Testing the Native Load Balancer

Posted August 7, 2019 by James Knicely, Vertica Field Chief Technologist

Hand holding old-fashioned brass balance scale on a black background
Native connection load balancing is a feature built into the Vertica Analytic Database server and client libraries as well as vsql.

The RUN_LOAD_BALANCE_POLICY function returns a string formatted as address:port that results from running the current Native Load Balancer policy.

It’s a great tool for testing after enabling a new Load Balance Policy!

Example: dbadmin=> SELECT set_load_balance_policy('ROUNDROBIN'); set_load_balance_policy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Successfully changed the client initiator load balancing policy to: roundrobin (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT node_name, node_address FROM nodes; node_name | node_address --------------------+--------------- v_test_db_node0001 | 172.16.61.176 v_test_db_node0002 | 172.16.61.177 v_test_db_node0003 | 172.16.61.178 (3 rows) dbadmin=> SELECT local_node_name(); local_node_name -------------------- v_test_db_node0001 (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT run_load_balance_policy(); run_load_balance_policy ------------------------- 172.16.61.176:5433 (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT run_load_balance_policy(); run_load_balance_policy ------------------------- 172.16.61.177:5433 (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT run_load_balance_policy(); run_load_balance_policy ------------------------- 172.16.61.178:5433 (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT local_node_name(); local_node_name -------------------- v_test_db_node0001 (1 row) Because the local node did not change in the above example, note that running the RUN_LOAD_BALANCE_POLICY functions does not actually redirect the session to the node returned by the function.

Helpful Links: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/Content/Authoring/AdministratorsGuide/ManagingClientConnections/LoadBalancing/ConnectionLoadBalancing.htm https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/Content/Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Functions/VerticaFunctions/ConnectionManagement/SET_LOAD_BALANCE_POLICY.htm

Have fun!