How to setup standalone instance of Apache Zookeeper 3.4.6 on localhost for Mac OS X?

Apache Zookeeper is a distributed state manager that other systems use for state management. You could also setup a standalone zookeeper instead of a built in one to share this zookeeper instance across multiple technologies like Kafka, Storm, Hbase etc so that each instance does not start its own instance. These instruction let you setup Zookeeper as a standalone instance

1. You have admin privileges for your development box
2. Make sure Java 7 or 8 is installed and configured as default as discussed in How to install Java 7 and Java 8 in Mac OS X

//create a folder for zookeeper under the /usr/local directory
cd /usr/local
sudo mkdir zookeeper

//create the data directory for Zookeeper under the var/lib
cd /var/lib
sudo mkdir zookeeper

//create a file named myid under the data directory
cd /var/lib/zookeeper
vi myid

//Put only the number 1.
1

//save the file
:wq

if you do a cat myid it should just display 1

//download zookeeper on any local directory
wget http://apache.arvixe.com/zookeeper/zookeeper-3.4.6/zookeeper-3.4.6.tar.gz

//unpack the file
tar xzf zookeeper-3.4.6.tar.gz


//move the zookeeper installation to the usr/local/zookeeper 

//from the download directory
mv zookeeper-3.4.6 /usr/local/zookeeper/

//switch to the /usr/local/zookeeper directory
cd /usr/local/zookeeper/zookeeper-3.4.6

//move to the conf folder for the version of zookeeper like
cd conf

//copy the sample config to zoo.cfg
cp zoo_sample.cfg zoo.cfg

//switch to the conf directory
cd /usr/local/zookeeper/zookeeper-3.4.6/conf

edit the zoo.cfg file and change the data directory to

vi zoo.cfg

//change data directory to
dataDir=/var/lib/zookeeper

#include the cluster servers

server.1=YOURMACHOSTNAME.local:2888:3888


//move to the root of zookeeper

cd /usr/local/zookeeper/zookeeper-3.4.6

//start zookeeper
bin/zkServer.sh start

//if you need to stop
bin/zkServer.sh stop

//check if the process is running
jps

//check for QuorumPeerMain

//check the status of zookeeper

bin/zkServer.sh status

//This should display
Mode: standalone