Deployment Using YAML File - Tarball

Introduction

Installing SingleStoreDB on bare metal, on virtual machines, or in the cloud can be done through the use of popular configuration management tools or through SingleStore’s management tools.

In this guide, you will deploy a SingleStoreDB cluster onto physical or virtual machines and connect to the cluster using a SQL client.

A four-node cluster is the minimal recommended cluster size for showcasing SingleStoreDB as a distributed database with high availability; however, you can use the procedures in this tutorial to scale out to additional nodes for increased performance over large data sets or to handle higher concurrency loads. To learn more about SingleStore’s design principles and topology concepts, see Distributed Architecture.

Note

There are no licensing costs for using up to four license units for the leaf nodes in your cluster. If you need a larger cluster with more/larger leaf nodes, please create an Enterprise License trial key.

Prerequisites

For this tutorial you will need:

  • One (for single-host cluster-in-a-box for development) or four physical or virtual machines (hosts) with the following:

    • Each SingleStoreDB node requires at least four (4) x86_64 CPU cores and eight (8) GB of RAM per host

    • Eight (8) vCPU and 32 GB of RAM are recommended for leaf nodes to align with license unit calculations

    • Running a 64-bit version of RHEL/AlmaLinux 7 or later, or Debian 8 or later, with kernel 3.10 or later

    • Port 3306 open on all hosts for intra-cluster communication. Based on the deployment method, this default can be changed either from the command line or via cluster file.

    • Port 8080 open on the main deployment host for the cluster

    • A non-root user with sudo privileges available on all hosts in the cluster that be used to run SingleStoreDB services and own the corresponding runtime state

  • SSH access to all hosts

  • A connection to the Internet to download required packages

If running this in a production environment, it is highly recommended that you follow our host configuration recommendations for optimal cluster performance.

Duplicate Hosts

As of SingleStoreDB Toolbox 1.4.4, a check for duplicate hosts is performed before SingleStoreDB is deployed, and will display a message similar to the following if more than one host has the same SSH host key:

✘ Host check failed.host 172.26.212.166 has the same ssh
host keys as 172.16.212.165, toolbox doesn't support
registering the same host twice

Confirm that all specified hosts are indeed different and aren’t using identical SSH host keys. Identical host keys can be present if you have instantiated your host instances from images (AMIs, snapshots, etc.) that contain existing host keys. When a host is cloned, the host key (typically stored in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_<cipher>_key) will also be cloned.

As each cloned host will have the same host key, an SSH client cannot verify that it is connecting to the intended host. The script that deploys SingleStoreDB will interpret a duplicate host key as an attempt to deploy to the same host twice, and the deployment will fail.

The following steps demonstrate a potential remedy for the duplicate hosts message. Please note these steps may slightly differ depending on your Linux distribution and configuration.

sudo root
ls -al /etc/ssh/
rm /etc/ssh/<your-ssh-host-keys>
ssh-keygen -f /etc/ssh/<ssh-host-key-filename> -N '' -t rsa1
ssh-keygen -f /etc/ssh/<ssh-host-rsa-key-filename> -N '' -t rsa
ssh-keygen -f /etc/ssh/<ssh-host-dsa-key-filename> -N '' -t dsa

For more information about SSH host keys, including the equivalent steps for Ubuntu-based systems, refer to Avoid Duplicating SSH Host Keys.

As of SingleStoreDB Toolbox 1.5.3, sdb-deploy setup-cluster supports an --allow-duplicate-host-fingerprints option that can be used to ignore duplicate SSH host keys.

Network Configuration

Depending on the host and its function in deployment, some or all of the following port settings should be enabled on hosts in your cluster.

These routing and firewall settings must be configured to:

  • Allow database clients (e.g. your application) to connect to the SingleStoreDB aggregators

  • Allow all nodes in the cluster to talk to each other over the SingleStoreDB protocol (3306)

  • Allow you to connect to management and monitoring tools

Protocol

Default Port

Direction

Description

TCP

22

Inbound and Outbound

For host access. Required between nodes in SingleStoreDB tool deployment scenarios. Also useful for remote administration and troubleshooting on the main deployment host.

