Creating an Eon Mode Database on Premises with FlashBlade in MC

This topic describes how to create an Eon Mode database using only on-premises machines, with Pure Storage FlashBlade as the communal storage reservoir, using Management Console.

Step 1: Create a Bucket and Credentials on the Pure Storage FlashBlade

To use a Pure Storage FlashBlade appliance as a communal storage location for an Eon Mode database you must have:

  • The IP address of the FlashBlade appliance. You must also have the connection port number if your FlashBlade is not using the standard port 80 or 443 to access the bucket. All of the nodes in your Vertica cluster must be able to access this IP address. Make sure any firewalls between the FlashBlade appliance and the nodes are configured to allow access.
  • The name of the bucket on the FlashBlade to use for communal storage.
  • An access key and secret key for a user account that has read and write access to the bucket.

See the Pure Storage support site for instructions on how to create the bucket and the access keys needed for a communal storage location.

Step 2: Install and Configure MC

Install and configure Management Console on one of the on-premises machines.

Step 3: Create or Import a Vertica Cluster

In MC, create a Vertica cluster on a group of on-premises machines, or import a previously created cluster to MC.

Step 4: Create an Eon Mode Database With FlashBlade as Communal Storage

Create an Eon Mode database on the on-premises cluster, using Pure Storage FlashBlade as your S3-compatible communal storage, as explained below.

  1. In MC on the Infrastructure page, click the square for the specific cluster where you want to create the database. MC displays a pop-up with cluster details and action buttons.
  2. Click Create Database. MC launches the Create a New Database wizard.
  3. In the Vertica Database Mode screen, click the icon for Eon Mode Database, then click Next.

  4. In the S3 Communal Storage Information screen, enter the following information, then click Next:

    S3-compatible End Point IP Enter the IP address of the Pure Storage FlashBlade appliance.
    End Point Port Enter the port of the FlashBlade appliance for a valid connection with the Management Console (80 for an unencrypted connection or 443 for an encrypted connection).
    Access ID Enter the access key for the FlashBlade.
    Secret Key Enter secret key for the FlashBlade.
    Communal Location URL Enter a communal location URL beginning with s3:// that points to the third-party storage appliance you will be using, for example Pure Storage FlashBlade. For example, s3://bucket/subfolder or s3://bucket/folder/subfolder. The bucket must already exist, and the subfolder must not exist.

  5. In the Database Parameters screen, enter these fields, then click Next:

    Database Name Enter 1-30 letters, numbers, and underscores. The first character must be alphabetic.
    Password Enter a new administrator password for the new Eon Mode database. Allowed characters: Alphanumeric (letters and digits) and ASCII special characters. Maximum is 100 characters.
    Confirm Password Enter the same password again to confirm it.
    Port Currently, Vertica supports only port 5433.
    Catalog Path Enter the directory path for the catalog of the Eon Mode database. The catalog should always reside on persistent storage. This path must exist on the host machines. If the path does not exist on the host machines you must create it manually before specifying it in this wizard.
    Depot Path Enter the directory path for the Eon Mode depot. MC populates the depot with recently used data. Queries that find their data in the depot get better performance. The directory must exist on the filesystem that was mounted during cluster creation. If the path does not exist on the host machines you must create it manually before specifying it in this wizard.
    Depot Size Enter the percentage of total disk space to use for the Eon Mode depot. The default is 60% of available disk. The maximum is 99,999T, or the equivalent in G or M units.
    Temp Path Directory path to use for temp data. This path must exist on the host machines. If the path does not exist on the host machines you must create it manually before specifying it in this wizard. For Temp, you may want to use a scratch disk.

  6. In the Specify Node Preferences screen, select the IP addresses of the hosts for the database nodes. Then enter these fields, and click Next:

    Number of nodes selected for the database This value is set automatically. Always equal to the number of IP addresses you select.
    Data Segmentation Shards

    The number of shards is the number of segments that the data will be divided into in communal storage. For best performance, Vertica recommends you choose a number of shards that is a multiple of the number of nodes in the database. Vertica requires a minimum of 1 and allows a maximum of 960 shards. A good strategy is to choose an even number divisible by multiple factors. Consider the future growth of your database, as Vertica requires that the number of nodes be no greater than the number of shards, and you add nodes later but you cannot change the number of shards later.
  7. MC displays a confirmation screen labeled S3 Provider Details, that summarizes all of your choices for configuring the Eon database. Verify the details are correct, then click Create Database.
  8. MC creates the database, displaying a progress indicator screen. Wait for all steps to complete, which may take several minutes.

When the work is complete, navigate to the MC landing page to use your new database.