Install Vertica in 5 Minutes on Windows (for Demo & Testing)

OpenText Analytics Database - Vertica enables you to easily apply powerful functions to the largest and most demanding analytical workloads, arming you and your customers with predictive business insights faster than any analytics data warehouse in the market.

 This document presents 3 simple options to install Vertica on Windows for testing and demo purposes,
Not for production:

1. Install Vertica natively on Windows WSL2 and create Enterprise Edition database
2. Install MinIO and Vertica natively on Windows WSL2 and create Enterprise EON database
3. Use a Makefile from GitHub to spin up a local Vertica EON cluster on WSL2 using Kubernetes and MinIO.

What is WSL?

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) lets you run a real Linux environment directly on Windows - no VM required. WSL2 adds a lightweight virtualized Linux kernel, giving you near-native filesystem performance and full Docker compatibility. We’ll use Ubuntu on WSL2 as the base for all options below.

What is MinIO?

MinIO is a high-performance, self-hosted object store with an S3-compatible API. Vertica Eon Mode stores communal data on S3-style object storage; MinIO gives you that S3 endpoint locally on your Windows/WSL2 machine for demos and tests.

Prerequisites: Install WSL2 and Ubuntu on Windows 10 or 11

 Open Windows PowerShell Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

wsl --install

This command installs all the WSL2 components and the default Ubuntu Linux distribution.

For more info see:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

Option 1: Install Vertica natively on WSL2 (Enterprise Edition)

Before proceeding with this installation option, obtain the Vertica server package (.deb) from the OpenText Analytics Database trial page: https://www.opentext.com/products/analytics-database/trial

Perform the following inside your Ubuntu/WSL2 shell.
Commands that require elevated privileges should be run as root (use sudo -i to get a root shell).

1) Prepare catalog & data directories (run as root)

Verify that both the Catalog and Data directories exist with the right permissions.

For example:
mkdir /your_data_dir
mkdir /your_catalog_dir
chmod 700 /your_data_dir
chmod 700 /your_catalog_dir
chown dbadmin:verticadba /your_data_dir
chown dbadmin:verticadba /your_catalog_dir

Explanation:
Vertica expects separate data and catalog locations with restrictive (700) permissions
and ownership by the dbadmin user in the verticadba group.

 2) Update packages and install prerequisites

apt-get update
apt-get install dialog

Explanation: dialog is used by some Vertica tools.

 3) Install the Vertica package

dpkg -i /home/dbadmin/vertica.latest.deb

usermod -g verticadba dbadmin
chown -R dbadmin:verticadba /home/dbadmin

Explanation: Install from the .deb, ensure dbadmin’s primary group is verticadba, and fix ownership of its home directory.

4) Verify minimum requirements (run as root)

/opt/vertica/oss/python3/bin/python3 -m vertica.local_verify

Explanation: Runs Vertica’s local checks for required OS system settings.

5) Tune the host (temporary settings for demo)

echo never > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled
ulimit -n 256000
prlimit --pid 418 --nproc=unlimited
su - dbadmin

Explanation:

• Disables Transparent Huge Pages (THP) which can harm database latency.
• Raises the open files limit (-n) high enough for Vertica.
• prlimit example lifts process limits for a given PID (replace 418 with your process if needed).
• Switch to the dbadmin user for the next step.

 6) Run the Vertica installer

/opt/vertica/sbin/install_vertica --hosts n1 --deb ./vertica_latest.deb --dba-user dbadmin --failure-threshold NONE

Explanation: Installs Vertica on host n1 (your local WSL host name), using the OT provided .deb package, creating/using the dbadmin user.
The failure-threshold NONE keeps the process chatty for demos fast install (not for production use).

Create an Enterprise Edition Database (as user dbadmin)

/opt/vertica/bin/admintools -t create_db \
  -s nodeIP1,nodeIP2,nodeIP3 \
  -d your_db_name \
  -c /your_catalog_dir \
  -D /your_data_dir \
  -l /file_path/your_license_file_name

Example:

/opt/vertica/bin/admintools -t create_db -s n1 -d VDB -c /CATALOG -D /DATA -l ./10TB.dat

Explanation of flags:

• -s comma-separated hosts/nodes (use n1 for single-node demo).
• -d database name.
• -c catalog path; -D data path.
• -l path to the license file.