TCP

443

Outbound

To get public repo key for package verification. Required for nodes downloading SingleStore APT or YUM packages.

TCP

3306

Inbound and Outbound

Default port used by SingleStoreDB. Required on all nodes for intra-cluster communication. Also required on aggregators for client connections.

The service port values are configurable if the default values cannot be used in your deployment environment. For more information on how to change them, see:

We also highly recommend configuring your firewall to prevent other hosts on the Internet from connecting to SingleStoreDB.

Install SingleStore Tools

The first step in deploying your cluster is to download and install the SingleStore Tools on one of the hosts in your cluster. This host will be designated as the main deployment host for deploying SingleStoreDB across your other hosts and setting up your cluster.

These tools perform all major cluster operations including downloading the latest version of SingleStoreDB onto your hosts, assigning and configuring nodes in your cluster, and other management operations. For the purpose of this guide, the main deployment host is the same as the designated Master Aggregator of the SingleStoreDB cluster.

Installation - Tarball

Download SingleStoreDB Files

Download the singlestoredb-toolbox, singlestore-client, and singlestoredb-server files onto the main deployment host, or onto a device with access to the main deployment host.

To obtain the latest version of each file, use the following:

curl https://release.memsql.com/production/index/<singlestore-file>/latest.json

Replace <singlestore-file> with memsqltoolbox, memsqlclient, and singlestoredbserver to download the list of available file types.

The JSON you receive contains relative file paths in the following format:

"Path": "production/tar/x86_64/<singlestore-file>-<version>-<commit-hash>.x86_64.tar.gz"

Use wget to download the file by copying, pasting, and appending the path (minus the quotes) to https://release.memsql.com/. Examples are shown below.

wget https://release.memsql.com/production/tar/x86_64/<singlestore-file>-<version>-<commit-hash>.x86_64.tar.gz

Alternatively, download the following SingleStore tarball files onto a device with access to the main deployment host.

singlestoredb-server

singlestoredb-toolbox

singlestore-client

Transfer SingleStoreDB Files

Transfer the singlestoredb-toolbox, singlestore-client, and singlestoredb-server tarball files into a dedicated singlestore directory that has been configured so that non-sudo users can access on the main deployment host, such as /home/<user>/singlestore or /opt/singlestore.

Unpack SingleStoreDB Files

Note: For the remainder of this document, <version>-<commit-hash> will be written simply as <version>.

Unpack singlestoredb-toolbox and singlestore-client into the singlestore directory.

tar xzvf singlestoredb-toolbox-<version>.tar.gz && \
tar xzvf singlestore-client-<version>.tar.gz

You do not need to unpack the singlestoredb-server file in this step. It will be installed as part of deployment, which is shown in the next step.

Deploy SingleStoreDB

Prerequisites

Warning

Before deploying a SingleStoreDB cluster in a production environment, please review and follow the host configuration recommendations. Failing to follow these recommendations will result in sub-optimal cluster performance.

In addition, SingleStore recommends that each Master Aggregator and child aggregator reside on its own host when deploying SingleStoreDB in a production environment.

Notes on Users and Groups

The user that deploys SingleStoreDB via SingleStoreDB Toolbox must be able to SSH to each host in the cluster. When singlestoredb-server is installed via an RPM or Debian package when deploying SingleStoreDB, a memsql user and group are also created on each host in the cluster.

This memsql user does not have a shell, and attempting to log in or SSH as this user will fail. The user that deploys SingleStoreDB is added to the memsql group. This group allows most Toolbox commands to run without sudo privileges, and members of this group can perform many Toolbox operations without the need to escalate to sudo. Users who desire to run SingleStoreDB Toolbox commands must be added to the memsql group on each host in the cluster. They must also be able to SSH to each host.

