Prepare Disk Storage Locations
You must create and specify directories in which to store your catalog and data files (physical schema). You can specify these locations when you install or configure the database, or later during database operations. Both the catalog and data directories must be owned by the database superuser.
The directory you specify for database catalog files (the catalog path) is used across all nodes in the cluster. For example, if you specify /home/catalog as the catalog directory, Vertica uses that catalog path on all nodes. The catalog directory should always be separate from any data file directories.
Do not use a shared directory for more than one node. Data and catalog directories must be distinct for each node. Multiple nodes must not be allowed to write to the same data or catalog directory.
The data path you designate is also used across all nodes in the cluster. Specifying that data should be stored in /home/data, Vertica uses this path on all database nodes.
Do not use a single directory to contain both catalog and data files. You can store the catalog and data directories on different drives, which can be either on drives local to the host (recommended for the catalog directory) or on a shared storage location, such as an external disk enclosure or a SAN.
Before you specify a catalog or data path, be sure the parent directory exists on all nodes of your database. Creating a database in admintools also creates the catalog and data directories, but the parent directory must exist on each node.
You do not need to specify a disk storage location during installation. However, you can do so by using the --data-dir parameter to the install_vertica script. See Specifying Disk Storage Location During Installation