System Requirements¶
Hardware requirements are based on the following:
Number of DB objects (tables, columns) imported into Alation. These actions cause background processing jobs which impact memory use, and processor utilization.
Daily query volume imported by Alation These actions cause background processing jobs which impact memory use, processor utilization, and disk space consumption.
Number of Alation users. This parameter usually has the least impact.
Decision to install and use Alation Analytics V2.
Decision to use OCF connectors.
Important
Alation Analytics V2 requires additional disk space or a separate host. See Enable and Install Alation Analytics V2 for detailed system requirements for Alation Analytics V2.
OCF Connectors require additional disk space. Refer to Install Alation Connector Manager for detailed system requirements for OCF.
Minimum - POC or Pilot Only¶
These are typical values that can be used for a pilot project, depending on expected ingestions and log volume:
System Component |
Sizing Recommendation |
|---|---|
CPU |
8 cores (2.4GHz) |
RAM |
32 GB |
Data Disk |
150-200 GB |
Backup Disk |
250-300 GB |
Root Disk (free space) or mount at /opt/alation |
25 GB (This size will typically allow for one update) |
Baseline¶
A baseline installation can be characterized as follows:
Less than 500,000 DB objects
Less than 500,000 queries/day
Up to 50 users:
System Component |
Sizing Recommendation |
|---|---|
CPU |
8 cores (2.4GHz) |
RAM |
64 GB |
Data Disk |
500 GB |
Backup Disk |
750 GB |
Root Disk (free space) or mount at /opt/alation |
80 GB |
Root Disk if installing Alation Analytics V2 on the same host (not recommended) |
160 GB |
Alation Analytics V2 installation directory on remote host (recommended) |
1.5-2 times Rosemeta size |
Midrange¶
A midrange installation can be characterized as follows:
Less than 2.5 Million DB objects
Less than 2,000,000 queries/day
Up to 250 users:
System Component |
Sizing Recommendation |
|---|---|
CPU |
16 cores (2.4GHz) |
RAM |
64 GB |
Data Disk |
1 TB |
Backup Disk |
1.5 TB |
Root Disk (free space) or mount at /opt/alation |
80 GB |
Root Disk if installing Alation Analytics V2 on the same host (not recommended) |
160 GB |
Alation Analytics V2 installation directory on remote host (recommended) |
1.5-2 times Rosemeta size |
Enterprise¶
System Component |
Sizing Recommendation |
|---|---|
CPU |
20 cores (2.4GHz) |
RAM |
64 GB + 2 GB per million objects to a maximum of 128 GB |
Data Disk |
2TB + 1.25GB per 1,000 Queries/day |
Backup Disk |
1.5 x Data Disk size |
Root Disk (free space) or mount at /opt/alation |
80 GB |
Root Disk if installing Alation Analytics V2 on the same host (not recommended) |
160 GB |
Alation Analytics V2 installation directory on remote host (recommended) |
1.5-2 times Rosemeta size |
Disk Requirements¶
All disks must use ext4 or xfs file system
Root, Data, and Backup disks must be on different physical disks. The backup drive should be larger than the data drive, as data is staged on the backup drive before being compressed. A conservative estimate of backup = 1.5 x data will give space to hold both the staged data and the compressed backup files.
Data disk and Backup disk mount points should be owned by root:root and permission flags should be rwxr-xr-x, otherwise services may fail to start.
LVM is strongly recommended for Data and Backup disks for ease of resizing.
Microsoft Azure¶
Data and Root (Operating System) disks need to be provisioned with Premium Storage.
VMWare¶
Create a CentOS, RedHat or other supported Linux 64-bit VM on an ESX/ESXi server.
Note
Development/Test tools like VirtualBox and VMPlayer are not supported.
OS Requirements¶
x86 64-bit, minimal OS install
Red Hat 9.x
Oracle Linux with Red Hat compatible kernel
Version 8.x supported from release 2021.2
AWS Linux 2.x
Ubuntu (deb) 22.x
Debian 11.x
Users can run the hostnamectl command to verify details of the operating system.
Unix Users¶
Alation installer will create the following local UNIX users and groups.
Username |
Groups |
Home Directory |
Shell |
|---|---|---|---|
alation |
alation |
/home/alation |
/bin/bash |
alationadmin |
alationadmin |
/home/alationadmin |
/bin/bash |
postgres |
postgres |
/home/postgres |
/bin/bash |
elasticsearch |
elasticsearch |
/home/elasticsearch |
/bin/bash |
sensu |
sensu |
/home/sensu |
/bin/bash |
mongod* |
mongod |
/home/mongod |
/bin/bash |
nginx |
nginx |
/home/nginx |
/bin/bash |
ntp |
ntp |
/etc/ntp |
/sbin/nologin |
postfix |
mail, postfix |
/home/postfix |
/bin/bash |
dd-agent |
dd-agent |
/home/dd-agent |
/bin/bash |
* Only applies to releases before V R5 (5.9.x). In V R5, MongoDB component is removed.
Note on Managed Systems¶
In environments where local UNIX users are managed through LDAP/Puppet/Chef, you may need to create these users and groups before running the Alation installer.
Co-location¶
Co-located Alation installs with other software are NOT supported. Alation runs resource intensive query analysis jobs and requires a dedicated server.
DNS¶
Alation needs to resolve hostnames. Make sure that /etc/resolv.conf is configured properly. Run
the nslookup alation.com command for querying the DNS to get domain name or IP address mapping.
Alation Analytics V2¶
Alation recommends remote installation (separate host) for Alation Analytics V2. Please refer to Enable and Install Alation Analytics V2 for detailed system requirements for Alation Analytics V2.
Open Connector Framework (OCF)¶
Applies from release 2020.4
Alation recommends installing the OCF Components on the same host with Alation. Refer to Install Alation Connector Manager for detailed system requirements for OCF.