Configuration menu options

• 1: Creating a database
• 2: Dropping a database
• 3: Viewing a database
• 4: Setting the restart policy
• 5: Installing external procedure executable files

1 - Creating a database

Use the procedures below to create either an Enterprise Mode or Eon Mode database with admintools. To create a database with an in-browser wizard in Management Console, see Creating a database using MC. For details about creating a database with admintools through the command line, see Writing administration tools scripts.

Create an Enterprise Mode database

1. On the Configuration Menu, click Create Database. Click OK.

2. Select Enterprise Mode as your database mode.

3. Enter the name of the database and an optional comment. Click OK.

4. Enter a password. See Creating a database name and password for rules.

   If you do not enter a password, you are prompted to confirm: Yes to enter a superuser password, No to create a database without one.

   Caution

   If you do not enter a password at this point, superuser password is set to empty. Unless the database is for evaluation or academic purposes, Vertica strongly recommends that you enter a superuser password.

5. If you entered a password, enter the password again.

6. Select the hosts to include in the database. The hosts in this list are the ones that were specified at installation time ( install_vertica -s).

   

7. Specify the directories in which to store the catalog and data files.

   

   Note

   Catalog and data paths must contain only alphanumeric characters and cannot have leading space characters. Failure to comply with these restrictions could result in database creation failure.

   Note

   Do not use a shared directory for more than one node. Data and catalog directories must be distinct for each node. Multiple nodes must not be allowed to write to the same data or catalog directory.

8. Check the current database definition for correctness. Click Yes to proceed.

   

9. A message indicates that you have successfully created a database. Click OK.

You can also create an Enterprise Mode database using admintools through the command line, for example:

$ admintools -t create_db --data_path=/home/dbadmin --catalog_path=/home/dbadmin --database=verticadb --password=password --hosts=localhost

For more information, see Writing administration tools scripts.

Create an Eon Mode database

1. On the Configuration Menu, click Create Database. Click OK.

2. Select Eon Mode as your database mode.

3. Enter the name of the database and an optional comment. Click OK.

4. Enter a password. See Creating a database name and password for rules.

   AWS only: If you do not enter a password, you are prompted to confirm: Yes to enter a superuser password, No to create a database without one.

   Caution

   If you do not enter a password at this point, superuser password is set to empty. Unless the database is for evaluation or academic purposes, Vertica strongly recommends that you enter a superuser password.

5. If you entered a password, enter the password again.

6. Select the hosts to include in the database. The hosts in this list are those specified at installation time ( install_vertica -s).

7. Specify the directories in which to store the catalog and depot, depot size, communal storage location, and number of shards.

   • Depot Size: Use an integer followed by %, K, G, or T. Default is 60% of the disk total disk space of the filesystem storing the depot.

   • Communal Storage: Use an existing Amazon S3 bucket in the same region as your instances. Specify a new subfolder name, which Vertica will dynamically create within the existing S3 bucket. For example, s3://existingbucket/newstorage1. You can create a new subfolder within existing ones, but database creation will roll back if you do not specify any new subfolder name.

   • Number of Shards: Use a whole number. The default is equal to the number of nodes. For optimal performance, the number of shards should be no greater than 2x the number of nodes. When the number of nodes is greater than the number of shards (with ETS), the throughput of dashboard queries improves. When the number of shards exceeds the number of nodes, you can expand the cluster in the future to improve the performance of long analytic queries.

     

   Note

   Catalog and depot paths must contain only alphanumeric characters and cannot have leading space characters. Failure to comply with these restrictions could result in database creation failure.

8. Check the current database definition for correctness. Click Yes to proceed.

9. A message indicates that you successfully created a database. Click OK.

In on-premises, AWS, and Azure environments, you can create an Eon Mode database using admintools through the command line. For instructions specific to your environment, see Create a database in Eon Mode.

2 - Dropping a database

This tool drops an existing database. Only the Database Superuser is allowed to drop a database.

1. Stop the database.

2. On the Configuration Menu, click Drop Database and then click OK.

3. Select the database to drop and click OK.

4. Click Yes to confirm that you want to drop the database.

5. Type yes and click OK to reconfirm that you really want to drop the database.

6. A message indicates that you have successfully dropped the database. Click OK.

When Vertica drops the database, it also automatically drops the node definitions that refer to the database . The following exceptions apply:

• Another database uses a node definition. If another database refers to any of these node definitions, none of the node definitions are dropped.

• A node definition is the only node defined for the host. (Vertica uses node definitions to locate hosts that are available for database creation, so removing the only node defined for a host would make the host unavailable for new databases.)

3 - Viewing a database

This tool displays the characteristics of an existing database.

1. On the Configuration Menu, select View Database and click OK.

2. Select the database to view.

3. Vertica displays the following information about the database:

   • The name of the database.

   • The name and location of the log file for the database.

   • The hosts within the database cluster.

   • The value of the restart policy setting.

     Note: This setting determines whether nodes within a K-Safe database are restarted when they are rebooted. See Setting the restart policy.

   • The database port.

   • The name and location of the catalog directory.

4 - Setting the restart policy

The Restart Policy enables you to determine whether or not nodes in a K-Safe database are automatically restarted when they are rebooted. Since this feature does not automatically restart nodes if the entire database is DOWN, it is not useful for databases that are not K-Safe.

To set the Restart Policy for a database:

1. Open the Administration Tools.

2. On the Main Menu, select Configuration Menu, and click OK.

3. In the Configuration Menu, select Set Restart Policy, and click OK.

4. Select the database for which you want to set the Restart Policy, and click OK.

5. Select one of the following policies for the database:

   • Never — Nodes are never restarted automatically.

   • K-Safe — Nodes are automatically restarted if the database cluster is still UP. This is the default setting.

   • Always — Node on a single node database is restarted automatically.

     Note

     Always does not work if a single node database was not shutdown cleanly or crashed.

6. Click OK.

Best practice for restoring failed hardware

Following this procedure will prevent Vertica from misdiagnosing missing disk or bad mounts as data corruptions, which would result in a time-consuming, full-node recovery.

If a server fails due to hardware issues, for example a bad disk or a failed controller, upon repairing the hardware:

1. Reboot the machine into runlevel 1, which is a root and console-only mode.

   Runlevel 1 prevents network connectivity and keeps Vertica from attempting to reconnect to the cluster.

2. In runlevel 1, validate that the hardware has been repaired, the controllers are online, and any RAID recover is able to proceed.

   Note

   You do not need to initialize RAID recover in runlevel 1; simply validate that it can recover.

3. Once the hardware is confirmed consistent, only then reboot to runlevel 3 or higher.

At this point, the network activates, and Vertica rejoins the cluster and automatically recovers any missing data. Note that, on a single-node database, if any files that were associated with a projection have been deleted or corrupted, Vertica will delete all files associated with that projection, which could result in data loss.

5 - Installing external procedure executable files

1. Run the Administration tools.

   $ /opt/vertica/bin/adminTools
   

2. On the AdminTools Main Menu, click Configuration Menu, and then click OK.

3. On the Configuration Menu, click Install External Procedure and then click OK.

4. Select the database on which you want to install the external procedure.

5. Either select the file to install or manually type the complete file path, and then click OK.

6. If you are not the superuser, you are prompted to enter your password and click OK.

   The Administration Tools automatically create the database-name/procedures directory on each node in the database and installs the external procedure in these directories for you.

7. Click OK in the dialog that indicates that the installation was successful.