Deploy Vertica using CloudFormation templates

• 1: CloudFormation template (CFT) overview
• 2: Creating a Virtual Private Cloud
• 3: Deploy MC and AWS resources with a CloudFormation template
• 4: Access Management Console

1 - CloudFormation template (CFT) overview

With Vertica on AWS, use CloudFormation Templates (CFTs) to easily manage provisioning the AWS resources with a running Vertica system. After you provide a few parameters to the template, you can create a stack to automatically provision the AWS resources for your Vertica system.

To access Vertica CFTs, go to the AWS Marketplace.

CFT licensing models

Licensing models for CFTs are:

• Bring Your Own License (BYOL): By default, free CE license is installed with 3 nodes and 1 TB. To extend nodes or size, you can purchase the Vertica BYOL license.
  Outside of the BYOL license on CFTs, you can also access the Community Edition without a license file:

  • If you are using Management Console, simply leave the license field blank.

  • If you are using a command line (see Install Vertica with the installation script), specify CE in the --license parameter during installation.

• By the Hour: A pay-as-you-go model where you pay for only the number of hours you use for each node. One advantage of using the Paid Listing is that all charges appear on your Amazon AWS bill. This offers an alternative to purchasing a full Vertica license. This eliminates the need to compute potential storage needs in advance.

CFT prerequisites

Before you can deploy Vertica on AWS using CloudFormation Templates (CFTs), verify that you have:

• AWS account with permissions to create a VPC, subnet, security group, EC2 instances, and IAM roles (For more information about AWS accounts, see the AWS documentation)

• Amazon key pair for SSH access to an EC2 instance. (See the AWS documentation for key pairs.)

Supported CFTs and Vertica offerings

Available Vertica CFTs are:

• Management Console with 3 Vertica nodes: The easiest way to deploy Vertica. This CFT deploys an Eon Mode database by default. However, this environment can also be used to create an Enterprise Mode database. For more information, see Creating a database.

• Deploy Management Console into new VPC: This CFT deploys all required AWS resources and installs the Vertica Management Console (MC). After stack creation completes, log in to the MC to provision a Vertica database cluster.

• Deploy Management Console into existing VPC: This CFT deploys the Vertica Management Console (MC) in an already-existing VPC and subnet. After stack creation completes, the MC is available. Log in to MC to provision either a Vertica database cluster or an Eon Mode database cluster.

  For this CFT, you must first set up the VPC, subnet, and related network resources. For more information about the correct configuration of these resources for Vertica, see the following topics in the AWS documentation:

  • Creating a Virtual Private Cloud
  • Configure the network

Using the license models and supported CFTs, you can deploy the following Vertica products:

• Vertica BYOL, Red Hat

• Vertica by the Hour, Red Hat

See Deploy MC and AWS resources with a CloudFormation template for information on deploying these products.

2 - Creating a Virtual Private Cloud

A Vertica cluster on AWS must be logically located in the same network. This is similar to placing the nodes of an on-premises cluster within the same network. Create a virtual private cloud (VPC) to ensure the nodes in your cluster will be able to communicate with each other within AWS.

Create a single public subnet VPC with the following configurations:

• Assign a Network Access Control List (ACL) that is appropriate to your situation. The default ACL does not provide a high level of security.
• Enable DNS resolution and enable DNS hostname support for instances launched in this VPC.
• Add the required network inbound and outbound rules to the Network ACL associated to the VPC.

For more information about VPCs, including how to create one, see the AWS documentation.

3 - Deploy MC and AWS resources with a CloudFormation template

You can deploy Management Console (MC) and its associated AWS resources using CloudFormation templates (CFTs) that are available through the AWS Marketplace. For a list of available CFTs, see CloudFormation template (CFT) overview.

Complete the following to deploy the Vertica MC and related resources in AWS:

1. Log in to the AWS Marketplace with an AWS account (see the Prerequisites section above).

2. Search for "Vertica" in the AWS Marketplace.

3. Select a Vertica CFT. Each CFT leads you to a product overview page, with pricing estimates. (Also see CloudFormation template (CFT) overview for an overview of available templates and products).

4. Click Continue to Subscribe.

5. On the next page, select your launch settings based on your requirements for deployment.

6. If you have not agreed to Vertica EULA terms on the AWS Marketplace before, click Accept Software Terms to subscribe.

7. Click Launch with CloudFormation Console. The CloudFormation Console opens.

8. The CloudFormation Console automatically supplies the URL in the Specify an Amazon S3 template URL field. Click Next.
   

9. Follow the CloudFormation workflow and enter the parameters (collectively called a stack).
   

   Note

   Important: Take note of the username and password you set for Management Console during this step. You cannot recover or reset these credentials after you create the stack.

10. After confirming the details you have provided for your new stack, click Create. The AWS console brings you to the Stacks page, where you can view the progress of the creation process. The process takes several minutes.

11. The Outputs tab displays information about accessing your environment after the process completes.

Next, access the Management Console (MC) to deploy your cluster instances and create a database, as described in Access Management Console.

4 - Access Management Console

Complete the following steps to access Management Console on your deployed AWS resources:

1. On the AWS CloudFormation Stacks page, select your new stack and view the Outputs tab. This tab provides information about accessing your environment, as well as documentation and licensing resources.

2. In the ManagementConsole row, select the URL in the Value column to open the MC login page.

3. To log in, enter the MC username and password that you created using the CloudFormation Console.

   After login, MC displays the home page, with options to provision a new cluster or database or import existing ones. If you chose a CFT that also creates a database, your new database is also displayed on the home page.

   This page also provides a Resources section with links to online training, blogs, community, and help resources.

You have successfully launched and connected to Management Console on AWS resources.

If you have not yet provisioned a Vertica cluster and database, complete the steps in one of the following:

• Creating an Eon Mode database in AWS with MC
• Creating an Enterprise Mode database in AWS with MC