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ApsaraDB for ClickHouse:Create an ApsaraDB for ClickHouse cluster

Last Updated:Mar 28, 2026

Create a Community-compatible Edition or Enterprise Edition cluster in the ApsaraDB for ClickHouse console. The cluster is ready to accept connections within 1–10 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Usage notes

Clusters created after December 1, 2021 have a Classic Load Balancer (CLB) instance attached by default. The CLB instance is billed separately. To remove it, see Release and mount a CLB instance. For pricing details, see Billing details about relevant services.

Create a Community-compatible Edition cluster

  1. Log on to the ApsaraDB for ClickHouse console.

  2. On the Clusters page, click the Clusters of Community-compatible Edition tab, and then click Create Cluster.

  3. On the buy page, select a Product Type.

    Product typeDescription
    Community-compatible Edition SubscriptionPrepaid billing. More cost-effective for long-term use—longer subscription periods come with lower prices.
    Enterprise Edition Serverless & Community-compatible Edition Pay-as-you-goHourly billing, deducted from your Alibaba Cloud account balance. Use this for short-term needs such as testing, then switch to subscription when your monthly usage becomes predictable.
  4. Configure the cluster parameters.

    ZooKeeper specifications are not configurable. After the cluster is created, 4 cores and 8 GB of memory are provided for ZooKeeper at no charge.
    ParameterDescription
    RegionThe region where the cluster runs. Cannot be changed after creation. Select the region closest to your users to minimize latency.
    Cluster TypeSelect Community-compatible Edition.
    Deployment methodSingle-zone: no zone-level redundancy. Multi-zone: zone-level disaster recovery for high availability. For Community-compatible Edition, multi-zone deployment requires two replicas, which doubles compute and storage costs.
    Network typeVirtual private cloud (VPC) only.
    Primary zoneThe zone within the region where the cluster is deployed. For multi-zone deployment, also configure Secondary Zone and Secondary Zone 2—all three zones must be different.
    VPCThe VPC where the cluster runs. If none exists, create one in the VPC console.
    vSwitch in primary VPCThe vSwitch within the selected VPC. If none exists, create one in the VPC console.
    Kernel versionThe ClickHouse open source community version.
    EditionSingle-replica Edition: one replica per shard. If the replica fails, the cluster becomes unavailable until it recovers. Highly reliable disks protect against data loss. Double-replica Edition: two replicas per shard. If one replica fails, the other takes over automatically. Costs twice as much as Single-replica Edition.
    SpecificationCPU and memory per node.
    NodesNumber of nodes in the cluster. Total storage capacity = number of nodes x storage capacity per node.
    Storage typeEnterprise SSD (ESSD): recommended for production databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, MongoDB, HBase, Cassandra) and ELK log analysis. Ultra disk: suitable for development, testing, and system disks. See Block storage performance.
    Storage capacityStorage per node. If the storage type is disk and the storage capacity is greater than 2,000 GB, the disk is divided into four disks (disk 0 to disk 3).
    Encryption typeEnable disk encryption to protect data at the block storage level. Encrypted data cannot be decrypted even if backup data is exposed. See Disk encryption.
    Service-linked roleRequired if disk encryption is enabled. Grants the service access to other cloud services.
    Encryption keyRequired if disk encryption is enabled. If no Key Management Service (KMS) key exists in this region, create one in the KMS console.
    Subscription periodRequired for subscription billing.
    Auto-renewalOptional for subscription billing. If not selected at purchase, configure auto-renewal or manual renewal later in the Expenses and Costs console. See Renewal.
    Resource groupThe resource group for organizing and managing cluster permissions and monitoring.
  5. Click Buy Now and complete the payment.

The cluster state changes from Creating to Running when it is ready, which takes 1–10 minutes. Refresh the page to check the current state.

Create an Enterprise Edition cluster

  1. Log on to the ApsaraDB for ClickHouse console.

  2. On the Clusters page, click the Enterprise Edition Clusters tab, and then click Create Cluster.

  3. On the buy page, set Product Type to Enterprise Edition Serverless & Community-compatible Edition Pay-as-you-go.

  4. Configure the cluster parameters.

    ParameterDescription
    RegionThe region where the cluster runs. Cannot be changed after creation. Select the region closest to your users to minimize latency. For supported regions, see Pay-as-you-go billing for ApsaraDB for ClickHouse Enterprise Edition.
    Cluster typeSelect Enterprise. If the Enterprise option is not available, submit a ticket to request access. If your region supports Enterprise Edition, your user ID will be added to the whitelist. If your region does not support Enterprise Edition, you cannot create an Enterprise Edition cluster.
    Deployment methodSingle-zone: no zone-level redundancy. Multi-zone: zone-level disaster recovery for high availability. Enterprise Edition uses a cloud-native architecture with decoupled computing and storage, so multi-zone deployment does not add compute or storage costs.
    Network typeVirtual private cloud (VPC) only.
    VPCThe VPC where the cluster runs. If none exists, create one in the VPC console.
    Primary zoneThe zone within the region. For multi-zone deployment, also configure Secondary Zone and Secondary Zone 2—all three zones must be different.
    vSwitch in primary VPCThe vSwitch within the selected VPC. For multi-zone deployment, also configure vSwitch for Secondary VPC and vSwitch for Secondary VPC 2. All vSwitches must be different.
    Sample test dataOptional dataset to import for testing: UK Property Price Paid, NewYorkTaxi, or cell tower. Defaults to Do Not Import Sample Data.
    Maximum CCUsThe upper limit for automatic scaling. 1 ClickHouse Compute Unit (CCU) = 1 CPU core + 4 GiB of memory.
    Minimum CCUsThe lower limit after scale-down. If Maximum CCUs is 8, Minimum CCUs is fixed at 8. If Maximum CCUs is greater than 8, set Minimum CCUs to any value from 8 up to the maximum.
  5. Click Buy Now and complete the payment.

The cluster state changes from Creating to Running when it is ready, which takes 1–10 minutes. Refresh the page to check the current state.

Pay for orders in the cart

For subscription clusters, add items to the cart and pay for multiple orders in a single transaction.

  1. On the ApsaraDB for ClickHouse Subscription page, click the cart icon on the right side of the page.

  2. In the Cart panel, select the orders to pay for and click Proceed to Checkout.

  3. On the Cart page, confirm the selected orders and click Buy Now.

    On this page, you can also adjust the Quantity and Subscription Cycle for each order.
  4. On the Confirm Order page, read and agree to the Terms of Service, and then click Pay.

  5. On the Purchase page, click Subscribe.

FAQ

Why can't I find my cluster after creating it?

Check the following:

  • Wrong region: The ApsaraDB for ClickHouse console shows clusters for the selected region only. In the top navigation bar, switch to the region where you created the cluster.

  • Wrong tab: Community-compatible Edition and Enterprise Edition clusters appear on separate tabs. Click the correct tab for your cluster type.

  • Insufficient resources: If the zone had insufficient resources at creation time, the cluster was not created and your payment was refunded. Check your refund on the Orders page, and then try creating the cluster in a different zone.

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