Creating a cluster - Amazon Redshift
Additional configurations

Creating a cluster

With Amazon Redshift, you can create a provisioned cluster to launch a new data warehouse. A provisioned cluster is a collection of computing resources called nodes, which are organized into a single, massively parallel processing (MPP) system.

Before you create a cluster, read Amazon Redshift provisioned clusters and Clusters and nodes in Amazon Redshift.

To create a cluster

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Redshift console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/redshiftv2/.

  2. On the navigation menu, choose Clusters. The clusters for your account in the current AWS Region are listed. A subset of properties of each cluster is displayed in columns in the list.

  3. Choose Create cluster to create a cluster.

  4. Follow the instructions on the console page to enter the properties for Cluster configuration.

    The following step describes an Amazon Redshift console that is running in an AWS Region that supports RA3 node types. For a list of AWS Regions that support RA3 node types, see Overview of RA3 node types in the Amazon Redshift Management Guide.

    If you don't know how large to size your cluster, choose Help me choose. Doing this starts a sizing calculator that asks you questions about the size and query characteristics of the data that you plan to store in your data warehouse. If you know the required size of your cluster (that is, the node type and number of nodes), choose I'll choose. Then choose the Node type and number of Nodes to size your cluster for the proof of concept.

    Note

    If your organization is eligible and your cluster is being created in an AWS Region where Amazon Redshift Serverless is unavailable, you might be able to create a cluster under the Amazon Redshift free trial program. Choose either Production or Free trial to answer the question What are you planning to use this cluster for? When you choose Free trial, you create a configuration with the dc2.large node type. For more information about choosing a free trial, see Amazon Redshift free trial. For a list of AWS Regions where Amazon Redshift Serverless is available, see the endpoints listed for the Redshift Serverless API in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.

  5. In the Database configuration section, specify a value for Admin user name. For Admin password, you can choose from the following options:

    • Generate a password – Use a password generated by Amazon Redshift.

    • Manually add an admin password – Use your own password.

    • Manage admin credentials in AWS Secrets Manager – Amazon Redshift uses AWS Secrets Manager to generate and manage your admin password. Using AWS Secrets Manager to generate and manage your password's secret incurs a fee. For information on AWS Secrets Manager pricing, see AWS Secrets Manager Pricing.

  6. (Optional) Follow the instructions on the console page to enter properties for Cluster permissions. Provide cluster permissions if your cluster needs to access other AWS services for you, for example to load data from Amazon S3.

  7. Choose Create cluster to create the cluster. The cluster might take several minutes to be ready to use.

Additional configurations

When you create a cluster, you can specify additional properties to customize it. You can find more details about some of these properties in the following list.

IP address type

Choose the IP address type for your cluster. You can choose to have your resources communicate only over the IPv4 addressing protocol, or choose dual-stack mode, which lets your resources communicate over both IPv4 and IPv6. This feature is only available in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West) Regions. For more information on AWS Regions, see Regions and Availability Zones.

Virtual private cloud (VPC)

Choose a VPC that has a cluster subnet group. After the cluster is created, the cluster subnet group can't be changed.

Parameter groups

Choose a cluster parameter group to associate with the cluster. If you don't choose one, the cluster uses the default parameter group.

Encryption

Choose whether you want to encrypt all data within the cluster and its snapshots. If you leave the default setting, None, encryption is not enabled. If you want to enable encryption, choose whether you want to use AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) or a hardware security module (HSM), and then configure the related settings. For more information about encryption in Amazon Redshift, see Amazon Redshift database encryption.

  • KMS

    Choose Use AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) if you want to enable encryption and use AWS KMS to manage your encryption key. Also, choose the key to use. You can choose a default key, a key from the current account, or a key from a different account.

    Note

    If you want to use a key from another AWS account, then enter the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for the key to use. You must have permission to use the key. For more information about access to keys in AWS KMS, see Controlling access to your keys in the AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide.

    For more information about using AWS KMS encryption keys in Amazon Redshift, see Encryption using AWS KMS.

  • HSM

    Choose HSM if you want to enable encryption and use a hardware security module (HSM) to manage your encryption key.

    If you choose HSM, choose values from HSM Connection and HSM Client Certificate. These values are required for Amazon Redshift and the HSM to form a trusted connection over which the cluster key can be passed. The HSM connection and client certificate must be set up in Amazon Redshift before you launch a cluster. For more information about setting up HSM connections and client certificates, see Encryption using hardware security modules.

Maintenance track

You can choose whether the cluster version used is the Current, Trailing, or sometimes Preview track.

Monitoring

You can choose whether to create CloudWatch alarms.

Configure cross-region snapshot

You can choose whether to enable cross-Region snapshots.

Automated snapshot retention period

You can choose the number of days to retain these snapshots within 35 days. If the node type is DC2, you can choose zero (0) days to not create automated snapshots.

Manual snapshot retention period

You can choose the number of days or Indefinitely to retain these snapshots.