Vertica Documentation – Prepare disk storage locations

Admin: Specifying disk storage location during database creation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When you invoke the Create Database command in the Administration tools, a dialog box allows you to specify the catalog and data locations. These locations must exist on each host in the cluster and must be owned by the database administrator.

When you click OK, Vertica automatically creates the following subdirectories:

catalog-pathname/database-name/node-name_catalog/data-pathname/database-name/node-name_data/

For example, if you use the default value (the database administrator's home directory) of /home/dbadmin for the Stock Exchange example database, the catalog and data directories are created on each node in the cluster as follows:

/home/dbadmin/Stock_Schema/stock_schema_node1_host01_catalog/home/dbadmin/Stock_Schema/stock_schema_node1_host01_data

Notes

Catalog and data path names must contain only alphanumeric characters and cannot have leading space characters. Failure to comply with these restrictions will result in database creation failure.
Vertica refuses to overwrite a directory if it appears to be in use by another database. Therefore, if you created a database for evaluation purposes, dropped the database, and want to reuse the database name, make sure that the disk storage location previously used has been completely cleaned up. See Managing storage locations for details.

Admin: Specifying disk storage location on MC

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can use the MC interface to specify where you want to store database metadata on the cluster in the following ways:

When you configure MC the first time
When you create new databases using on MC

Admin: Configuring disk usage to optimize performance

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Once you have created your initial storage location, you can add additional storage locations to the database later. Not only does this provide additional space, it lets you control disk usage and increase I/O performance by isolating files that have different I/O or access patterns. For example, consider:

Isolating execution engine temporary files from data files by creating a separate storage location for temp space.
Creating labeled storage locations and storage policies, in which selected database objects are stored on different storage locations based on measured performance statistics or predicted access patterns.

Admin: Using shared storage with Vertica

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If using shared SAN storage, ensure there is no contention among the nodes for disk space or bandwidth.

Each host must have its own catalog and data locations. Hosts cannot share catalog or data locations.
Configure the storage so that there is enough I/O bandwidth for each node to access the storage independently.

Admin: Viewing database storage information

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can view node-specific information on your Vertica cluster through the Management Console. See Monitoring Vertica Using Management Console for details.

Admin: Anti-virus scanning exclusions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You should exclude the Vertica catalog and data directories from anti-virus scanning. Certain anti-virus products have been identified as targeting Vertica directories, and sometimes lock or delete files in them. This can adversely affect Vertica performance and data integrity.

Identified anti-virus products include the following:

ClamAV
SentinelOne
Sophos
Symantec
Twistlock

Important

This list is not comprehensive.

Vertica Documentation – Prepare disk storage locations

Admin: Specifying disk storage location during database creation

Notes

Admin: Specifying disk storage location on MC

See also

Admin: Configuring disk usage to optimize performance

See also

Admin: Using shared storage with Vertica

Admin: Viewing database storage information

Admin: Anti-virus scanning exclusions

Important