Quick start with Exasol Personal

Prerequisites

Quick start (macOS / Linux)

Follow these steps to get started quickly launching from Linux or macOS. For Windows instructions and additional details, see Deploy Exasol Personal (full procedure).

1. Download Exasol Launcher:

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   curl https://www.exasol.com/install/ | sh

2. Install on a cloud provider or on your local system:

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   exasol install aws        # Amazon Web Services

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   exasol install azure      # Microsoft Azure

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   exasol install exoscale   # Exoscale

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   exasol install stackit    # STACKIT

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   exasol install local      # local system, macOS

3. See Connect and load data on how to connect to your Exasol Personal database and start loading data.

Deploy Exasol Personal (full procedure)

1. Download and install Exasol Launcher for your local platform.

   Linux and macOS:

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   curl https://www.exasol.com/install/ | sh

   This installs the Exasol Launcher binary exasol in ~/.local/bin. On most Linux distributions this directory is already in your PATH. On macOS, or if the installer reports that ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH, follow the instructions in the installer.

   Windows:

   Download Exasol Launcher from the Exasol Download Portal and copy the exasol binary to a directory in your PATH.

2. Create a new directory deployment and change into the directory:

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   mkdir deployment
   cd deployment

   Do not place the exasol binary in the deployment directory. This directory must be empty or the installation will fail.

3. For cloud presets, configure authentication for your provider. See the relevant account setup guide in Prerequisites for the environment variables and credentials required.

4. Run the exasol install command with the preset for your cloud provider or local system:

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   exasol install aws                         # Amazon Web Services
   exasol install azure --location <region>   # Microsoft Azure
   exasol install exoscale [--zone <zone>]    # Exoscale
   exasol install stackit                     # STACKIT
   exasol install local                       # local system, macOS

   The exasol install command does the following:

   • Generates backend files in the deployment directory

   • Provisions the necessary deployment resources

   • Starts the deployment

   • Downloads and installs Exasol Personal

   The installation process normally takes about 10 to 20 minutes to complete.

When the deployment process has finished, the terminal output will show the connection details for the new database. You can also find this information at any time by using exasol info in the terminal.

If the deployment process is interrupted, cloud resources that were created in the process will not be automatically removed and may continue to accrue cost. To clean up after an interrupted deployment, use exasol destroy. Alternatively, remove the resources manually in your cloud provider’s console.

Connect and load data

Once the deployment process is complete, use exasol info for information about how to connect to your Exasol database. The credentials for connecting to the database from a client are stored in the file secrets.json in the deployment directory.

exasol connect

exasol connect -c "SELECT 1; SELECT 2"   # run inline statement(s)
exasol connect -f script.sql             # run statements from a file

exasol connect --csv -c "SELECT * FROM PRODUCTS" > products.csv

exasol connect --max-rows 0        # return all rows, even interactively
echo "SELECT * FROM PRODUCTS;" | exasol connect --max-rows 1000

# Connect to the compute instance your database is running on:
exasol shell host

# Connect to the COS container your node is running on:
exasol shell container

Load sample data

To help you get started quickly, Exasol provides a sample dataset hosted on S3 that you can import using SQL. You can load the dataset directly by executing the following command in the deployment directory:

exasol connect < sample.sql

Alternatively, connect with a SQL client of your choice and paste the following statements:

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE PRODUCTS AS (
    IMPORT FROM PARQUET
    AT 'https://exasol-easy-data-access.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/sample-data/'
    FILE 'online_products.parquet'
);

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE PRODUCT_REVIEWS AS (
    IMPORT FROM PARQUET
    AT 'https://exasol-easy-data-access.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/sample-data/'
    FILE 'product_reviews.parquet'
);

Both tables are distributed by PRODUCT_ID, enabling efficient joins between them.

Additional deployment options

exasol install azure --location westeurope

exasol install exoscale                     # deploy to ch-gva-2 (default)
exasol install exoscale --zone de-fra-1     # deploy to Frankfurt
exasol install exoscale --zone at-vie-1     # deploy to Vienna

exasol install <preset> --cluster-size <number> --instance-type <string>

Stop and start Exasol Personal

To save costs, you can temporarily stop Exasol Personal by using the following command (in the deployment directory):

exasol stop

This stops the compute instance(s) that Exasol Personal is running on.

Networking and data volumes that the database data is stored on will continue to incur costs when compute instances are stopped.

To start Exasol Personal again, use the following command:

exasol start

The IP addresses of the nodes will change when you stop and start Exasol Personal. Check the output of the start command to know how to connect to the deployment after a restart.

Remove Exasol Personal

To completely remove an Exasol Personal deployment, use exasol destroy. This command will terminate and delete the compute instances and all associated resources on your cloud platform.

To learn more about this command, use exasol destroy --help.

Presets

Exasol Personal uses presets – self-contained directories of templates and config files – to provision infrastructure and install Exasol. Each deployment combines two presets:

Infrastructure preset

• Provisions cloud resources (compute, network, and storage).

• Built-in presets: aws, azure, exoscale, stackit, local

Installation preset

• Installs and configures Exasol on the provisioned nodes.

• Built-in presets: ubuntu (used by default).

exasol install <infra-preset> [install-preset]

exasol install aws            # built-in preset by name
exasol install ./my-preset    # local preset by path (starts with . / ~ or contains /)
exasol install ./my-infra ./my-install   # both presets from local paths

To list all available built-in presets:

exasol presets

Local presets

You can store your own preset directories anywhere on your filesystem and pass the path directly to exasol install. This lets you target additional cloud platforms or customize provisioning without modifying the launcher.

Building your own presets

For the full preset contract: manifest schema, required output artifacts, variable channels, and the reference implementations in assets/infrastructure, see Preset development (infrastructure + installation) on GitHub.