1.2. Understanding the VoltDB Utilities

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1.2. Understanding the VoltDB Utilities

VoltDB provides several command line utilities, each with a different function. Familiarizing yourself with these utilities and their uses can make managing VoltDB databases easier. The three primary command line tools for creating, managing, and testing VoltDB databases are:

voltdb

Starts the VoltDB database process. The voltdb command can also collect log files for analyzing possible system errors (see Section 7.3, “Collecting the Log Files” for details).

The voltdb command runs locally and does not require a running database.

voltadmin

Issues administrative commands to a running VoltDB database. You can use voltadmin to save and restore snapshots, pause and resume admin mode, and to shutdown the database, among other tasks.

The voltadmin command can be run remotely, performs cluster-wide operations and requires a running database to connect to.

sqlcmd

Lets you issue SQL queries and invoke stored procedures interactively. The sqlcmd command is handy for testing database access without having to write a client application.

The sqlcmd command can be run remotely and requires a running database to connect to.

In addition to the preceding general-purpose tools, VoltDB provides several other tools for specific tasks:

csvloader, jdbcloader, and kafkaloader

These utilities load data from external sources into an existing VoltDB database. They let you load data from CSV or text-based data files, JDBC data sources, or Apache Kafka streams. These commands can be run remotely and require a running database to connect to.

snapshotconvert

Converts native snapshot files to csv or tabbed text files. The snapshotconvert command is useful when exporting a snapshot in native format to text files for import into another data utility. (This utility is provided for legacy purposes. It is now possible to write snapshots directly to CSV format without post-processing, which is the recommended approach.)

The snapshotconvert command runs locally and does not require a running database.

snapshotverify

Verifies that a set of native snapshot files are complete and valid.

The snapshotverify command runs locally and does not require a running database.

Finally, VoltDB includes a browser-based management console — VoltDB Management Center — for monitoring databases in real time. See Section 5.1.1, “VoltDB Management Center” for more information about using the Management Center.