Management Guide

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1.2. Managing Databases

There are a number of management tasks that a database administrator needs to perform. These responsibilities fall into three main categories:

Table 1.1. Database Management Tasks

Basic Operations

Administrators are often responsible for configuring the hardware, software, and the database that runs on them. The management console helps by providing a single interface from which you can define the configuration of a VoltDB database, verify the setup of the operating systems, and distribute the VoltDB software and database catalog to all nodes of the cluster in a single step.

The console also lets you start and stop clusters or individual nodes from one location.

Performance Monitoring

Another important role of the database administrator is monitoring database performance. Monitoring is important for several reasons:

  • Performance

  • Load Balancing

  • Fault Detection

The management console provides tools to help in all three cases.

Maintenance and UpgradesOver time, both a cluster and the database may require maintenance — either planned or emergency — and possibly upgrades. The ability for a VoltDB cluster with K-safety enabled to bring down a node for repair and bring it (or a replacement) back into the cluster addresses the need for hardware and operating system maintenance. VoltDB Enterprise Edition also provides a mechanism for updating the database catalog itself, on the fly, with a single command from within the management console.

The chapters of this book describe each of these tasks and how to accomplish them with VoltDB in more detail. But first you need to know how to set up the management console, which is described in Chapter 2, Installing and Starting the VoltDB Enterprise Manager.

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