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The tasks described in this section are optional and are provided for your convenience. When you have completed this section, proceed to one of the following:
The topics in this section apply to a Vertica cluster installed on-premises. For information on creating Vertica clusters that run on various cloud platforms, see Using Vertica on the cloud.
If you did not supply the -L parameter during setup, or if you did not bypass the -L parameter for a silent install, the first time you log in as the Database Superuser and run the Vertica Administration tools or Management Console, Vertica requires you to install a license key.
Follow the instructions in Managing licenses in the Administrator's Guide.
You can use the Vertica vsql executable image on a non-cluster Linux host to connect to a Vertica database.
On Red Hat, CentOS, and SUSE systems, you can install the client driver RPM, which includes the vsql executable. See Installing the client RPM on red hat and SUSE for details.
If the non-cluster host is running the same version of Linux as the cluster, copy the image file to the remote system. For example:
$ scp host01:/opt/vertica/bin/vsql .$ ./vsql
If the non-cluster host is running a different distribution or version of Linux than your cluster hosts, you must install the Vertica server RPM in order to get vsql:
Download the appropriate RPM package by browsing to Vertica website. On the Support tab, select Customer Downloads.
If the system you used to download the RPM is not the non-cluster host, transfer the file to the non-cluster host.
Log into the non-cluster host as root and install the RPM package using the command:
# rpm -Uvh filename
Where filename is the package you downloaded. Note that you do not have to run the install_vertica script on the non-cluster host to use vsql.
Use the same Command-line options that you would on a cluster host.
You cannot run vsql on a Cygwin bash shell (Windows). Use ssh to connect to a cluster host, then run vsql.
vsql is also available for additional platforms. See Installing the vsql client.
After you install Vertica, install drivers on the client systems from which you plan to access your databases. Vertica supplies drivers for ADO.NET, JDBC, ODBC, OLE DB, Perl, and Python. For instructions on installing these drivers, see Client drivers.
You can create a database in Enterprise Mode or Eon Mode. After you create a database, the functionality is largely the same regardless of the mode. The differences in these two modes lay in their architecture, deployment, and scalability.
Enterprise Mode database architecture distributes data across local nodes, and works on-premises or in the cloud. Consider creating the database in this mode on a cluster of predetermined size, which is good for running large queries quickly. Because it persistently stores its data locally, you do not need to have access to communal storage on Amazon S3 to use an Enterprise Mode database. Enterprise Mode conceptsincludes an overview of how data store works on a database running in Enterprise Mode.
Eon Mode database architecture leverages the flexibility of EC2 instances and the persistence of Amazon S3. Eon Mode databases are ideal when you want to frequently scale up your cluster in order to run many short, concurrent queries. Because an Eon Mode database stores its data in a persistent location outside of its local nodes, you can rapidly adjust the size of your cluster without interrupting ongoing workloads when you do so. (See Eon Mode for more about Eon Mode database concepts.)
Separating the computational processes of Vertica from its storage layer is what allows you to scale your Eon Mode database up quickly as your workload changes; in Eon Mode, a scaled up cluster means the database can increase the number of queries you can run concurrently. You can only run Eon Mode on Amazon Web Services.
Running Vertica in Eon Mode might be a good choice in the following situations:
You are deploying Vertica in the AWS cloud.
You have variable workloads that sometimes require a number of short, simultaneous queries.
You need to elastically scale your database resources.
You can install Vertica with Eon Mode using an Amazon CloudFormation template and in-browser wizards provided by Vertica Management Console. See Vertica on Amazon Web Services and Creating an Eon Mode database in AWS with MC for more information.
To get started using Vertica immediately after installation, create a database. You can use either the Administration Tools or the Management Console. To create a database using MC, refer to Creating a database using MC.
For a more detailed walk through of database creation steps, see Creating a database.
Follow these step to begin creating a database using the Administration Tools for the first time after installing Vertica.
Log in as the database administrator, and type admintools to bring up the Administration Tools.
When the EULA (end-user license agreement) window opens, type accept to proceed. A window displays, requesting the location of the license key file you downloaded from the Vertica Web site. The default path is /tmp/vlicense.dat.
If you are using the Vertica Community Edition, click OK without entering a license key.
If you are using the Vertica Premium Edition, type the absolute path to your license key (for example, /tmp/vlicense.dat) and click OK.
From the Administration Tools Main Menu, click Configuration Menu, and then click OK.
Click Create Database, and click OK to start the database creation wizard.
For a detailed walkthrough of database creation for Enterprise Mode and Eon Mode databases, see Creating a database.