Wizard Settings Detail

Details for the various Cluster wizard settings.

26 January 2023 · Read time 11 min

Overview

Purpose

This section provides a detailed discussion of the settings that expands on the overview of the Cluster Launch Wizard.

See Also:

The following diagram is a snapshot view of the 6 wizard screens showing the settings that are discussed on this page:

Cluster Launch Wizard summary
Figure 1 Summary list of settings in each of the Cluster Wizard screens.




Create a new ClickHouse cluster

  1. From the Altinity.Cloud Manager, create a new ClickHouse cluster by selecting the LAUNCH CLUSTER button.
    Cluster Launch Wizard summary


ClickHouse Setup

These are ClickHouse-related settings. (Screen 1 of 6) Name | ClickHouse Version | ClickHouse User Name | ClickHouse User Password

  1. Fill in the 4 ClickHouse Setup fields.
  2. Select NEXT to advance to the next cluster wizard screen Resources Configuration.
  3. Or, select CANCEL to close the wizard without saving.

To see the full-sized ClickHouse Setup screen, see:

ClickHouse Setup

Cluster Launch Wizard ❯ ClickHouse Setup


Name

This is the DNS-compliant name of the cluster.

  • Example: example-cluster

Name of the cluster
Figure 2 – The Name of the cluster example-cluster in the ClickHouse Setup wizard screen.

The Name of your cluster must follow DNS name restrictions as follows:

Allowed

  • Name must start with a letter
  • Lower case letters (a to z)
  • Numbers (0 to 9)
  • Hyphens, also named dash or minus character (-)
  • 15 character limit

Disallowed

  • Periods (.)
  • Special characters ( > ’ , " ! # )

UI Text

  • “Cluster name tag will be used in ClickHouse configuration and it may contain only lowercase letters [a-z], numbers [0-9] and hyphens [-] in between”

ClickHouse Version

This lets you choose which version of ClickHouse to use, from a list in the Altinity Builds category or any other ClickHouse Community Builds.

ClickHouse Version
Figure 3 The ClickHouse software version number from the cluster wizard ClickHouse Setup screen.

Altinity Builds

Altinity Stable Builds are tested, proven stable builds with 6-month test cycles. They are based on ClickHouse Long Term Support (LTS) releases and are supported for up to 3 years. These release numbers include the phrase Altinity Stable Build.

See also:

Example values: (Your system may be different.)

  • 21.1.11 Altinity Stable Build
  • 21.3.20 Altinity Stable Build
  • 21.8.15 Altinity Stable Build
  • 22.3.12 Altinity Stable Build
  • Custom Version (Image Identifier)
Community Builds

This is a list of all available ClickHouse versions. Example values: (Your system may be different.)

  • 21.3.20.1 Altinity Stable (community build)
  • 21.8.15.7 Altinity Stable (community build)
  • 21.11.11.1
  • 22.3.12.19 Altinity Stable (community build)
  • 22.6.8.35
  • 22.8.10.29
  • Custom Version (Image Identifier)

UI Text

  • “ClickHouse Version will be the same across all Cluster nodes”

ClickHouse User Name

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 4 The ClickHouse User Name from the cluster wizard ClickHouse Setup screen.

This is the Account name of the ClickHouse administrator. By default, this name is set to admin.

  • Example: admin

UI Text

  • “ClickHouse user will be created with the specified login”

ClickHouse User Password

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 5 The ClickHouse User Password from the cluster wizard ClickHouse Setup screen.

  • Passwords need to be at lease 12 characters.
  • Too-short passwords produce an Error: Invalid ClickHouse user password.
  • As you type past 12 characters, the red banner will go away.
  • Click the Show password icon then copy and paste to the right Confirm Password field.
  • Example: ThisI5Ac0Plexp4ssW0rd | Confirm Password •••••••••••••••••••••

UI Text

  • This password will be assigned to the ClickHouse User The minimum password length is 12 characters. Consider adding digits capital letters and special symbols to make password more secure


Resources Configuration

Sets the CPU size, RAM/memory and storage settings. (Screen 2 of 6) Node Type | Node Storage (GB) | Number of Volumes | Volume Type | Number of shards

  1. Fill in the 5 Resources Configuration fields.
  2. Select NEXT to advance to the next cluster wizard screen High Availability Configuration.
  3. Or, select BACK to return to the previous cluster wizard screen ClickHouse Setup.
  4. Or, select CANCEL to close the wizard without saving.

To see the full-sized Resources Configuration screen, see:

Resources Configuration

Cluster Launch Wizard ❯ Resources Configuration



Node Type

CPU and RAM sizes for the node. The names in the drop-down menu will differ depending on which environment you are using. (E.g., between AWS and GCP.) Contact Altinity Technical Support if you need additional node types.

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 6 The Node Type (CPU and RAM) from the cluster wizard Resources Configuration screen.

