System Requirements

General Requirements

CPU

Exasol requires 64-bit x86 platforms with SSSE3 featured CPUs (comparable to Intel Xeon Woodcrest and upwards).

Firmware Interface

Exasol currently only supports the classic Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface. Deactivate the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) if applicable.

Network

Depending on the network topology, the servers need to be equipped with two or more dedicated Ethernet network interface cards.

Every EXASolution cluster node is wired to at least two distinct network types:

  • Private network, used for cluster-internal communication.
  • Public network, used for client-access connections.

For more information about private and public networks, refer to the Network Planning section.

It is also possible to have additional networks for purposes of fail safety or link bonding. For more information about the network setup that will cover the performance requirements of most customers, refer to the Minimum Network Setup section.

Storage Subsystem

  • SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) is the preferred bus technology and hard drive interface.
  • SSDs (Solid State Drives) are supported but not certified.
  • Use of hardware RAID controllers with RAID-1 pairs (mirroring) is recommended for added hardware reliability in the case of a failure.
  • The more spindles EXAStorage has, the more parallelism there will be on read write operations.

Out-of-band Management

  • The preferred protocol to connect to Lights-out-Management interfaces is IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface, version 2.0).
  • Enterprise license is recommended.

Cluster Node Requirements

  • EXASolution clusters are composed of one or more database nodes and at least one management node (called "license server"). Database nodes are the powerhouse of a cluster and operate both the EXASolution instances as well as the EXAStorage volumes.
  • Database nodes are expected to be equipped with homogeneous hardware. The Exasol database and EXAStorage are designed and optimized to distribute processing load and database payload equally across the cluster. Inconsistent hardware (especially differences in RAM and disk sizes) may cause undesired effects, ranging from poor performance to service disruptions.
  • License servers are the only nodes of a cluster that boot from local disk. They are installed from an EXASuite installation ISO image.
  • Database servers are installed and booted from the license server over the network via PXE (DHCP + TFTP).

License Server Requirements

Minimum

  • Single socket quad core Intel CPU
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 2 x 200 GB hard disks

    Do not use more than 2 TB disk size for the management node. Exasol supports only MBR partitioning for the management node. For disk sizes exceeding 2 TB, GPT is used.

  • 2 x network adapters with at least 1 GB/s capacity
  • DVD drive for installation (alternatively: virtual media on lights-out-management)

Recommended

  • Hardware RAID controller
  • Lights-out-management interface

BIOS settings

  • Boot order: DVD, hard disk drive
  • Power management: maximum performance (static)
  • Processor options: hyper-threading enabled
  • Disable UEFI (GPT)

License Server Requirement for Virtual Machine

If you are installing Exasol in a virtual machine, the following table provides you with the license server's minimum requirements.

Virtual Machine Parameter License Server
OS CentOS 4/5/6 64-bit
Hardware revision Minimum 9
vCPU Minimum 4 (1 S, 4 Cores)
vMEM Minimum 4 GB (8 GB recommended)
vNIC VMXNET3 (VMXNET Generation 3)
Number of vNIC 2 (or more, depending on the cluster setup)
vSCSI 1 x Paravirtual
Disk Size 1 x minimum 200 GB (sda)
Video card RAM 4
VMCI device Disabled
Power Management No (Optimization)
Floppy No
Serial Port No
Parallel Port No
USB No
CD/DVD ROM Yes (install)
VMware Tools Yes
VMware Tools time synchronization No
BIOS Settings
  • Change boot sequence to Network, HD
  • Disable Floppy Disk A
  • Disable Serial Port A+B, Parallel Port, Floppy Disk
CPU reservation No
RAM reservation Equal to vMEM, minimum 4 GB (8 GB recommended)
Advanced Options Default

Network Interface

  • The first network interface should be connected to the private network
  • The second network interface should be connected to the public network

The steps to install Exasol in a virtual machine is similar to installing Exasol on hardware. Refer to Install Exasol on Hardware for detailed instructions.

Data Node Requirements

Minimum

  • 2 x Quad core Intel CPU (XEON)
  • 16 GB RAM (32 GB RAM recommended)
  • Hardware RAID controller
  • 2 x 128 GB SAS hard disks in RAID-1 (Operating system)
  • 4 x 300 GB SAS hard disks in RAID-1 (Database payload)
  • 2 x network adapters with at least 1 GB/s (PXE enabled on NET-0)

Recommended

  • Lights-out-management interface

BIOS settings

  • Boot order: PXE (network boot) from NET-0
  • Power management: maximum performance (static)
  • Processor options: hyper-threading enabled, virtualisation enabled
  • Disable UEFI (GPT)