Manually creating a memsql user and group is only recommended in a sudo-less environment when performing a tarball-based deployment of SingleStoreDB. In order to run SingleStoreDB Toolbox commands against a cluster, this manually-created memsql user must be configured so that it can SSH to each host in the cluster.

Minimal Deployment

SingleStoreDB has been designed to be deployed with at least two nodes:

  • A Master Aggregator node that runs SQL queries and aggregates the results, and

  • A single leaf node, which is responsible for storing and processing data

These two nodes can be deployed on a single host (via the cluster-in-box option), or on two hosts, with one SingleStoreDB node on each host.

While additional aggregators and nodes can be added and removed as required, a minimal deployment of SingleStoreDB always consists of at least these two nodes.

Deployment Using YAML File - Tarball

As of SingleStoreDB Toolbox 1.3.0, the sdb-deploy setup-cluster command now accepts a YAML-based cluster configuration file (or simply “cluster file”), the format of which is validated before attempting to set up the specified cluster. Using a cluster file is the recommended method for creating new SingleStoreDB clusters.

The command is designed to be consistent, where re-running the sdb-deploy setup-cluster command with the same cluster file will always produce the same cluster. This methods is also resilient, allowing errors encountered at any stage of the cluster construction process to be corrected, and sdb-deploy setup-cluster re-run, in order to generate the desired cluster.

Complete Cluster File Template

license: <LICENSE | /path/to/LICENSE-file> [Required to bootstrap Master Aggregator]
high_availability: <true | false>
memsql_server_version: <the version of memsql you want to install (6.7+)>
memsql_server_file_path: <path to the downloaded memsql server file>
memsql_server_preinstalled_path: <equivalent to using the '--preinstalled-path' option;
the path to the unpacked singlestoredb-server file
where the unpacked folder name must be of the form
'singlestoredb-server-<version>*' or
'memsql-server-<version>*'>
skip_install: <true | false> [ADVANCED]
skip_validate_env: <true | false> [ADVANCED]
allow_duplicate_host_fingerprints: <true | false> [ADVANCED]
assert_clean_state: <true | false> [ADVANCED]
package_type: <deb | rpm | tar> [Required if multiple package present]
root_password: <default password to be used for all nodes>
optimize: <true | false>
optimize_config:
memory_percentage: <percentage of memory you want memsql to use>
no_numa: <true | false>
sync_variables: [ADVANCED]
<variable's name>: <variable's value>
hosts:
- hostname: <host-name> [Required]
localhost: <true | false>
skip_auto_config: <true | false>
memsqlctl_path: <path to memsqlctl> [ADVANCED]
memsqlctl_config_path: <path to memsqlctl config> [ADVANCED]
tar_install_dir: <path to tar install dir> [ADVANCED]
tar_install_state: <path to tar install state> [ADVANCED]
ssh: [Required for remote Hosts]
host: <ssh host name>
port: <ssh port>
user: <ssh user>
private_key: <path to your identity key>
nodes:
- register: <true | false>
force_registration: <true | false> [ADVANCED]
role: <Unknown | Master | Leaf | Aggregator> (case sensitive) [Required]
availability_group: <availability group>
no_start: <true | false>
config:
auditlogsdir: <path to auditlogs directory> [ADVANCED]
baseinstalldir: <path to base install directory> [ADVANCED]
configpath: <path to configuration path> [ADVANCED] [Required if register is true]
datadir: <path to data directory> [ADVANCED]
disable_auto_restart: <true | false>
password: <password>
plancachedir: <path to plancache directory> [ADVANCED]
port: <port number> [Required for node creation]
tracelogsdir: <path to tracelogs directory> [ADVANCED]
bind_address: <bind address> [ADVANCED]
ssl_fips_mode: <true | false > [ADVANCED]
variables:
<variable's name>: <variable's value>

Deploy a Cluster

You can deploy your own SingleStoreDB cluster with your desired cluster configuration using the cluster file template above, and/or the example cluster files in the following sections.

After creating the cluster file, you can deploy the corresponding SingleStoreDB cluster via the sdb-deploy setup-cluster command.

