Stop and Start Nodes

There could be a scenario where you might need to stop and start a node to perform some maintenance activities on it. This section provides you with the steps on how to stop and start nodes on your cloud instance.

You can use one of the following methods to start or stop the nodes:

  • Stop or Start All Nodes with Cloud Plug-in: If you want to stop or start all nodes with a single click, you can use the STARTUP or SHUTDOWN button in the cloud plug-in. This feature is available in the latest version of Exasol Cloud Plug-in.
  • Manually Stop or Start Node(s): To stop a node, you first stop the database instances, then the storage service, and finally the node. The reverse order applies when you start a node.

Stop or Start All Nodes with Cloud Plug-in

The cloud plug-in allows you to shut down a running cluster and start it up again with one click. However, if you have an older version of the cloud plug-in, you need to download the latest Cloud UI plug-in and install it to get this feature. To know more about installation of the cloud plug-in, see Cloud UI Back-end Plug-in .

Shut Down all Nodes Using Cloud Plug-in UI

Do the following to shut down a cluster:

  1. Enter the following URL to open the Cloud UI tool in your browser. 
    https://<license node IP>:8835
  2. Log in to the interface using EXAoperation administrator credentials.
  3. In the cloud plug-in UI, click SHUTDOWN button.


    All the data nodes of the cluster will be shut down.

Shut Down all Nodes Using Command-line Tools

Run the following command from the license server to shut down a cluster.

/opt/ui-backend/handle_cloudui_request.py -d '{"method":"stop_cluster","credentials":"'$(echo -n 'admin:EXAOPERATION_PASSWORD' | base64)'"}'

Start all Nodes Using Cloud Plug-in UI

Do the following to shut down a cluster:

  1. Enter the following URL to open the Cloud UI tool in your browser. 
    https://<license node IP>:8835
  2. Log in to the interface using EXAoperation administrator credentials.
  3. Click STARTUP button.

    All the data nodes of the cluster will be started.

Start all Nodes Using Command-line Tools

Run the following command from the license server to start a cluster.

/opt/ui-backend/handle_cloudui_request.py -d '{"method":"start_cluster","credentials":"'$(echo -n 'admin:EXAOPERATION_PASSWORD' | base64)'"}'

Manually Stop or Start Node(s)

Follow the instructions given in this section to stop and start node(s) manually.

Shut Down Nodes

To stop a cluster / node, you need to perform the following steps:

  1. Shut down the database(s)
  2. Shut Down Storage
  3. Check EXAoperation Running On Management Node
  4. Shut Down Data Nodes
  5. Shut Down Management Node

Before you shut down the database(s), check for running operations. In EXAoperation, go to Services > EXASolution and check for running operations. There should be no running operation when you shut down a node or cluster.
If you stop the database while there are operations running, these operations will be aborted. It is recommended to wait until all running operations have completed before stopping the database.

Shut down the database(s)

  1. Select the database instances that should be shutdown and click Shutdown.

  2. Refresh the page until the status of all instances change from Running to Created.

Shut Down Storage

  1. Check for running operations before you shut down the storages/volumes. In EXAoperation, go to Services > EXAStorage. The Recovery field should be n/a for all volumes. Click Shutdown Storage Service.

    2. If you stop the storage while operations are running, these operations will be aborted. It is recommended to wait until all running operations have completed before stopping the database.

  2. The services will be shut down, and the EXAStorage screen looks as follows: 

Check EXAoperation Running On Management Node

Check to ensure that EXAoperation is running on the Management node. The management node is the only node that boots from the local drive. For this reason, EXAoperation must be running on the management node, and not on a data node, because if you shut down data nodes with EXAoperation running on it, you will not have access to EXAoperation anymore.

In EXAoperation, go to Services > EXAoperation and make sure that the node displayed is the management server (usually 'n0010'):

If any node other than the license server is shown here, it means EXAoperation is not running on the management node. In this case, you need to select the management node from the drop down list and click Move to specified Node before you shut down the data nodes.

Shut Down Data Nodes

  1. Check the status of the cluster node before you shut it down. In EXAoperation, go to Configuration > Nodes. The State/Op. field should be Running and Active for all nodes.

  2. Select all data nodes and then select Shutdown from the Actions ... drop down list, and click Execute.

  3. The nodes will be shut down. They appear with a state Unknown once they are shut down.

Shut Down Management Node

In the License Nodes group box, click Shutdown to shut down the management node.

Start Up Nodes

To start a cluster/node, perform the following steps: 

  1. Start Node(s)
  2. Login to EXAoperation
  3. Start Storage Service
  4. Start Database(s)

Start Node(s)

Follow these steps to start node(s) on Azure:

  1. Log in to the Azure Portal.
  2. Select the node(s) that you want to start and click Start button.

Alternately, you can run the az vm start command to start a node. To know about the options of the command, see az vm start on Azure documentation.

Login to EXAoperation

  1. Open EXAoperation using the management node's IP address in a browser.
  2. Login using the user name and password for your administrator user.
  3. Check the status of the node(s) that you started in the first step.
    The node(s) should be in running state.

Start Storage Service

Before continuing, ensure that all nodes have a state of Running. If any of the nodes has a state of Offline, the data on these nodes will be deleted and the system will attempt to recover the data from other nodes when the storage is started.

  1. In EXAoperation, go to Services > EXAStorage. When the storage service is not running, the screen looks as follows:

  2. Click Startup Storage Service.The storage service starts up and the screen looks like this after a few minutes:

Start Database(s)

To start the database(s), in EXAoperation, go to Services > EXASolution. Select the database and click Start.

Once the database is up, there is a green light beside the database name in the EXASolution screen. This indicates the database is accepting client connections.