Connecting to a Database

You can connect to a Vertica database in the following ways:

• interactively using the vsql client, as described in Connecting with vsql in the SQL Programmer's Guide.

  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.

  You can run psql on any node within a database. To start psql, use the Administration Tools or the shell command described in Connecting Interactively.

  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.

• programmatically using the JDBC driver provided by Vertica, as described in Using JDBC in the SQL Programmer's Guide.

  JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) is a call-level API that provides connectivity between Java programs and data sources (SQL databases and other non-relational data sources, such as spreadsheets or flat files). JDBC is included in the Java 2 standard and enterprise editions.

• programmatically using the ODBC driver provided by Vertica, as described in Using ODBC in the SQL Programmer's Guide.

  Open DataBase Connectivity is a standard application programming interface (API) for access to database management systems.

Vertica Systems, Inc. recommends that you deploy Vertica as the only active process on each machine in the cluster, and connect to it from applications on different machines. Vertica expects to use all available resources on the machine, and to the extent that other applications are also using these resources, suboptimal performance will result.