Supported AWS instance types

Vertica supports a range of Amazon Web Services instance types, each optimized for different purposes.

Vertica supports a range of Amazon Web Services instance types, each optimized for different purposes. Choose the instance type that best matches your requirements. The two tables below list the AWS instance types that Vertica supports for Vertica cluster hosts, and for use in MC. For more information, see the Amazon Web Services documentation on instance types and volumes.

Important

If you plan to use an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) on multiple AWS accounts, make sure to subscribe to the image on all your accounts. This allows you to access an image even when it is delisted from the AWS Marketplace.

Instance types for Vertica cluster hosts

Each Amazon EC2 Instance type natively provides one of the following storage options:

Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides durable storage: Data files stored on instance persist after instance is stopped.
Instance Store provides temporary storage: Data files stored on instance are lost when instance is stopped.

Vertica AMIs can use either the Instance Metadata Service Version 1 (IMDSv1) or the Instance Metadata Service Version 2 (IMDSv2) to authenticate to AWS services, including S3.

For more information about storage configuration in AWS, see Configure storage.

Note

Instance types that support EBS volumes support encrypting.

Optimization	Instance Types Using Only EBS Volumes (Durable)	Instance Types Using Instance Store Volumes (Temporary)
General purpose	m4.4xlarge m4.10xlarge m5.4xlarge m5.8xlarge m5.12xlarge	m5d.4xlarge m5d.8xlarge m5d.12xlarge
Compute	c4.4xlarge c4.8xlarge c5.4xlarge c5.9xlarge c6i.4xlarge c6i.8xlarge c6i.12xlarge c6i.16xlarge c6i.24xlarge c6i.32xlarge	c3.4xlarge c3.8xlarge c5d.4xlarge c5d.9xlarge
Memory	r4.4xlarge r4.8xlarge r4.16xlarge r5.4xlarge r5.8xlarge r5.12xlarge r6i.4xlarge r6i.8xlarge r6i.12xlarge r6i.16xlarge r6i.24xlarge r6i.32xlarge	r3.4xlarge r3.8xlarge r5d.4xlarge r5d.8xlarge r5d.12xlarge
Storage		d2.4xlarge d2.8xlarge i3.4xlarge i3.8xlarge i3.16xlarge i3en.3xlarge i3en.6xlarge i3en.12xlarge i4i.4xlarge i4i.8xlarge i4i.12xlarge i4i.16xlarge i4i.24xlarge

Note

By default, the c4.8xlarge, d2.8xlarge, and m4.10xlarge instances have their processor C-states set to a value of 1 in the Vertica AMI. This measure is meant to improve performance by limiting the sleep states that an instance running Vertica uses.

For more information about sleep states, visit the AWS Documentation.

Instance types available for MC hosts

Optimization	Type	Supports EBS Storage (Durable)	Supports Ephemeral Storage (Temporary)
Computing	c4.large c4.xlarge c5.large c5.xlarge	Yes Yes Yes Yes	No No No No

Optimization

Type

Supports EBS Storage (Durable)

Supports Ephemeral Storage (Temporary)

Computing

c4.large

c4.xlarge

c5.large

c5.xlarge

Yes

Choosing AWS Eon Mode instance types

When running an Eon Mode database in AWS, choose instance types that support ephemeral instance storage or EBS volumes for your depot, depending on cost and availability. Vertica recommends either r4 or i3 instances for production clusters. It is not mandatory to have an EBS-backed depot, because in Eon Mode, a copy of the data is safely stored in communal storage. However, you must have an EBS-backed catalog for Eon Mode databases.

The following table provides information to help you make a decision on how to pick instances with ephemeral instance storage or EBS only storage. Check with Amazon Web Services for the latest cost per hour.

Important

If you select instances that use instance store, if you then terminate those instances there is the potential for data loss. For Eon mode, MC displays an alert to inform the user of the potential data loss when terminating instances that support instance store.

Storage Type	Instance Type	Pros/Cons
Instance storage	i3.8xlarge	Instance storage offers better performance than EBS attached storage through multiple EBS volumes. Instance storage can be striped (RAIDed) together to increase throughput and load balance I/O. Data stored in instance-store volumes is not persistent through instance stops, terminations, or hardware failures.
EBS-only storage	r4.8xlarge with 600 GB EBS volume attached	Newer instance types from AWS have only the EBS option. In most AWS regions, it's easier to provision a large number of instances. You can terminate an instance but leave the EBS volume around for faster revive. Perserving the EBS will preserve the depot. While some of the cached files might have become stale, they will be ignored and evicted. Much of the cached data will not be stale. It will save time when the node revives and warms its depot. Take advantage of full-volume encryption.

Storage Type

Instance Type

Pros/Cons

Instance storage

i3.8xlarge

Instance storage offers better performance than EBS attached storage through multiple EBS volumes. Instance storage can be striped (RAIDed) together to increase throughput and load balance I/O.

Data stored in instance-store volumes is not persistent through instance stops, terminations, or hardware failures.

EBS-only storage

r4.8xlarge with 600 GB

EBS volume attached

Newer instance types from AWS have only the EBS option. In most AWS regions, it's easier to provision a large number of instances.

You can terminate an instance but leave the EBS volume around for faster revive. Perserving the EBS will preserve the depot. While some of the cached files might have become stale, they will be ignored and evicted. Much of the cached data will not be stale. It will save time when the node revives and warms its depot.

Take advantage of full-volume encryption.

More information

For more information about Amazon cluster instances and their limitations, see Manage Clusters in the Amazon Web Services documentation.