This guide walks through the steps to build an externally accessible FoundationDB cluster of one or more machines. Before setting up a cluster for performance testing or production use, you should also read the reference material in :doc:`configuration` and :doc:`administration`.
Warning
To build an externally accessible FoundationDB cluster, perform the following steps:
Follow the steps in :doc:`getting-started-linux` to install FoundationDB locally on each of the Linux machines that you wish to use in your cluster.
Warning
When building a cluster, do not simply copy the FoundationDB installation, and in particular the data files, from one machine to another, whether by direct copying or by cloning a VM.
We recommend changing the configuration file once and copying to other machines in the cluster.
By default, FoundationDB installs on a single server in a locally accessible mode suitable for development --- only clients on the same machine will be able to access the database. To allow external access, you will have to make your :ref:`cluster file <foundationdb-cluster-file>` public.
Choose a machine to be the starting machine for your cluster. The database on this machine will be the one that we grow to span the cluster. Use the /usr/lib/foundationdb/make_public.py script on that server to update your cluster file to use a public interface. For example:
user@host1$ sudo /usr/lib/foundationdb/make_public.py /etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster is now using address 10.0.1.1
Note
A FoundationDB cluster has the option of supporting :doc:`Transport Layer Security (TLS) <tls>` for all connections (between server processes and between clients and servers). To enable TLS on a new cluster, see :ref:`Enabling TLS <enable-TLS>`.
By default, the script will pick a local network interface that can access the internet. To specify the address manually, use the -a flag and choose an address that is accessible by all machines in the cluster as well as by all intended clients.:
user@host1$ sudo /usr/lib/foundationdb/make_public.py -a 10.0.1.1 /etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster is now using address 10.0.1.1
At this point and after each subsequent step, it is a good idea to test the database to make sure it is operating normally. Run fdbcli on the starting machine:
user@host1$ fdbcli Using cluster file `/etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster'. The database is available. Welcome to the fdbcli. For help, type `help'. fdb> status Configuration: Redundancy mode - single Storage engine - ssd Coordinators - 1 Cluster: FoundationDB processes - 1 Machines - 1 Memory availability - 4.1 GB per process on machine with least available Fault Tolerance - 0 machines Server time - Thu Mar 15 14:41:34 2018 Data: Replication health - Healthy Moving data - 0.000 GB Sum of key-value sizes - 8 MB Disk space used - 103 MB Operating space: Storage server - 1.0 GB free on most full server Transaction log - 1.0 GB free on most full server Workload: Read rate - 2 Hz Write rate - 0 Hz Transactions started - 2 Hz Transactions committed - 0 Hz Conflict rate - 0 Hz Backup and DR: Running backups - 0 Running DRs - 0 Client time: Thu Mar 15 14:41:34 2018
Note
If the database is not operational the status command will provide diagnostic information to help you resolve the issue. For more help, please post a question (and the results of the status command) on the community forums.
To add the rest of your machines to the cluster, perform the following steps on each one:
Copy the cluster file from a server already in the cluster (located at
/etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster) to the new machine, overwriting the existingfdb.clusterfile.Restart FoundationDB on the new machine so that it uses the new cluster file:
user@host2$ sudo service foundationdb restart
By default, the database will be in single redundancy mode and use the memory storage engine. You should change the redundancy mode (see :ref:`configuration-choosing-redundancy-mode`) and storage engine (see :ref:`configuration-storage-engine`) to appropriate values for your cluster.
For example, to use a triple-replicated database with the SSD storage engine, use the configure command in the fdbcli:
user@host1$ fdbcli Using cluster file `/etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster'. The database is available. Welcome to the fdbcli. For help, type `help'. fdb> configure triple ssd Configuration changed
If the configure command hangs or returns an error message, see :ref:`test-the-database`.
At this point, your cluster will be using the starting machine as the only coordination server, leaving that as a single point of failure. You should therefore select a fault-tolerant set of coordinators according to the criteria in :ref:`configuration-choosing-coordination-servers`. To switch the cluster to your chosen coordinators, run the fdbcli command on one of the servers and use the coordinators command to :ref:`set the coordinators <configuration-changing-coordination-servers>`.
user@host$ fdbcli Using cluster file `/etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster'. The database is available. Welcome to the fdbcli. For help, type `help'. fdb> coordinators 10.0.4.1:4500 10.0.4.2:4500 10.0.4.3:4500 Coordinators changed
There is also a convenience option, coordinators auto, that will automatically select a set of coordinators based on your redundancy mode.
Note
You can also change the cluster description, as described in :ref:`configuration-setting-cluster-description`.
To add or remove machines from the cluster or perform other administrative tasks, see :doc:`administration`.