Exasol on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) provides a suite of infrastructure services that enable you to deploy Exasol in a highly available, scalable, and affordable way. This section provides you with step-by-step instructions for deploying Exasol on GCP.

Before you begin

Read the following sections before you start setting up Exasol on GCP.

Exasol on GCP is available through the Google Cloud Platform Marketplace in two variants, depending on how you want to license it.

  • Exasol Analytics Database PAYG:The pay as you go (PAYG) license model is a flexible and scalable license model for deployment of Exasol on a cloud platform. With the PAYG model, you pay for your cloud resources and Exasol software through the cloud platform’s billing cycle. You can always change your setup later to scale up or down your system, and the billing changes accordingly.
    To get an idea about the pricing for this offering, see Pricing.

    The PAYG option is the default option in the deployment templates. If you are not sure which version to choose from, then it is recommended to go with the PAYG option.

  • Exasol Analytics Database BYOL:The bring your own license (BYOL) license model lets you choose a static license for Exasol software and dynamic billing for the cloud resources. With the BYOL model, you need to purchase a license from Exasol and add it to your cloud instance. You pay only for the cloud resources through the cloud platform’s billing cycle, and there is no billing for the Exasol software. You can change your setup later to scale up or down your system, and the billing changes accordingly. However, there is a limit for the maximum scaling allowed based on your license.
    To get an idea about the pricing for this offering, see Pricing.

    You can check the limits from EXAoperation. To view the license limit, select Configuration > Software and then License tab.

Exasol recommends the following cloud-specific configurations:

  • Instance families: n1-standard-2 - n1-standard-96 and n1-highmem-2 - n1-highmem-64
  • Storage: Exasol recommends using SSD persistent disk for data storage and Cloud Storage for data backup.
  • Minimum main memory size: 16GB

We recommend setting up Exasol as a cluster. This offers the following advantages:

  • Scalability: easily scale out a cluster by adding additional nodes to process more data and to serve more concurrent users.
  • High availability: When a node fails the system automatically tries to repair this node or includes a standby node into the system (if a standby node was configured).

However, for small data sizes or evaluation purposes, a single-node system would be sufficient and more appropriate. Setting up a cluster using our templates is as easy as setting up a single node system.

Before you begin with deploying Exasol on GCP, we recommend you to familiarize yourself with the GCP concepts from the official Google documentation.

Step 1: Deploy Exasol

Option 1: Using the Cloud Deployment Wizard

Exasol recommends using the Cloud Deployment Wizard to install Exasol on GCP. To know how to install Exasol on GCP using the wizard, see Using Exasol Cloud Deployment Wizard.

To learn more about the Cloud Deployment Wizard, watch the following video.

Option 2: Using the Cloud Deployment Manager templates

If you don't want to use the configuration recommendations of the wizard, you can use the Cloud Deployment Manager templates to install Exasol. For detailed instructions, refer to Using Cloud Deployment Manager Template.

Step 3: Connect tools and install drivers

After installing Exasol on GCP, you can do the following:

Step 4: Load data

After you have connected your choice of tool to Exasol, you can load your data into Exasol and process further. To learn more about loading data into Exasol, see Loading Data.

Step 5: Administration

Once you have all the configurations in place and started using Exasol, you may have to perform some administration task on your setup. To learn more about the administrative activities that you can perform on your Exasol instance, see Administration on Google Cloud Platform.

Support, troubleshooting, software updates

The Exasol PAYG subscription includes the Enterprise 24x7 (Gold) support level. To get help from our Support team, create a case.