Run the following from the singlestoredb-toolbox directory with the path to the cluster file as input.

./sdb-deploy setup-cluster --cluster-file </path/to/cluster-file>
Cluster File Notes
  • high_availability: Used to enable high availability on the cluster.

    • If set to true, each node may be assigned an availability group via the availability_group field.

    • Refer to Availability Groups for more information.

  • license: Use your license from the Cloud Portal. This can be the license itself, or the full path to a text file with the license in it.

  • singlestoredb-server_version: You may specify either a major release of SingleStoreDB (such as 7.3) or a specific release (such as 7.3.10). When a major release is specified, the latest patch level of that release will be deployed.

  • Setting a Password: There are two ways to set a password in the cluster file YAML:

    • A global root password: Including the root_password field with a password will ensure that each node uses the same root password. Recommended. See Example 1.

    • A node-specific root password: Including a password field in each node definition. This is only recommended if your security protocols require each node to have its own root password. See Example 2.

  • register: Set the value of this field to false to create a new node. Set the value to true if the node is already present and you want to register it to SingleStoreDB Toolbox. The configpath field and value are also required when register is set to true. Do not set this value to true to create a new node. For more information, refer to the sdb-deploy setup-cluster reference page.

  • Indicating a Host: You may use either an IP address or a hostname when indicating a host in the cluster file.

  • Aggregator Hosts: When deploying SingleStoreDB, it is recommended that you deploy each Aggregator to its own individual host. If the Master Aggregator goes down, the Child Aggregators can keep running queries, and coordinating and executing writes. In this scenarios, the only operations that can’t be done are DDL commands and reference table management, which must be done on the Master Aggregator.

  • Optimize the Cluster: It is recommended that you include the optimize field in the cluster file and set it to true. Doing so checks your current cluster configuration against a set of best practices and either makes changes to maximize performance or provides recommendations for you. For hosts with NUMA support, this command will bind the leaf nodes to specific NUMA nodes.

Cluster File Examples

SingleStoreDB uses a combination of aggregator and leaf nodes that are typically configured in a specific ratio. For more information, refer to Cluster Components.

The examples below deploy two different types of SingleStoreDB cluster:

  • A multi-host, multi-node SingleStoreDB cluster with four hosts, two aggregators, and two leaf nodes

  • A multi-host, multi-node SingleStoreDB cluster with two hosts, a single aggregator, and two leaf nodes

These cluster file examples can be used as a starting point for deploying a SingleStoreDB cluster that fulfills your specific requirements.

Example 1: Two Hosts, Four Nodes

For this example, you will need two hosts and the ability to ssh into each host from the main deployment host.

Replace memsql_server_version with memsql_server_file_path to specify the location of the singlestoredb-server tarball file downloaded previously. This must be the full path to singlestoredb-server, including the singlestoredb-server filename.

license: <license-from-portal.singlestore.com>
memsql_server_version: 7.3
package_type: rpm
root_password: <secure-password>
hosts:
- hostname: 172.16.212.165
localhost: true
nodes:
- register: false
role: Master
config:
auditlogsdir: /data/memsql/Master/auditlogs/
datadir: /data/memsql/Master/data
plancachedir: /data/memsql/Master/plancache
tracelogsdir: /data/memsql/Master/tracelogs
port: 3306
- register: false
role: Leaf
config:
auditlogsdir: /data/memsql/Leaf1/auditlogs
datadir: /data/memsql/Leaf1/data
plancachedir: /data/memsql/Leaf1/plancache
tracelogsdir: /data/memsql/Leaf1/tracelogs
port: 3307
- hostname: 172.16.212.166
localhost: false
ssh:
host: 172.16.212.166
private_key: /home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa
nodes:
- register: false
role: Leaf
config:
auditlogsdir: /data/memsql/Leaf2/auditlogs
datadir: /data/memsql/Leaf2/data
plancachedir: /data/memsql/Leaf2/plancache
tracelogsdir: /data/memsql/Leaf2/tracelogs
port: 3307

Using this cluster file, sdb-deploy setup-cluster:

  1. Registers two hosts to the cluster.

  2. Installs the latest patch level of singlestoredb-server v7.3 on both hosts.

  3. Creates a Master Aggregator node on port 3306 on host 172.16.212.165 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified by the value in the root_password field.

