Enabling Native Connection Load Balancing in ODBC
Native connection load balancing helps spread the overhead caused by client connections on the hosts in the Vertica database. Both the server and the client must enable native connection load balancing in order for it to have an effect. If both have enabled it, then when the client initially connects to a host in the database, the host picks a host to handle the client connection from a list of the currently up hosts in the database, and informs the client which host it has chosen.
If the initially-contacted host did not choose itself to handle the connection, the client disconnects, then opens a second connection to the host selected by the first host. The connection process to this second host proceeds as usual—if SSL is enabled, then SSL negotiations begin, otherwise the client begins the authentication process. See About Native Connection Load Balancing in the Administrator's Guide for details.
To enable native load balancing on your client, set the ConnectionLoadBalance connection parameter to true either in the DSN entry or in the connection string. The following example demonstrates connecting to the database several times with native connection load balancing enabled, and fetching the name of the node handling the connection from the V_MONITOR.CURRENT_SESSION system table.
// Demonstrate enabling native load connection balancing.
// Standard i/o library
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <assert.h>
// Only needed for Windows clients
// #include <windows.h>
// SQL include files that define data types and ODBC API
// functions
#include <sql.h>
#include <sqlext.h>
#include <sqltypes.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
SQLRETURN ret; // Stores return value from ODBC API calls
SQLHENV hdlEnv; // Handle for the SQL environment object
// Allocate an a SQL environment object
ret = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, SQL_NULL_HANDLE, &hdlEnv);
assert(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret));
// Set the ODBC version we are going to use to
// 3.
ret = SQLSetEnvAttr(hdlEnv, SQL_ATTR_ODBC_VERSION,
(SQLPOINTER) SQL_OV_ODBC3, SQL_IS_UINTEGER);
assert(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret));
// Allocate a database handle.
SQLHDBC hdlDbc;
ret = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, hdlEnv, &hdlDbc);
assert(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret));
// Connect four times. If load balancing is on, client should
// connect to different nodes.
for (int x=1; x <= 4; x++) {
// Connect to the database using SQLDriverConnect. Set
// ConnectionLoadBalance to 1 (true) to enable load
// balancing.
cout << endl << "Connection attempt #" << x << "... ";
const char *connStr = "DSN=VMart;ConnectionLoadBalance=1;"
"UID=ExampleUser;PWD=password123";
ret = SQLDriverConnect(hdlDbc, NULL, (SQLCHAR*)connStr, SQL_NTS,
NULL, 0, NULL, SQL_DRIVER_NOPROMPT );
if(!SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret)) {
cout << "failed. Exiting." << endl;
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
} else {
cout << "succeeded" << endl;
}
// We're connected. Query the v_monitor.current_session table to
// find the name of the node we've connected to.
// Set up a statement handle
SQLHSTMT hdlStmt;
SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, hdlDbc, &hdlStmt);
assert(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret));
ret = SQLExecDirect( hdlStmt, (SQLCHAR*)"SELECT node_name FROM "
"V_MONITOR.CURRENT_SESSION;", SQL_NTS );
if(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret)) {
// Bind varible to column in result set.
SQLTCHAR node_name[256];
ret = SQLBindCol(hdlStmt, 1, SQL_C_TCHAR, (SQLPOINTER)node_name,
sizeof(node_name), NULL);
while(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret = SQLFetchScroll(hdlStmt, SQL_FETCH_NEXT,1))) {
// Print the bound variables, which now contain the values from the
// fetched row.
cout << "Connected to node " << node_name << endl;
}
}
// Free statement handle
SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT,hdlStmt);
cout << "Disconnecting." << endl;
ret = SQLDisconnect( hdlDbc );
assert(SQL_SUCCEEDED(ret));
}
// When done, free all of the handles to close them
// in an orderly fashion.
cout << endl << "Freeing handles..." << endl;
SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, hdlDbc);
SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, hdlEnv);
cout << "Done!" << endl;
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
Running the above example produces output similar to the following:
Connection attempt #1... succeeded Connected to node v_vmart_node0001 Disconnecting. Connection attempt #2... succeeded Connected to node v_vmart_node0002 Disconnecting. Connection attempt #3... succeeded Connected to node v_vmart_node0003 Disconnecting. Connection attempt #4... succeeded Connected to node v_vmart_node0001 Disconnecting. Freeing handles... Done!