Option 2: Add MinIO and Create an EON Database

Before proceeding with this installation option, obtain the Vertica server package (.deb) from the OpenText Analytics Database trial page: https://www.opentext.com/products/analytics-database/trial

If you want to create an EON DB, Install and Configure MinIO to Create an S3 Bucket

As root on the MinIO server:

wget https://dl.min.io/server/minio/release/linux-amd64/minio
chmod +x minio
mkdir /data/EONDISK
./minio server /data/EONDISK &

Output example:

Endpoint:  http://10.10.10.5:9000  http://127.0.0.1:9000
AccessKey: minioadmin
SecretKey: minioadmin

Browser access:

http://10.10.10.5:9000
http://127.0.0.1:9000

Command-line access:

mc config host add myminio http://10.10.10.5:9000 minioadmin minioadmin

Install MinIO client (mc):

wget https://dl.min.io/client/mc/release/linux-amd64/mc
chmod +x mc
./mc --help

Explanation: You start MinIO serving /data/EONDISK, then configure mc to talk to it. The default demo credentials are minioadmin:minioadmin. Access the console via the printed endpoints.

Create an Eon Mode Database (as user dbadmin)

First, create a file named auth_params.conf in the same directory as your license file.

Example:

awsauth = mypas821:Mypassword1234567890
awsendpoint = 10.10.10.5:9000
awsenablehttps = 0

Explanation:

• awsauth is ACCESS_KEY:SECRET_KEY for your S3 endpoint (MinIO).
• awsendpoint is the MinIO host:port.
• awsenablehttps = 0 uses HTTP for local demos.

Now create the database as user dbadmin from node n1:

/opt/vertica/bin/admintools -t create_db \

  -x auth_params.conf \
  -s n1,n2,n3 \
  -d VDB \
  -c /CATALOG \
  -l 10TBL.dat \
  --depot-path=/DEPOT/MYDEPOT \
  --shard-count=6 \
  --communal-storage-location=s3://myeonbucket

Explanation of key Eon flags:

• -x auth_params.conf supplies S3 credentials and endpoint.
• --communal-storage-location points to your S3 bucket (myeonbucket) in MinIO.
• --depot-path sets local depot for caching.
• --shard-count defines the number of shards for parallelism.

Option 3: Makefile to Spin Up EON Cluster WSL2 (K8s + MinIO)

The MakeFile is intended for local tests and demos, not for production. Provided “as is” with no warranties.

 Provision a local Vertica Community Edition (EON) cluster (1–3 nodes, auto-sized by available RAM) on Ubuntu under WSL2 using kind (Kubernetes-in-Docker), MinIO for communal S3, and the VerticaDB Operator. The included Makefile installs any missing tools, creates the kind cluster, installs MinIO + the operator, deploys a VerticaDB, waits for initialization, and starts helpful port-forwards.

The Makefile is available on GitHub: https://github.com/mogomo/vertica-ce-kind-wsl2

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 with WSL2 and an Ubuntu distro (sudo access)
• Docker available inside WSL (Docker Desktop with WSL integration, or Docker Engine on WSL with systemd)
• Network access to fetch binaries/charts
• Memory gates: ≥ 6144 MiB free → 3 nodes; > 2048 MiB free → 1 node; otherwise aborts

Quick Start

sudo make up    # Run inside Ubuntu/WSL (sudo needed because tools/packages may be installed)
sudo make up DBADMIN_PASS='StrongPassword' LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/license.dat
                          # Optional: set dbadmin password and a Vertica license

Examples:

make
# Show help/usage and current defaults (default goal).

sudo make up
# Provision a Vertica EON cluster and start background port-forwards

sudo make up MINIO_USER=admin MINIO_PASS='s3cret' BUCKET=vertica-communal
# Seed MinIO with explicit credentials and bucket

sudo make up DBADMIN_PASS='dbadmin_passwd'
# Change dbadmin password

sudo make up LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/license-file.dat
# Upgrade the Vertica Community Edition to a licensed EON cluster

sudo make up DBADMIN_PASS='dbadmin_passwd' LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/license-file.dat
# Set both dbadmin password and license

sudo make down
# Uninstall Vertica,Operator,MinIO and delete cluster; stop background port-forwards

sudo make down CLEAN_WSL=1
# Uninstall all and delete EON communal data on the WSL host

Connect via local Vertica vsql client after install

# Use -w only if you set DBADMIN_PASS
vsql -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5433 -U dbadmin -w "<YOUR_DBADMIN_PASSWORD>" -c "select version();"

Connects to the forwarded Vertica service on localhost:5433 and verifies the server with select version().

Cleanup

sudo make down                  # remove cluster + apps
sudo make down CLEAN_WSL=1      # same + wipe local PV data & symlinks

Explanation: Use these to stop port-forwards, delete the kind cluster, uninstall the Operator/MinIO/Vertica,
and optionally remove local persistent data.