Step 3: Start and Configure Enterprise ColumnStore

Step 3: Start and Configure Enterprise ColumnStore

Overview

This page details step 3 of a 5-step procedure for deploying Single-Node Enterprise ColumnStore with Object storage.

This step starts and configures MariaDB Enterprise Server and MariaDB Enterprise ColumnStore.

The instructions were tested against ColumnStore 23.10.

Interactive commands are detailed. Alternatively, the described operations can be performed using automation.

Configure Enterprise ColumnStore

Mandatory system variables and options for Single-Node Enterprise ColumnStore include:

Connector
MariaDB Connector/R2DBC

Set this system variable to utf8

Set this system variable to utf8_general_ci

columnstore_use_import_for_batchinsert

Set this system variable to ALWAYS to always use cpimport for LOAD DATA INFILE and INSERT...SELECT statements.

Example Configuration

[mariadb]
log_error                              = mariadbd.err
character_set_server                   = utf8
collation_server                       = utf8_general_ci

Configure the S3 Storage Manager

Configure Enterprise ColumnStore S3 Storage Manager to use S3-compatible storage by editing the /etc/columnstore/storagemanager.cnf configuration file:

The S3-compatible object storage options are configured under [S3]:

  • The bucket option must be set to the name of the bucket that you created in "Create an S3 Bucket".

  • The endpoint option must be set to the endpoint for the S3-compatible object storage.

  • The aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key options must be set to the access key ID and secret access key for the S3-compatible object storage.

  • To use a specific IAM role, you must uncomment and set iam_role_name, sts_region, and sts_endpoint.

  • To use the IAM role assigned to an EC2 instance, you must uncomment ec2_iam_mode=enabled.

The local cache options are configured under [Cache]:

  • The cache_size option is set to 2 GB by default.

  • The path option is set to /var/lib/columnstore/storagemanager/cache by default.

Ensure that the specified path has sufficient storage space for the specified cache size.

Start the Enterprise ColumnStore Services

Start and enable the MariaDB Enterprise Server service, so that it starts automatically upon reboot:

Start and enable the MariaDB Enterprise ColumnStore service, so that it starts automatically upon reboot:

Create the Utility User

Enterprise ColumnStore requires a mandatory utility user account to perform cross-engine joins and similar operations.

  1. Create the user account with the CREATE USER statement:

  1. Grant the user account SELECT privileges on all databases with the GRANT statement:

  1. Configure Enterprise ColumnStore to use the utility user:

  1. Set the password:

For details about how to encrypt the password, see "Credentials Management for MariaDB Enterprise ColumnStore".

Passwords should meet your organization's password policies. If your MariaDB Enterprise Server instance has a password validation plugin installed, then the password should also meet the configured requirements.

Configure Linux Security Modules (LSM)

The specific steps to configure the security module depend on the operating system.

Configure SELinux (CentOS, RHEL)

Configure SELinux for Enterprise ColumnStore:

  1. To configure SELinux, you have to install the packages required for audit2allow. On CentOS 7 and RHEL 7, install the following:

On RHEL 8, install the following:

  1. Allow the system to run under load for a while to generate SELinux audit events.

  2. After the system has taken some load, generate an SELinux policy from the audit events using audit2allow:

If no audit events were found, this will print the following:

  1. If audit events were found, the new SELinux policy can be loaded using semodule:

  1. Set SELinux to enforcing mode by setting SELINUX=enforcing in /etc/selinux/config.

For example, the file will usually look like this after the change:

  1. Set SELinux to enforcing mode:

Configure AppArmor (Ubuntu)

For information on how to create a profile, see How to create an AppArmor Profile on ubuntu.com.

Next Step

Navigation in the Single-Node Enterprise ColumnStore topology with Object storage deployment procedure:

This page was step 3 of 5.

Next: Step 4: Test MariaDB Enterprise ColumnStore.

This page is: Copyright © 2025 MariaDB. All rights reserved.

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