Overview
Welcome to the Quick Start. This document is presented as a tutorial that takes you through the process of configuring a Vertica database and running example queries.
Vertica recommends that you read the Product Overview manual before using this tutorial, in order to get a minimal understanding of unfamiliar concepts.
User Interfaces
In following this tutorial, you will use the following user interfaces:
- The Linux command line (shell) interface
- The Vertica
Administration Tools (see the Database Administrator's Guide for details)The tools needed for administering a Vertica database are provided in the form of a graphical user interface that allows you to perform various tasks quickly and easily. The tools also provide a convenient way to connect to a database using vsql. Always run the Administration Tools on the Administration Host if possible.
vsql is the Vertica implementation of psql, a character-based, interactive, front-end that is part of PostgreSQL and used by other database management systems. It allows you to type in SQL statements and see the results. It also provides a number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks.
$ /opt/vertica/bin/adminTools
See the Administration Tools Reference for a complete description.
- The vsql client interface (see the SQL Programmer's Guide for details)
vsql is the Vertica implementation of psql, a character-based, interactive, front-end that is part of PostgreSQL and used by other database management systems. It allows you to type in SQL statements and see the results. It also provides a number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks.
Example Databases
Vertica provides several simplified versions of databases that might actually be used in real-world applications. Detailed descriptions of each are provided in Example Databases.
You can use these databases as examples for learning purposes and/or as templates for actual databases. Even if your business has nothing to do with any of these schemas, following the tutorial procedure will be useful to you because the techniques are the same regardless of the type of data warehouse you require.
The example databases are located in /opt/vertica/doc/ on all cluster hosts. The databases are provided as:
- directories containing files
- .tar.gz files
- .zip files
Tutorial Procedure
The Tutorial Procedure describes how to configure a Vertica database that you can use to execute sample queries. It assumes that you have already installed Vertica on a cluster of hosts as described in the Installation Guide. You can copy the example databases to non-cluster hosts for reference purposes but you must perform the tutorial procedure on the Administration Host.
The host on which the Vertica rpm package was manually installed. Always run the Administration Tools on this host if possible.
rpm is a powerful package manager, which can be used to build, install, query, verify, update, and erase individual software packages. A package consists of an archive of files and meta-data used to install and erase the archive files. The meta-data includes helper scripts, file attributes, and descriptive information about the package. Packages come in two varieties: binary packages, used to encapsulate software to be installed, and source packages, containing the source code and recipe necessary to produce binary packages.
A host is a computer system with a 32-bit or 64-bit Intel or AMD processor, RAM, hard disk, and TCP/IP network interface (IP address and hostname). Hosts share neither disk space nor main memory with each other.
Example Queries
Each example database includes several queries that are intended to represent ones that might be used in a real business. Feel free to write and run queries of your own to get familiar with querying a star schema. Detailed instructions are provided in Running Simple Queries.
Cleanup Procedure
When you have finished with the tutorial, you can restore your host machines to their original state. Detailed instructions are provided in Cleanup Procedure.
