Starting the database

You can start a database through one of the following:.

You can start a database through one of the following:

Management Console
Administration Tools
Command Line

Administration tools

Open the Administration Tools and select View Database Cluster State to make sure that all nodes are down and that no other database is running.
Open the Administration Tools. See Using the administration tools for information about accessing the Administration Tools.
On the Main Menu, select Start Database,and then select OK.
Select the database to start, and then click OK.

Caution
You should start only one database at a time. If you start more than one database at any time, the results can be unpredictable. Users might encounter resource conflicts or perform operations on the wrong database.
Enter the database password and click OK.
When prompted that the database started successfully, click OK.
Check the log files to make sure that no startup problems occurred.

Command line

You can start a database with the command line tool start_db:

$ /opt/vertica/bin/admintools -t start_db -d db-name \
     [-p password] [-F] [-s host1,host2,...]

Option Description

Option	Description
`-p` `--password`	Required only during database creation, when you install a new license. If the license is valid, the option `-p` (or `--password`) is not required to start the database and is silently ignored. This is by design, as the database can only be started by the user who (as part of the verticadba UNIX user group) initially created the database or who has root or su privileges. If the license is invalid, Vertica uses the `-p` password argument to attempt to upgrade the license with the license file stored in `/opt/vertica/config/share/license.key`.
`-F` `--force`	Forces the database to start at an epoch that precedes detection of data consistency problems
`-s`	(Eon Mode only) A list of primary node host names or IP addresses. If you use this option, `start_db` attempts to start the database using just the nodes in the list. If not given, `start_db` starts all of the nodes in the database. See Starting Just the Primary Nodes below.

-p --password

Required only during database creation, when you install a new license.

If the license is valid, the option -p (or --password) is not required to start the database and is silently ignored. This is by design, as the database can only be started by the user who (as part of the verticadba UNIX user group) initially created the database or who has root or su privileges.

If the license is invalid, Vertica uses the -p password argument to attempt to upgrade the license with the license file stored in /opt/vertica/config/share/license.key.

-F
--force Forces the database to start at an epoch that precedes detection of data consistency problems

-s (Eon Mode only) A list of primary node host names or IP addresses. If you use this option, start_db attempts to start the database using just the nodes in the list. If not given, start_db starts all of the nodes in the database. See Starting Just the Primary Nodes below.

The following example uses start_db to start a single-node database:

$ /opt/vertica/bin/admintools -t start_db -d VMart
Info:
no password specified, using none
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (DOWN)
Node Status: v_vmart_node0001: (UP)
Database VMart started successfully

Start just the primary nodes in an Eon Mode database

You can start just the primary nodes in an Eon Mode database using the command line. Pass start_db the list of all primary nodes in your database using the -s option.

The hosts for the primary nodes must already be up to start the database. The start_db tool cannot start stopped hosts (such as cloud-based VMs). You must either manually start the hosts or use the MC to start the cluster.

The following example starts the three primary nodes in a six-node Eon Mode database:

$ admintools -t start_db -d verticadb -p 'password' \
   -s 10.11.12.10,10.11.12.20,10.11.12.30
    Starting nodes:
        v_verticadb_node0001 (10.11.12.10)
        v_verticadb_node0002 (10.11.12.20)
        v_verticadb_node0003 (10.11.12.30)
    Starting Vertica on all nodes. Please wait, databases with a large catalog may take a while to initialize.
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0002: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0003: (DOWN)
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0002: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0003: (DOWN)
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0002: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0003: (DOWN)
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0002: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0003: (DOWN)
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0002: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0003: (DOWN)
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0002: (DOWN) v_verticadb_node0003: (DOWN)
    Node Status: v_verticadb_node0001: (UP) v_verticadb_node0002: (UP) v_verticadb_node0003: (UP)
Syncing catalog on verticadb with 2000 attempts.
Database verticadb: Startup Succeeded.  All Nodes are UP

After the database starts, the secondary subclusters are down. You can choose to start them if you need them. See Starting a Subcluster.

Start database with a subset of primary nodes

You can start an Eon Mode database with less than the full set of primary nodes. However, this method is not a best practice. Vertica recommends that you always start your database using all of the primary nodes. You may choose to start a subset of primary nodes if for some reason you cannot start the hosts for all the primary nodes.

Starting the database this way is difficult because the list of hosts you pass to start_db must:

Include a quorum of nodes (at least 50% + 1 of the total number of primary nodes in the cluster).
Have shard coverage of all shards in communal storage. The primary nodes you use to start the database do not attempt to rebalance shard subscriptions while starting up.

If either or both of these conditions are not met, the start_db tool returns an error.

This example attempts to start a database with only 3 of the 9 primary nodes:

$ admintools -t start_db -d verticadb -p 'password' \
    -s 10.11.12.10,10.11.12.20,10.11.12.30
    Starting nodes:
        v_verticadb_node0001 (10.11.12.10)
        v_verticadb_node0002 (10.11.12.20)
        v_verticadb_node0003 (10.11.12.30)
Error: Quorum not satisfied for verticadb.
    3 < minimum 5  of 9 primary nodes.
Attempted to start the following nodes:
Primary
        v_verticadb_node0001 (10.11.12.10)
        v_verticadb_node0003 (10.11.12.30)
        v_verticadb_node0002 (10.11.12.20)
Secondary

 hint: you may want to start all primary nodes in the database
Database start up failed.  Cluster partitioned.

If you attempt to start the database with fewer than the full set of primary nodes and the cluster fails to start, Vertica processes may remain running on some of the hosts. In this case, if you attempt to start the database again, you will receive an error similar to the following:

Error: the vertica process for the database is running on the following hosts:
10.11.12.10
10.11.12.20
10.11.12.30
This may be because the process has not completed previous shutdown activities. Please wait and retry again.
Database start up failed.  Processes still running.
Database verticadb did not start successfully: Processes still running.. Hint: you may need to start all primary nodes.

Before you can start the database, you must stop the Vertica server process on the hosts listed in the error message. Use the admintools menus (see Stopping Vertica on host) or the admintools command line's stop_host tool:

$ admintools -t stop_host -s 10.11.12.10,10.11.12.20,10.11.12.30