Deploy AWS instances for your Vertica database cluster

• 1: Configure and launch an instance
• 2: Connect to an instance
• 3: Prepare instances for cluster formation
• 4: Change instances on AWS
• 5: Configure storage
• 6: Create a cluster
• 7: Use Management Console (MC) on AWS
• 7.1: Log in to MC and managing your cluster

1 - Configure and launch an instance

After you configure your network settings on AWS, configure and launch the instances onto which you will install Vertica. An Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance without a Vertica AMI is similar to a traditional host. Just like with an on-premises cluster, you must prepare and configure your cluster and network at the hardware level before you can install Vertica.

When you create an EC2 instance on AWS using a Vertica AMI, the instance includes the Vertica software and the recommended configuration. The Vertica AMI acts as a template, requiring fewer configuration steps. Vertica recommends that you use the Vertica AMI as is—without modification.

Configure EC2 instances in AWS

1. Select the Vertica AMI from the AWS marketplace.

2. Select the desired fulfillment method.

3. Configure the following:

   • A supported instance type

   • The number of instances you want to launch. A Vertica cluster usually uses identically configured instances of the same type.

   • A VPC

   • Placement Group

Add storage to your instances

Consider the following issues when you add storage to your instances:

• Add a number of drives equal to the number of physical cores in your instance. For example, for a c3.8xlarge instance, 16 drives. For an r3.4xlarge, add 8 drives.

• Do not store your information on the root volume.

• Amazon EBS provides durable, block-level storage volumes that you can attach to running instances. For guidance on selecting and configuring an Amazon EBS volume type, see Amazon EBS Volume Types in the Amazon Web Services documentation.

Decide whether to configure EBS volumes as a RAID array

You can choose to configure your EBS volumes into a RAID 0 array to improve disk performance. Before doing so, use the vioperf utility to determine whether the performance of the EBS volumes is fast enough without using them in a RAID array. Pass vioperf the path to a mount point for an EBS volume. In this example, an EBS volume is mounted on a directory named /vertica/data:

[dbadmin@ip-10-11-12-13 ~]$ /opt/vertica/bin/vioperf /vertica/data

The minimum required I/O is 20 MB/s read and write per physical processor core on
each node, in full duplex i.e. reading and writing at this rate simultaneously,
concurrently on all nodes of the cluster. The recommended I/O is 40 MB/s per
physical core on each node. For example, the I/O rate for a server node with 2
hyper-threaded six-core CPUs is 240 MB/s required minimum, 480 MB/s recommended.

Using direct io (buffer size=1048576, alignment=512) for directory "/vertica/data"

test      | directory     | counter name        | counter | counter   | counter       | counter       | thread | %CPU  | %IO Wait  | elapsed | remaining
          |               |                     | value   | value (10 | value/core    | value/core    | count  |       |           | time (s)| time (s)
          |               |                     |         | sec avg)  |               | (10 sec avg)  |        |       |           |         |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 259     | 259       | 32.375        | 32.375        | 8      | 4     | 11        | 10      | 65
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 248     | 232       | 31            | 29            | 8      | 4     | 11        | 20      | 55
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 234       | 30            | 29.25         | 8      | 4     | 11        | 30      | 45
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 233       | 30            | 29.125        | 8      | 4     | 13        | 40      | 35
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 233       | 30            | 29.125        | 8      | 4     | 13        | 50      | 25
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 232       | 30            | 29            | 8      | 4     | 12        | 60      | 15
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 238       | 30            | 29.75         | 8      | 4     | 12        | 70      | 5
Write     | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 235       | 30            | 29.375        | 8      | 4     | 12        | 75      | 0
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 237+237 | 237+237   | 29.625+29.625 | 29.625+29.625 | 8      | 4     | 22        | 10      | 65
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 235+235 | 234+234   | 29.375+29.375 | 29.25+29.25   | 8      | 4     | 20        | 20      | 55
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 234+234 | 235+235   | 29.25+29.25   | 29.375+29.375 | 8      | 4     | 20        | 30      | 45
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 233+233 | 234+234   | 29.125+29.125 | 29.25+29.25   | 8      | 4     | 18        | 40      | 35
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 233+233 | 234+234   | 29.125+29.125 | 29.25+29.25   | 8      | 4     | 20        | 50      | 25
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 234+234 | 235+235   | 29.25+29.25   | 29.375+29.375 | 8      | 3     | 19        | 60      | 15
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 233+233 | 236+236   | 29.125+29.125 | 29.5+29.5     | 8      | 4     | 21        | 70      | 5
ReWrite   | /vertica/data | (MB-read+MB-write)/s| 232+232 | 236+236   | 29+29         | 29.5+29.5     | 8      | 4     | 21        | 75      | 0
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 248     | 248       | 31            | 31            | 8      | 4     | 12        | 10      | 65
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 241     | 236       | 30.125        | 29.5          | 8      | 4     | 15        | 20      | 55
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 232       | 30            | 29            | 8      | 4     | 10        | 30      | 45
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 232       | 30            | 29            | 8      | 4     | 12        | 40      | 35
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 240     | 234       | 30            | 29.25         | 8      | 4     | 12        | 50      | 25
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 238     | 235       | 29.75         | 29.375        | 8      | 4     | 15        | 60      | 15
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 238     | 232       | 29.75         | 29            | 8      | 4     | 13        | 70      | 5
Read      | /vertica/data | MB/s                | 238     | 238       | 29.75         | 29.75         | 8      | 3     | 9         | 75      | 0
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 22909   | 22909     | 2863.62       | 2863.62       | 8      | 0     | 6         | 10      | 65
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21989   | 21068     | 2748.62       | 2633.5        | 8      | 0     | 6         | 20      | 55
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21639   | 20936     | 2704.88       | 2617          | 8      | 0     | 7         | 30      | 45
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21478   | 20999     | 2684.75       | 2624.88       | 8      | 0     | 6         | 40      | 35
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21381   | 20995     | 2672.62       | 2624.38       | 8      | 0     | 5         | 50      | 25
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21310   | 20953     | 2663.75       | 2619.12       | 8      | 0     | 5         | 60      | 15
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21280   | 21103     | 2660          | 2637.88       | 8      | 0     | 8         | 70      | 5
SkipRead  | /vertica/data | seeks/s             | 21272   | 21142     | 2659          | 2642.75       | 8      | 0     | 6         | 75      | 0

