Deploy Exasol - step by step
Follow this step-by-step guide to install and deploy Exasol on Linux hosts.
Exasol is deployed as a Linux application installed in your own infrastructure or on cloud instances on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. The system requirements and procedures for deployment and system administration are essentially the same for all platforms.
The full deployment procedure consists of three stages: the Preparation stage where you set up the installation environment, the Installation stage where you configure and deploy the Exasol software on the hosts, and the Post-Installation stage, where you perform initial system administration tasks and connect to your new Exasol cluster.
Prerequisites
The database hosts must be pre-installed with a supported Linux distribution and meet the minimum system requirements for an Exasol installation. To learn more about hardware and operating system requirements, see System requirements.
OS security hardening
We recommend using OpenSCAP to security harden the operating system used in Exasol deployments. The OpenSCAP project provides an open-source toolkit for parsing and evaluating components of the Security Content Automation Protocol standard (SCAP).
You can use the NIST-certified command line scanner oscap to scan an Exasol host system using a predefined compliance profile and generate a report, and then apply the suggested remediations.
For more details, see the OS security hardening guide.
GPU acceleration
If your Exasol system should support the use of GPUs to accelerate UDFs, additional system requirements apply. To learn more, see System requirements for GPU support.
Deploying in public clouds
If you are deploying Exasol on cloud instances, refer to the cloud service provider’s documentation for details about how to configure network and security settings.
SSH access
You can run the installation process from a separate Linux system (jump host) or from one of the database hosts. In both cases, the host running the installation will access the other hosts over SSH.
If you are deploying Exasol on a single host system and not using a jump host, SSH is not required. However, we recommend that you set up SSH anyway since this enables passwordless login and makes it easier to add more hosts to the cluster later.
For more guidelines on how to prepare an optimal environment for an Exasol deployment and how to keep your data secure, see Planning guide.
Preparation
Before you install Exasol you must prepare the hosts and the network environment.
Step 1: Configure the network
The first step is to configure the network settings so that the hosts can communicate with each other and with the (optional) jump host on the required ports.
Step 2: Create the installation user
The next step is to create a dedicated user for Exasol on all hosts. This user must have sudo privileges to be able to install and update Exasol.
Step 3: Set up SSH authentication
To allow the hosts to communicate with each other and with the (optional) jump host over SSH, you must configure an SSH key pair and install it on each host.
Step 4: Prepare storage devices
Data in an Exasol database is stored on volumes, which are assigned to storage devices (disks). You must prepare the storage devices before you continue with the installation.
With the default installation procedure, Exasol will be run by a user who has root privileges on the database hosts. To install Exasol for a non-root user, additional configuration steps are required. For more information, see Rootless deployment.
If your Exasol system should support the use of GPUs to accelerate UDFs, you must install the necessary drivers and additional software for the GPUs before you install Exasol.
For more information, see Install and configure GPU support.
Installation
Once the hosts and network have been configured, you can start installing Exasol.
Step 5: Download and install software
Exasol Deployment Tool (c4) is a command-line application that is used to download and deploy Exasol on all platforms. The c4 application can run either on a separate system (jump host) or on one of the database hosts.
Step 6: Create a configuration
Next, you need to create a configuration file that c4 will use for the installation. The configuration file defines all necessary parameters such as network addresses, disk devices, and the number of nodes in the cluster.
Step 7: Deploy to hosts
When the configuration is prepared, you are ready to start the deployment process. Exasol Deployment Tool (c4) will deploy Exasol over the private network and then start up the database on all nodes. You can make a “dry run” to validate the configuration before you run the actual installation.
Post-installation
When your Exasol database is up and running, you can connect to it and start loading data using SQL clients and other tools. You can also access the cluster nodes over SSH and manage your system through the different administrative interfaces.
Upload a license
Your new Exasol system is installed with a license that allows you to load 10 GiB of raw data for testing purposes. For larger data sizes, you must purchase a license and upload it to the system.
Configure backups
Creating a backup strategy and configuring regular backups is important to keep your data safe. This step explains how to set up a basic backup schedule after installing Exasol.
Connect to Exasol
When your database is up and running you can connect to it using a database client and start to load data.
Enable Exasol Admin (optional)
To use the Exasol Admin UI, you must enable it in the deployment configuration. If you neglected this step, you can enable Exasol Admin after deployment.
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