azure

CrateDB cluster on Azure VM using Terraform

This Terraform configuration will launch a CrateDB cluster on Azure. It consists of a public-facing load lancer with and a set of Virtual Machines.

The provided configuration is meant as an easy way to get started. It is not necessarily production-ready in all aspects, such as backups, high availability, and security. Please clone and extend the configuration to fit your individual needs, if needed.

Setup

The Terraform configuration generates by default an individual self-signed SSL certificate. If crate.ssl_enable is set to false, SSL will be disabled.

The main setup consists of the following steps:

1. Create a new directory that will contain the Terraform configuration as well as all state information: mkdir cratedb-terraform-example && cd cratedb-terraform-example

2. Create a new main.tf Terraform configuration in that directory, referencing the CrateDB module from this repository:

   module "cratedb-cluster" {
     source = "github.com/crate/cratedb-terraform.git/azure"
   
     # Your Azure Subscription ID
     subscription_id = "your-Azure-subscription-id"
   
     # Global configuration items
     config = {
       # Used for naming/tagging Azure resources
       project_name = "example-project"
       environment  = "test"
       owner        = "Crate.IO"
       team         = "Customer Engineering"
   
       # Run "az account list-locations" for a full list
       location = "westeurope"
     }
   
     # CrateDB-specific configuration
     crate = {
       # Java Heap size in GB available to CrateDB
       heap_size_gb = 2
   
       cluster_name = "crate-cluster"
   
       # The number of nodes the cluster will consist of
       cluster_size = 2
   
       # Enables a self-signed SSL certificate
       ssl_enable = true
     }
   
     # Azure VM specific configuration
     vm = {
       # The size of the disk storing CrateDB's data directory
       disk_size_gb         = 512
       storage_account_type = "Premium_LRS"
       size                 = "Standard_DS12_v2"
   
       # Enabling SSH access
       ssh_access = true
       # Username to connect via SSH to the nodes
       user = "cratedb-vmadmin"
     }
   }
   
   output "cratedb" {
     value     = module.cratedb-cluster
     sensitive = true
   }

3. Run terraform init to download and install all needed providers.

4. Provide AWS credentials. There are several options available. The easiest option is to install the AZ CLI and log in using the az login command.

Execution

To run the Terraform configuration:

1. Run terraform plan to validate the planned resource creation
2. Run terraform apply to execute the plan
3. Run terraform output -json to view the cleartext output, such as the CrateDB URL and login credentials

Accessing CrateDB

The above last-mentioned step will output all needed information to connect to CrateDB. This includes the publicly accessible URL of the load balancer, as well as login credentials. On opening this URL in a browser, an HTTP Basic Auth appears.

Please note that it might take a couple of minutes before VMs are fully provisioned and CrateDB becomes accessible.

Accessing Azure VMs

Azure VMs are not directly accessible as they have private IP addresses. To connect to them, use a bastion host. Please see terraform output -json for the user name and private key which are valid for all VMs. In the default configuration, SSH access is enabled in the network security group. It can be disabled if needed via the vm.ssh_access variable.