How to Quickly Install Vertica on Large Clusters

Vertica 12.0.2 introduces a new feature that allows you to install Vertica in parallel on all hosts rather than one at a time as in earlier releases. This reduces the installation time in large clusters.

To use this feature, run the –parallel-no-prompts flag with the install_vertica command. This flag can be used only when passwordless SSH is enabled between the hosts.

Example:

First, run the RPM package installer using

sudo rpm -Uvh vertica-12.0.2-0.x86_64.RHEL6.rpm

Now run install_vertica using –parallel-no-prompts. In order to get this flag working and reduce the install time, you can either ‘–ssh-password’ or ‘–ssh-identity’ to the command or install_vertica will fail.

[root@node1 dbadmin]# sudo /opt/vertica/sbin/install_vertica -s node1,node2,node3 -r vertica-12.0.2-0.x86_64.RHEL6.rpm  --parallel-no-prompts --ssh-password ''
Vertica Analytic Database 12.0.2-0 Installation Tool

>> Validating options...
Mapping hostnames in --hosts (-s) to addresses...

>> Starting installation tasks.
>> Getting system information for cluster (this may take a while)...

Default shell on nodes:
node1 /bin/bash
node2 /bin/bash
node3 /bin/bash

>> Validating software versions (rpm or deb)...

warning: /home/dbadmin/vertica-12.0.2-0.x86_64.RHEL6.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID f54b82a0: NOKEY

>> Beginning new cluster creation...

successfully backed up admintools.conf on 10.50.54.81

>> Installing software (rpm or deb)...

Installing rpm in parallel on 2 hosts....
installing on:  ['node2', 'node3']
Begin package installation on ['node2', 'node3']
End package installation on ['node2', 'node3']
10.50.54.82 Package installation validated
10.50.54.83 Package installation validated

The italicized commands above indicate that parallel rpm installation is in progress. The installation is completed in 1 minute as opposed to 2 minutes with serial installation. The higher the number of nodes, lesser the time it takes to complete installation with the parallel installation option.

For more information, see
Install Binary Packages in Parallel
install_vertica Options