Cluster Launch Wizard

An introduction to the Cluster Wizard, used to create a new ClickHouse cluster. An overview of the settings is provided, with links to further details.

26 January 2023 · Read time 5 min

Overview - Cluster Launch Wizard (summary)

This section covers the Altinity Cloud Manager ClickHouse cluster creation feature called the Cluster Launch Wizard. This getting started guide walks you through the steps to create a new cluster from scratch.

The Detailed reference link takes you to section on the Wizard Settings Detail page that explains each setting.
Where indicated, additional settings and resources can be obtained upon request from Altinity Technical Support at: https://altinity.com/contact/

The following wizard screens are covered on this page:

The following illustration shows a summary of the various screens available in the Cluster Wizard.

Figure 1 – Each of the Restore Wizard screens and the available settings.

Launch Cluster

The Altinity Cloud Manager (ACM) is where your existing clusters are shown. https://acm.altinity.cloud/clusters/ If this is the first time you have seen this page, or you have deleted all of your clusters, this page will be blank and show the text string: "You don’t have any clusters running at this moment."

Points of interest marked by the red pins include:

The your.environment name is what you signed up with. Note that a read-only demo environment is included.
The John Doe is an example of your logged-in name.
The left pane collapses or expands the text labels beside the icons.
The Launch Cluster text tag refers to the call-to-action LAUNCH CLUSTER button.

To begin the creation of a new ClickHouse cluster:

Select the LAUNCH CLUSTER button.

Figure 2 – The Altinity Cloud Manager (ACM) home page, selecting the LAUNCH CLUSTER button.

Starting with the ClickHouse Setup screen, fill in the information required by each wizard screen clicking NEXT to navigate.

Figure 3 – Each of the 6 Cluster Launch Wizard screens and the available settings.

1. ClickHouse Setup

After selecting the LAUNCH CLUSTER button, the first wizard setup screen appears ClickHouse Setup.

Enter the following then click NEXT:

Cluster Name - example-cluster
ClickHouse Version - ALTINITY BUILDS 22.3.12 Altinity Stable Build
ClickHouse User Name = admin
ClickHouse User Password = riDkod-4pycfa-wustof (example)
- NOTE: Click to view the password then copy and paste it to the Confirm Password field.

Figure 4 – The wizard screen 1 of 6 ClickHouse Setup.

2. Resources Configuration

The second screen is Resources Configuration, where you choose the CPU and storage settings. If you need more resources that what is displayed, contact Altinity Support.

Enter the following then click NEXT:

Node Type - m5.large (CPU x2, RAM 7 GB)
Node Storage (GB) - 100
Number of Volumes - 1
Volume Type - gp2-encrypted
Number of Shards - 1

Figure 5 – The wizard screen 2 of 6 Resources Configuration.

3. High Availability Configuration

This screen covers server redundancy and failover.

Enter the following then click NEXT:

Number of Replicas - 2
Zookeeper Configuration - Dedicated
Zookeeper Node Type - default
Enable Backups - True (checked)
Backup Schedule - Daily (dimmed)
Number of Backups to keep - 7 (dimmed)

Figure 6 – The wizard screen 3 of 6 High Availability Configuration.

4. Connection Configuration

This screen covers communication details such as port settings and endpoint information.

Enter the following then click NEXT:

Endpoint - example-cluster.customer-domain.altinity.cloud
Use TLS - True (checked)
Load Balancer Type - Altinity Edge Ingress
Protocols - Binary Protocol (port: 9440) True (checked)
Protocols - HTTP Protocol (port: 8443) True (checked)
Datadog integration (disabled) - Send Logs (dimmed) - Send Metrics (dimmed)
IP restrictions - Enabled = False (unchecked)

Figure 7 – The wizard screen 4 of 6 Connection Configuration.

5. Uptime Schedule

This lets you choose the type of schedule for when the cluster is allowed run.

Set the Uptime Schedule so that the server never turns off, then click NEXT:

Always On - True (selected, dark blue)
Stop When Inactive - False (not selected)
On Schedule - False (not selected)

Figure 8 – The wizard screen 5 of 6 Uptime Schedule.

6. Review & Launch

There is nothing to add or change on this review screen.

This is last chance where you can use the BACK button and change previously entered settings, then return to this screen. If there are no changes, select the LAUNCH button to save the settings and start the cluster provisioning process.

The following information is presented:

From screen 1 - Cluster name - example-cluster
From screen 2 - Shards - 1
From screen 2 - Number of nodes - 2
From screen 2 - CPU - m5.large
From screen 2 - RAM - 14 GB
From screen 2 - Storage = 200 GB
From screen 2 - Estimated Cluster cost: $0.76/hr ($547.20/month)

Figure 9 – The last wizard screen 6 of 6 Review & Launch.

Cluster view after Wizard finishes

The example-cluster appears in your Altinity Cloud Manager (ACM). Any new cluster will appear as another panel or another row in a table listing.

Points of interest include:

example-environment - Menu name changes to the selected environment (aka namespace or domain). 2/2 nodes online - Green to indicate running status. Action > Stop to take offline. 0/2 nodes online - Red shows nodes are not running. Action > Resume to start. stopped - Cluster / node is not running. Action > Resume to start. 6/6 checks passed - Shows green when all 6 checks have completed successfully. 0/6 checks passed - Shows red until all checks have passed. Action > Resume to start. Shield green - TLS (Transport Layer Security) is enabled. Actions - Mouse hover shows this light blue shade. Blue outline - In cluster panel view, moving your mouse cursor over a cluster changes the grey outline to blue; click to view. Panel view icon - View clusters in panel format. List view icon - View cluster in a list format. Address of all clusters - https://acm.altinity.cloud/clusters/ Address of a specific cluster - https://acm.altinity.cloud/cluster/2887