Getting Started Overview

Follow the steps in this guide to set up an Vertica database and run example queries. The examples provided in this guide require that you have completed the following steps:

• Installed Vertica on a cluster, as described in Installing Vertica, or obtained a Virtual Machine with Vertica installed on it.

• Are logged in to the server as the Database Administrator user; for example, dbadmin.

User Interfaces

You'll access your database either by an SSH client or through the terminal utility in your Linux Console, such as vsql. By following this tutorial, you use the following user interfaces:

• Linux command line (shell) interface
• Vertica Administration Tools (see the Administrator's Guide for details)
• vsql client interface (see Connecting to Vertica for details)

Sample databases: VMart

Vertica provides a sample multi-schema database, called VMart, which you can use to learn and test. The steps in the tutorial refer to the VMart schema. If you installed Vertica using the RPM, you'll find the VMart schema in the /opt/vertica/examples/VMart_Schema directory.

Tutorial: Setting up an Example Database

The Tutorial describes how to configure an Vertica database that you'll use to run sample queries. It assumes that you have already installed Vertica on a cluster of hosts, as described in Installing Vertica. You can copy the example database to non-cluster hosts for reference purposes, but you must perform the tasks in the Tutorial on the Administration Host.

Example Queries

The example database includes several queries that are intended to represent queries that might be used in a real business. You'll also use these queries as inputs to the Database Designer. After you're comfortable running the example queries, you might want to write your own. See VMart Sample Queries.

Cleanup Procedure

When you finish with tutorial, you can restore your host machines to their original state. Instructions are provided in Cleanup Procedure.