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Operating system prerequisites

The topics in this section detail system settings that must be configured when you install the operating system.

The topics in this section detail system settings that must be configured when you install the operating system. These settings cannot be easily changed after the operating system is installed.

1 - Supported platforms

The Vertica installer checks the type of operating system that is installed.

The Vertica installer checks the type of operating system that is installed. If the operating system does not meet one of the supported operating systems (See Vertica server and Management Console), or the operating system cannot be determined, then the installer halts.

The installer generates one of the following issue identifiers if it detects an unsupported operating system:

  • [S0320] - Fedora OS is not supported.

  • [S0321] - The version of Red Hat/CentOS is not supported.

  • [S0322] - The version of Ubuntu/Debian is not supported.

  • [S0323] - The operating system could not be determined. The unknown operating system is not supported because it does not match the list of supported operating systems.

  • [S0324] - The version of Red Hat is not supported.

2 - Recommended storage format types

Choose the storage format type based on deployment requirements. Vertica recommends the following storage format types where applicable:

  • ext3

  • ext4

  • NFS for backup

  • XFS

  • Amazon S3 Standard for communal storage and related backup tasks when running in Eon Mode

The storage format type at your backup and temporary directory locations must support fcntl lockf (POSIX) file locking.

3 - Swap space requirements

Vertica requires at least 2 GB swap partition regardless of the amount of RAM installed on your system.

Vertica requires at least 2 GB swap partition regardless of the amount of RAM installed on your system. The installer reports this issue with identifier S0180.

For typical installations Vertica recommends that you partition your system with a 2GB primary partition for swap regardless of the amount of installed RAM. Larger swap space is acceptable, but unnecessary.

If you do not have at least a 2 GB swap partition then you may experience performance issues when running Vertica.

You typically define the swap partition when you install Linux. See your platform’s documentation for details on configuring the swap partition.

4 - Disk block size requirements

Vertica recommends that your disk block size be 4096 bytes, the default on ext4 and XFS file systems.

Vertica recommends that your disk block size be 4096 bytes, the default on ext4 and XFS file systems.

You set the disk block size when you format your file system. If you change the block size, you will need to reformat the disk.

For more information, see Recommended storage format types.

5 - Memory requirements

Vertica requires that your hosts have a minimum of 1GB of RAM per logical processor.

Individual host requirements

Vertica requires that your hosts have a minimum of 1GB of RAM per logical processor. If your hosts do not meet this requirement, the installer reports this issue with the identifier S0190.

For performance reasons, you typically require more RAM than the minimum. For more information on sizing your hardware, see the Vertica Knowledge Base Hardware documents.

RAM should be identical on all hosts

In addition to the individual host RAM requirement, the installer also reports a hint if the hosts in your cluster do not have identical amounts of RAM. Ensuring your host have the same amount of RAM helps prevent performance issues if one or more nodes has less RAM than the other nodes in your database.