  • Clusters can later be scaled up or down dynamically.
  • Example: m5.large (CPU x2, RAM 7 GB)

More Information

Available sizes (set by your Cloud provider):

Example

  • m5.large (CPU x2. RAM 7 GB)
  • m5.xlarge (CPU x4. RAM 14 GB)
  • m5.2xlarge (CPU x8. RAM 29 GB)
  • m5.4xlarge (CPU x16. RAM 58 GB)
  • m5.8xlarge (CPU x32. RAM 120 GB)
  • c5.18xlarge (CPU x72. RAM 128.9 GB)

UI Text

  • “Node Type will be the same across all ClickHouse hosts”

Node Storage

The size of each cluster node in GB (gigabytes).

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 7 The Node Storage size in GB from the cluster wizard Resources Configuration screen.

  • Each node has the same storage area.
  • Example: 100 (GB)

UI Text

  • “Each ClickHouse host will have specified amount of local volume storage”

Number of Volumes

Depending on the cloud provider you are using, creating more volumes may improve query performance.

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 8 The Number of Volumes to set, from the cluster wizard Resources Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • “Network storage can be split to several volumes for a better query performance”

Volume Type

These are SSD block storage volumes provided by Amazone AWS, Google GCP, or other cloud providers.

The choices are:

  • gp2-encrypted
  • gp3-encrypted

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 9 The Volume Type gp2-encrypted or gp3-encrypted from the cluster wizard Resources Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • “Defines volume claim storage class for each ClickHouse host”

Number of Shards

Shards group nodes that work together to share data and improve performance. Replicating shards is done to increase availability and speed up recovery if one shard goes down.

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 10 The Number of Shards to create, from the cluster wizard Resources Configuration screen.

Where quotas are in place, the UI string “x / y (ie. 1 of 20) shards will be used”.

UI Text

  • “Each shard will required X number of
  • ClickHouse hosts where X is the number
  • of replicas of this shard (X = 2)”


High Availability Configuration

These are redundancy and failover settings. (Screen 3 of 6) Number of Replicas | Zookeeper Configuration | Zookeeper Node Type | Enable Backups

  1. Fill in the 4 High Availability Configuration fields.
  2. Select NEXT to advance to the next cluster wizard screen Connection Configuration.
  3. Or, select BACK to return to the previous cluster wizard screen Resources Configuration.
  4. Or, select CANCEL to close the wizard without saving.

UI Text

  • “Please contact Altinity Support if you need more resources”

To see the full-sized High Availability Configuration screen, see:

High Availability

Cluster Launch Wizard ❯ High Availability Configuration


Number of Replicas

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 11 The Number of Replicas to create, from the cluster wizard High Availability Configuration screen.

  • 1 | 2 | 3
  • Number of Replicas for each Cluster Shard
  • Replicas: x / y Replicas will be used (appears if Altinity Support has set usage quotas)

UI Text

  • “Number of Replicas for each Cluster shard”

Quotas set by Altinity

If bar charts appears, this means Altinity Support has set quotas for your domain.

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 12 The graphs for CPU and Storage appear if Altinity Support has set quotas. From the cluster wizard High Availability Configuration screen.

  • CPU: x / y vCPUs will be used
  • Storage: x / y GB will be used

Zookeeper Configuration

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 13 The Zookeeper Configuration and Zookeeper Node Type from the cluster wizard High Availability Configuration screen.

  • Example: Dedicated

UI Text

  • “You can pick a shared Zookeeper cluster, Launch a dedicated one or do not use Zookeeper at all.”

Zookeeper Node Type

  • Default

Enable Backups

Whether or not backups occur.

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 14 The Enable Backups checkbox and Backup Schedule from the cluster wizard High Availability Configuration screen.

  • Example: True (checked)

Backup Schedule

This is the frequency that data backups happen.

  • Example: Daily

UI Text

  • [ none ]

Number of Backups to keep

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 15 The Number of Backups to keep from the cluster wizard High Availability Configuration screen.

  • Example: 7

UI Text

  • [ none ]


Connection Configuration

Used to set the communications protocols. (Screen 4 of 6) Endpoint | Use TLS | Load Balancer Type | Protocols | Datadog integration | IP restrictions

  1. Fill in the 5 Connection Configuration fields.
  2. Select NEXT to advance to the next cluster wizard screen Uptime Schedule.
  3. Or, select BACK to return to the previous cluster wizard screen High Availability Configuration.
  4. Or, select CANCEL to close the wizard without saving.

UI Text

  • “Please contact Altinity Support if you need more resources.”

To see the full-sized Connection Configuration screen, see:

Connection Configuration

Cluster Launch Wizard ❯ Connection Configuration


Endpoint

The Endpoint is the access point domain name to your cluster. The URL breaks down as follows:

  • example-cluster is the name of the cluster
  • customer-domain is your environment
  • altinity.cloud is the parent for all environments
  • Example: example-cluster.customer-domain.altinity.cloud

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 16 The Endpoint URL from the cluster wizard Connection Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • “Access point Domain Name”

Use TLS

When True, the connection to the Cluster Endpoints will be secured with TLS.