If the EBS volume read and write performance (the entries with Read and Write in column 1 of the output) is greater than 20MB/s per physical processor core (columns 6 and 7), you do not need to configure the EBS volumes as a RAID array to meet the minimum requirements to run Vertica. You may still consider configuring your EBS volumes as a RAID array if the performance is less than the optimal 40MB/s per physical core (as is the case in this example).

If you determine you need to configure your EBS volumes as a RAID 0 array, see the AWS documentation topic RAID Configuration on Linux the steps you need to take.

Security group and access

1. Choose between your previously configured security group or the default security group.

2. Configure S3 access for your nodes by creating and assigning an IAM role to your EC2 instance. See AWS authentication for more information.

Launch instances

Verify that your instances are running.

2 - Connect to an instance

Using your private key, take these steps to connect to your cluster through the instance to which you attached an elastic IPaddress:

1. As the dbadmin user, type the following command, substituting your ssh key:

   $ ssh --ssh-identity <ssh key> dbadmin@elasticipaddress
   

2. Select Instances from the Navigation panel.

3. Select the instance that is attached to the Elastic IP.

4. Click Connect.

5. On Connect to Your Instance, choose one of the following options:

   • A Java SSH Client directly from my browser—Add the path to your private key in the field Private key path, andclick Launch SSH Client.

   • Connect with a standalone SSH client**—**Follow the steps required by your standalone SSH client.

Connect to an instance from windows using putty

If you connect to the instance from the Windows operating system, and plan to use Putty:

1. Convert your key file using PuTTYgen.

2. Connect with Putty or WinSCP (connect via the elastic IP), using your converted key (i.e., the *ppk file).

3. Move your key file (the *pem file) to the root dir using Putty or WinSCP.

3 - Prepare instances for cluster formation

After you create your instances, you need to prepare them for cluster formation. Prepare your instances by adding your AWS .pem key and your Vertica license.

By default, each AMI includes a Community Edition license. Once Vertica is installed, you can find the license at this location:

/opt/vertica/config/licensing/vertica_community_edition.license.key

1. As the dbadmin user, copy your *pem file (from where you saved it locally) onto your primary instance.

   Depending upon the procedure you use to copy the file, the permissions on the file may change. If permissions change, the install_vertica script fails with a message similar to the following:

   FATAL (19): Failed Login Validation 10.0.3.158, cannot resolve or connect to host as root.
   

   If you receive a failure message, enter the following command to correct permissions on your *pem file:

   $ chmod 600 /<name-of-pem>.pem
   

2. Copy your Vertica license over to your primary instance, placing it in your home directory or other known location.

4 - Change instances on AWS

You can change instance types on AWS. For example, you can downgrade a c3.8xlarge instance to c3.4xlarge. See Supported AWS instance types for a list of valid AWS instances.

When you change AWS instances you may need to:

• Reconfigure memory settings

• Reset memory size in a resource pool

• Reset number of CPUs in a resource pool

Reconfigure memory settings

If you change to an AWS instance type that requires a different amount of memory, you may need to recompute the following and then reset the values:

• min_free_kbytes setting

• max_map_count

Reset memory size in a resource pool

If you used absolute memory in a resource pool, you may need to reconfigure the memory using the MEMORYSIZE parameter in ALTER RESOURCE POOL.

Reset number of CPUs in a resource pool

If your new instance requires a different number of CPUs, you may need to reset the CPUAFFINITYSET parameter in ALTER RESOURCE POOL.

5 - Configure storage

Vertica recommends that you store information — especially your data and catalog directories — on dedicated Amazon EBS volumes formatted with a supported file system. The /opt/vertica/sbin/configure_software_raid.sh script automates the storage configuration process.