  4. Creates a leaf node on port 3307 on host 172.16.212.165 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified by the value in the root_password field.

  5. Creates a leaf node on port 3307 on host 172.16.212.166 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified by the value in the root_password field.

  6. Sets the paths for the audit logs, data, plancache, and trace logs on each host. Notice that each field has its own path.

    Alternatively, you can replace these individual fields and paths on each node definition with a single baseinstalldir field and path, such as baseinstalldir: /data/memsql/Master. Each node definition would then resemble:

    nodes:
    - register: false
    role: Master
    config:
    baseinstalldir: /data/memsql/Master
    port: 3306
  7. Run the following from the singlestoredb-toolbox directory with the path to the cluster file as input.

    ./sdb-deploy setup-cluster --cluster-file </path/to/cluster-file>
Example 2: Four Hosts, Four Nodes

For this example, you will need four hosts and the ability to ssh into each host from the main deployment host.

Replace memsql_server_version with memsql_server_file_path to specify the location of the singlestoredb-server tarball file downloaded previously. This must be the full path to singlestoredb-server, including the singlestoredb-server filename.

license: <license-from-portal.singlestore.com>
high_availability: true
memsql_server_version: 7.3
package_type: rpm
hosts:
- hostname: 172.16.212.165
localhost: true
nodes:
- register: false
role: Master
config:
password: <secure-password>
port: 3306
- hostname: 172.16.212.166
localhost: false
ssh:
host: 172.16.212.166
private_key: /home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa
nodes:
- register: false
role: Aggregator
config:
password: <secure-password>
port: 3306
- hostname: 172.16.212.167
localhost: false
ssh:
host: 172.16.212.167
private_key: /home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa
nodes:
- register: false
role: Leaf
config:
password: <secure-password>
port: 3306
- hostname: 172.16.212.168
localhost: false
ssh:
host: 172.16.212.168
private_key: /home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa
nodes:
- register: false
role: Leaf
config:
password: <secure-password>
port: 3306

Using this cluster file, sdb-deploy setup-cluster:

  1. Registers four hosts to the cluster.

  2. Enables High Availability.

  3. Installs the latest patch level of singlestoredb-server v7.3 on all four hosts.

  4. Creates a Master Aggregator node on port 3306 on host 172.16.212.165 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified in the cluster file.

  5. Creates a Child Aggregator node on port 3306 on host 172.16.212.166 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified in the cluster file.

  6. Creates a leaf node on port 3306 on host 172.16.212.167 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified in the cluster file.

  7. Creates a leaf node on port 3306 on host 172.16.212.168 and sets the SingleStoreDB password to the one specified in the cluster file.

  8. Run the following from the singlestoredb-toolbox directory with the path to the cluster file as input.

    ./sdb-deploy setup-cluster --cluster-file </path/to/cluster-file>

Additional Deployment Options

Note

If this deployment method is not ideal for your target environment, you can choose one that fits your requirements from the Deployment Options.

Connect to Your Cluster

The singlestore-client package contains is a lightweight client application that allows you to run SQL queries against your database from a terminal window.

After you have installed singlestore-client, use the singlestore application as you would use the mysql client to access your database.

For more connection options, help is available through singlestore --help.

singlestore -h <Master-or-Child-Aggregator-host-IP-address> -P <port> -u <user> -p<secure-password>
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 12
Server version: 5.5.58 MemSQL source distribution (compatible; MySQL Enterprise & MySQL Commercial)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

singlestore> 

Refer to Connect to Your Cluster for additional options for connecting to SingleStoreDB.

Next Steps After Deployment

Now that you have installed SingleStoreDB, check out the following resources to learn more about SingleStoreDB:

Last modified: September 18, 2023

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