Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up a Local AEM Environment

This guide walks you through how to set up a full local AEM environment, including:

Author (4502) + Publish (4503) + Dispatcher (8080)

Goal Overview

Component	Location	Port
Author	Your local machine	:4502
Publish	Your local machine	:4503
Dispatcher	Local Apache Server	:8080

1. Install Java & AEM SDK

A. Java 11

AEM requires Java 11 (not Java 17!).

bashCopyEditjava -version
# If Java 11 is not installed, install AdoptOpenJDK 11 or Temurin 11

B. AEM SDK (Author & Publish .jar)

Download from Adobe (requires partner or enterprise access).
Typical file names:

aem-sdk-quickstart-author-p4502.jar
aem-sdk-quickstart-publish-p4503.jar

Place the files into two separate folders:

bashCopyEdit/aem-dev/
├── author/
│   └── aem-author-p4502.jar
├── publish/
│   └── aem-publish-p4503.jar

C. Start the Instances for the First Time

bashCopyEdit# Start Author
cd author
java -jar aem-author-p4502.jar

# Start Publish
cd ../publish
java -jar aem-publish-p4503.jar

On first run, it will unzip crx-quickstart and initialize the repository.

2. Change Default Password (admin / admin)

Access:

Author: http://localhost:4502
Publish: http://localhost:4503

→ Make sure to change the password to avoid security warnings.

3. Setup Dispatcher (Apache HTTP + Dispatcher Module)

A. Install Apache HTTP Server (if not already)

Mac: brew install httpd
Linux: sudo apt install apache2
Windows: Use WAMP/XAMPP or Docker (recommended)

B. Copy `dispatcher-sdk` Folder from AEM SDK Zip

Inside the AEM SDK provided by Adobe, you’ll find:

cssCopyEditdispatcher-sdk/
├── src/
│   ├── conf.d/
│   ├── conf.dispatcher.d/

Copy the entire dispatcher-sdk/ folder to use as your local workspace.

C. Run Dispatcher via Docker (Recommended)

Adobe supports running Dispatcher in Docker for easier setup:

bashCopyEditcd dispatcher-sdk
docker-compose up

→ Apache will be available at http://localhost:8080 by default.

4. Configure `dispatcher.any`

Edit the file: dispatcher-sdk/src/conf.dispatcher.d/dispatcher.any

apacheCopyEdit/renders {
  /0001 {
    /hostname "localhost"
    /port "4503"
  }
}

→ This forwards requests from Dispatcher to the local AEM Publish instance.

5. Verify the Setup

URL	Function
`http://localhost:4502`	AEM Author UI
`http://localhost:4503`	AEM Publish UI
`http://localhost:8080/content/...`	Dispatcher proxy to Publish

To enable auto-caching: Define rules under the /cache section
To expose APIs (Servlets): Configure the /filter allow list
To debug Dispatcher: Check logs at dispatcher-sdk/logs/

Summary

Task	Action Command/Note
Run AEM Author	`java -jar aem-author-p4502.jar`
Run AEM Publish	`java -jar aem-publish-p4503.jar`
Setup Dispatcher (8080)	Use SDK + Docker or Apache HTTP server locally
Configure Dispatcher Target	Edit `dispatcher.any` for hostname + port
Test Access	Visit `http://localhost:8080/content/wknd.html`