Deploy Vertica from the Google Cloud Launcher Marketplace

Are you looking to quickly deploy a Vertica cluster in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)? If so, this section describes a Vertica-developed automated solution that you can access from the Vertica Analytics Platform Google Cloud Launcher.

The Vertica Cloud Launcher solution allows you to create a multi-node cluster. The solution includes the Vertica Management Console (MC) as the primary UI for you to get started.

Each deployment automatically creates an initial database called vdb using the Community Edition (CE) license. The CE license is limited to a maximum of 3 nodes. In cases where you want to use more than 3 nodes for deployment on GCP, the deployment creates the initial database on the first 3 nodes in the cluster.

After the launcher creates the initial database (vdb), it preconfigures the MC to attach to that database automatically.

Configure the Vertica Cloud Launcher Solution

To get started with a deployment of Vertica from the Google Cloud Launcher, go to Vertica Analytics Platform Google Cloud Launcher.

Follow these steps:

  1. From the listing page, to start the solution launcher, click LAUNCH ON COMPUTE ENGINE.
  2. Enter the following information:

    • Deployment name—Each deployment must have a unique name. That name is used as the prefix for the names of all VMs created during the deployment. The deployment name can only contain lowercase characters, numbers, and dashes. The name must start with a lowercase letter and cannot end with a dash.
    • Zone—GCP breaks its cloud data centers into regions and zones. Regions are a collection of zones in the same geographical location. Zones are collections of compute resources, which vary from zone to zone.

      For best results, pick the zone in your designated region that supports the latest Intel CPUs. For a complete listing of regions and zones, including supported processors, see Regions and Zones.

    • Machine type for Vertica Management Console—The Vertica Analytics Platform in Cloud Launcher always deploys the Vertica Management Console (MC) as part of the solution.

      The default machine type for MC is the n1-standard-4. However, you can choose another machine type that better suits the needs requires by the MC node for additional purposes, such serving as a target node for backups, data transformation, or additional management tools.

    • Node count for Vertica Cluster—The total number of VMs you want to deploy in the Vertica Cluster. The default is 3.

      The Cloud Launcher automatically deploys the Vertica Community Edition license, which limits the database to 3 nodes and up to 1 TB in raw data. If you intend to use the CE license, deployment of 4 or more nodes will result in an overpopulated cluster where VM resources are deployed (and incur costs) without being used by the database.

    • Machine type for Vertica Cluster nodes—The Cloud Launcher builds each node in the cluster using the same machine type. The default value is the n1-highmem-16 type. Modify the machine type for your nodes based on the needs and costs associated with your workloads.
    • Data disk type—GCP offers two types of persistent disk storage: Standard and SSD. The costs associated with Standard are less, but the performance of SSD storage is much better. Vertica recommends you use SSD storage. For more information on Standard and SSD persistent disks, see Storage Options.
    • Disk size for the Data disk—Disk performance is directly tied to the disk size in GCP. The default value of 2000 GBs (2 TB) is the minimum disk size for SSD persistent disks that allows maximum throughput.

      If you select a smaller disk size, the throughput performance decreases. If you select a large disk size, the performance remains the same as the 2 TB option.

    • Network name—VMs in GCP must exist on a virtual private cloud (VPC). When you created your GCP account, a default VPC was created. Create additional VPCs to isolate solutions or projects from one another. The Vertica Analytics Plaform creates all the nodes in the same VPC.
    • Subnetwork name—Just as a GCP account may have multiple VPCs, each VPC may also have multiple subnets. Use additional subnets to group or isolate solutions within the same VPC.

After you have entered all the required information, click Deploy to begin the deployment process.

Monitor the Deployment

After the deployment begins, Google Cloud Launcher automatically opens a page that displays the status of the resources being created. Items that are still being processed have a spinning circle to the left of them and the text is a light gray color. Items that have been created are dark gray in color, with an icon designating that resource type on the left.

After the deployment completes, a green check mark appears next to the deployment name in the upper left-hand section of the screen.

Accessing the Cluster After Deployment

After the deployment completes, the right-hand section of the screen displays the following information:

  • dbadmin password—A randomly generated password for the dbadmin account on the nodes. For security reasons, change the dbadmin password when you first log in to one of the Vertica cluster nodes.
  • mcadmin password—A randomly generated password for the mcadmin account for accessing the Management Console. For security reasons, change the mcadmin password after you first log in to the MC.
  • Vertica Node 1 IP address—The external IP address for the first node in the Vertica cluster is exposed here so that you can connect to the VM using a standard SSH client. To access the MC, press the Access Vertica MC button in the Get Started section of the dialog box. Copy the mcadmin password and paste it when asked.

For more information on using the MC, click Using Management Console.

Access the Cluster Nodes

There are two ways to access the cluster nodes directly:

  • Use GCP’s integrated SSH shell by selecting the SSH button in the Get Started section. This shell opens a pop-up in your browser that runs GCP’s web-based SSH client. You are automatically logged on as the user you authenticated as in the GCP environment.

    After you have access to the first Vertica cluster node, execute the su dbadmin command, and authenticate using the dbadmin password.

  • In addition, use other standard SSH clients to connect directly to the first Vertica cluster node. Use the Vertica Node 1 IP address listed on the screen as the dbadmin user, and authenticate with the dbadmin password.

    Follow the on-screen directions to log in using the mcadmin account and accept the EULA. After you've been authenticated, access the initial database by clicking the vdb icon (looks like a green cylinder) in the Recent Databases section.

When the cluster is fully deployed, check out the Getting Started Guide of the Vertica documentation.