Understanding the Catalog Directory

The catalog directory stores metadata and support files for your database. Some of the files within this directory can help you troubleshoot data load or other database issues. See Catalog and Data Files for instructions on locating your database's catalog directory. By default, it is located in the database directory. For example, if you created the VMart database in the database administrator's account, the path to the catalog directory is:

/home/dbadmin/VMart/v_vmart_nodennnn_catalog 

where nodennnn is the name of the node you are logged into. The name of the catalog directory is unique for each node, although most of the contents of the catalog directory are identical on each node.

The following table explains the files and directories that may appear in the catalog directory.

Do not change or delete any of the files in the catalog directory unless asked to do so by Vertica support.

File or Directory Description
bootstrap-catalog.log

A log file generated as the Vertica server initially creates the database (in which case, the log file is only created on the node used to create the database) and whenever the database is restored from a backup.

Catalog/

Contains catalog information about the database, such as checkpoints.

CopyErrorLogs/

The default location for the COPY exceptions and rejections files generated when data in a bulk load cannot be inserted into the database. See Capturing Load Rejections and Exceptions for more information.

DataCollector/

Log files generated by the Data Collector.

debug_log.conf

Debugging information configuration file. For Vertica use only.

Epoch.log

Used during recovery to indicate the latest epoch that contains a complete set of data.

ErrorReport.txt

A stack trace written by Vertica if the server process exits unexpectedly.

Libraries/

Contains user defined library files that have been loaded into the database See Developing User-Defined Extensions (UDxs) in Extending Vertica. Do not change or delete these libraries through the file system. Instead, use the CREATE LIBRARY, DROP LIBRARY, and ALTER LIBRARY statements.

Snapshots/

The location where backups are stored.

tmp/

A temporary directory used by Vertica's internal processes.

UDxLogs/

Log files written by user defined functions that run in fenced mode. See Fenced Mode in Extending Vertica for more information.

vertica.conf

The configuration file for Vertica.

vertica.log

The main log file generated by the Vertica server process.

vertica.pid

The process ID and path to the catalog directory of the Vertica server process running on this node.