Vertica performance tests Eon Mode with a per-node EBS volume of up to 2TB. For best performance, combine multiple EBS volumes into a RAID 0 array.

For more information about RAID 0 arrays and EBS volumes, see RAID configuration on Linux.

Determining volume names

Because the storage configuration script requires the volume names that you want to configure, you must identify the volumes on your machine. The following command lists the contents of the /dev directory. Search for the volumes that begin with xvd:

$ ls /dev

Combining volumes for storage

The configure_software_raid.sh shell script combines your EBS volumes into a RAID 0 array.

The following steps combine your EBS volumes into RAID 0 with the configure_software_raid.sh script:

1. Edit the /opt/vertica/sbin/configure_software_raid.sh shell file as follows:

   1. Comment out the safety exit command at the beginning .

   2. Change the sample volume names to your own volume names, which you noted previously. Add more volumes, if necessary.

2. Run the /opt/vertica/sbin/configure_software_raid.sh shell file. Running this file creates a RAID 0 volume and mounts it to /vertica/data.

3. Change the owner of the newly created volume to dbadmin with chown.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for each node on your cluster.

6 - Create a cluster

On AWS, use the install_vertica script to combine instances and create a cluster. Check your My Instances page on AWS for a list of current instances and their associated IP addresses. You need these IP addresses when you run install_vertica.

Create a cluster as follows:

1. While connected to your primary instance, enter the following command to combine your instances into a cluster. Substitute the IP addresses for your instances and include your root *.pem file name.

   $ sudo /opt/vertica/sbin/install_vertica --hosts 10.0.11.164,10.0.11.165,10.0.11.166 \
     --dba-user-password-disabled --point-to-point --data-dir /vertica/data \
     --ssh-identity ~/name-of-pem.pem --license license.file
   

   Note

   *  If you are using Vertica Community Edition, which limits you to three instances, you can specify `-L CE` with no license file. 
   
   * When you issue install_vertica or update_vertica on a Vertica AMI script, --point-to-point is the default. This parameter configures <a class="glosslink" href="/en/glossary/spread/" title="An open source toolkit used in Vertica to provide a high performance messaging service that is resilient to network faults.">Spread</a> to use direct point-to-point communication between all Vertica nodes, which is a requirement for clusters on AWS.
   
   * If you are using IPv6 network addresses to identify the hosts in your cluster, use the --ipv6 flag in your `install_vertica` command. You must also use IP addresses instead of host names, as the AWS DNS server cannot resolve host names to IPv6 addresses.
   

2. After combining your instances, Vertica recommends deleting your *.pem key from your cluster to reduce security risks. The example below uses the shred command to delete the file:

   $ shred name-of-pem.pem
   

3. After creating one or more clusters, create your database.

For complete information on the install_vertica script and its parameters, see Installing Vertica with the installation script.

Check open ports manually using the netcat utility

Once your cluster is up and running, you can check ports manually through the command line using the netcat (nc) utility. What follows is an example using the utility to check ports.

Before performing the procedure, choose the private IP addresses of two nodes in your cluster.

The examples given below use nodes with the private IPs:

10.0.11.60 10.0.11.61

Install the nc utility on your nodes. Once installed, you can issue commands to check the ports on one node from another node.

1. To check a TCP port:

   1. Put one node in listen mode and specify the port. The following sample shows how to put IP 10.0.11.60 into listen mode for port 4804.

      [root@ip-10-0-11-60 ~]# nc -l 4804
      

   2. From the other node, run nc specifying the IP address of the node you just put in listen mode, and the same port number.

      [root@ip-10-0-11-61 ~]# nc 10.0.11.60 4804
      

   3. Enter sample text from either node and it should show up on the other node. To cancel after you have checked a port, enter Ctrl+C.

   Note

   Note: To check a UDP port, use the same nc commands with the –u option.

   [root@ip-10-0-11-60 ~]# nc -u -l 4804
   [root@ip-10-0-11-61 ~]# nc -u 10.0.11.60 4804
   

7 - Use Management Console (MC) on AWS

Management Console (MC) is a database management tool that allows you to view and manage aspects of your cluster. Vertica provides an MC AMI, which you can use with AWS. The MC AMI allows you to create an instance, dedicated to running MC, that you can attach to a new or existing Vertica cluster on AWS. You can create and attach an MC instance to your Vertica on AWS cluster at any time.

For information on requirements and installing MC, see Installing Management Console.

See also

• Network ACL settings

7.1 - Log in to MC and managing your cluster

After you launch your MC instance and configure your security group settings, log in to your database. To do so, use the elastic IP you specified during instance creation.

From this elastic IP, you can manage your Vertica database on AWS using standard MC procedures.

Considerations when using MC on AWS

• Because MC is already installed on the MC AMI, the MC installation process does not apply.

• To uninstall MC on AWS, follow the procedures provided in Uninstalling Management Console before terminating the MC Instance.

Related topics

• Using Management Console

• Managing Database Clusters