific application
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "My DDS App" `
    -Program "C:\path\to\your\app.exe" `
    -Action Allow

Using GUI​

  1. Open Windows Security → Firewall & network protection
  2. Click Allow an app through firewall
  3. Click Change settings → Allow another app
  4. Add your application or allow ports 7400-7500 UDP

Multicast Configuration​

Windows supports multicast by default on most networks. Verify:

# Check route table
route print | findstr 239

# If multicast isn't working, try:
route add 239.255.0.0 mask 255.255.0.0 192.168.1.1
VPN and Virtual Adapters

VPNs and virtual network adapters (VMware, VirtualBox, Docker) can interfere with multicast. Try disabling them for testing.

WSL2 Considerations​

If using WSL2:

# In WSL2, multicast may require additional configuration
# Use host networking or configure port forwarding

For best performance, use native Windows builds rather than WSL.

Troubleshooting​

"DLL not found" Error​

# Add HDDS to PATH
$env:PATH += ";C:\Program Files\HDDS\bin"

# Or copy DLLs to application directory
copy "C:\Program Files\HDDS\bin\hdds.dll" .\

"Access Denied" on Ports​

Run as Administrator or use ports above 1024.

Multicast Not Working​

# Check if multicast is enabled on your adapter
Get-NetAdapter | Get-NetIPInterface | Select-Object InterfaceAlias, InterfaceMetric

# Disable firewall temporarily for testing
Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain,Public,Private -Enabled False

Visual Studio Linker Errors​

Ensure you're using the correct architecture:

  • x64 project → hdds.lib from lib/x64
  • x86 project → hdds.lib from lib/x86

Next Steps​