  • Example: True (checked)

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 17 The Use TLS checkbox from the cluster wizard Connection Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • “Connection to the Cluster Endpoints will be secured with TLS”

Load Balancer Type

Choice of the Load Balancer you want to use.

  • Example: Altinity Edge Ingress

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 18 The Load Balancer Type (Altinity Edge Ingress is selected) from the cluster wizard Connection Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • [ none ]

Protocols

Port settings. By default, these settings cannot be unchecked.

  • Binary Protocol (port: 9440) = True (checked) UI Text - “This enables native ClickHouse protocol connection”
  • HTTP Protocol (port: 8443) = True (checked) UI Text - “This enables native ClickHouse protocol connection”

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 19 The Protocols ports to enable, from the cluster wizard Connection Configuration screen.

Datadog integration

For logging purposes, you can request that the third-party application Datadog be set up by Altinity Support.

  • Datadog integration (disabled) - This entire section is dimmed.
  • Send Logs = False (unchecked)
  • Send Metrics = False (unchecked)

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 20 If Altinity Support has enabled this, Datadog integration is selectable. From the cluster wizard Connection Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • [ none ]

IP restrictions

This is used to increase security by using a whitelist, or allowlist of IP numbers to restrict access.

Note that Altinity needs to have certain ports open in order to maintain your tenancy.

  • IP restrictions
  • Enabled False (unchecked) - This is the default setting
  • Enabled True (checked) - Turn on this setting then add IP numbers

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 21 If Altinity Support has enabled this, *IP restrictions lets you whitelists IP numbers. From the cluster wizard Connection Configuration screen.

UI Text

  • Restricts ClickHouse client connections to the provided list of IP addresses in CIDR format. Multiple entries can be separated by new lines or commas

    Note:
    34.238.65.247,
    44.195.72.25,
    100.24.75.12,
    10.0.0.0/8,
    172.16.0.0/12,
    192.168.0.0/16,
    10.128.0.0/23,
    10.128.2.0/23,
    10.128.4.0/23
    is added automatically as it is required for Altinity.Cloud to operate.


Uptime Schedule

Used to set a schedule for when the clusters should run. (Screen 5 of 6) For this Quick Start Guide, the servers are set to ALWAYS ON. Always On | Stop When Inactive | On Schedule


To see the full-sized Uptime Schedule screen, see:

Uptime Schedule

Cluster Launch Wizard ❯ Uptime Schedule


To set (or remove) an Uptime Schedule:

  1. Click one of the three Uptime Schedule settings.
  2. Select NEXT to advance to the last cluster wizard screen Review & Launch.
  3. Or, select BACK to return to the previous cluster wizard screen Connection Configuration.
  4. Or, select CANCEL to close the wizard without saving.

ClickHouse User Name
Figure 22 The cluster , Uptime Schedule lets you set when you want your clusters to run. From the cluster wizard Uptime Schedule screen.

Sets server uptime. See the General User Guide > Uptime Schedule Settings page for setting details .

Always On

Use this setting to run your cluster 24/7.

UI Text

  • “Altinity.Cloud shall not trigger any Stop or Resume Operations on this Cluster automatically”

Stop When Inactive

Use this setting to stop clusters from running after a set number of hours. Servers must be manually restarted.

  • Example: Hours of inactivity 24

UI Text

  • “The cluster will be stopped automatically when there is no activity for a given amount of hours”

On Schedule

Use this setting to schedule the times in each of the days of a week to run.

UI Text

  • Uptime Schedule for .
  • “Schedule (Time in GMT)”
  • “Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday”
  • “Active”, “All Day”, “From: hh:mm AM/PM To: hh:mm AM/PM”

Review & Launch

This is the last chance to review settings before saving and launching the new ClickHouse cluster. (Screen 6 of 6)

  1. Select LAUNCH to save and start the cluster.
  2. Or, select BACK to return to the previous cluster wizard screen Uptime Schedule.
  3. Or, select CANCEL to close the wizard without saving.

To see the full-sized Review & Launch screen, see:

Review & Launch

Cluster Launch Wizard ❯ Review & Launch


ClickHouse User Name
Figure 23 The last wizard screen Review & Launch displays your CPU and RAM choices and a cost estimate.

Cluster Cost Estimate

UI Text You are about to launch cluster example-cluster with 1 shards with replication which will require:

  • 2 x CH Nodes m5.large
  • 14 GB of memory in total
  • 200 GB of storage volume in total
  • Estimated Cluster cost: $0.76/hour ($547.20/month)

Select LAUNCH to save and start the cluster.

ClickHouse User Name

Figure 24 – The LAUNCH button on the last wizard screen Review & Launch.

Conclusion

Launching a new cluster using the Cluster Launch Wizard is now complete.

Continue on to the next section:


Last modified 2023.01.26: Getting Started rewrite