This topic describes how to purchase a Hologres instance from the Alibaba Cloud console.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure that you have:
An Alibaba Cloud account with billing enabled
RAM permissions to purchase Hologres instances. If you encounter a permission error, see Grant permissions to a RAM user
Choose a product type
Select the product type that matches your workload before you start the purchase flow.
Quick decision rule: If you only need to accelerate queries on data in MaxCompute or OSS, the query frequency is low, and sub-second response times are sufficient — choose Shared Cluster (Lakehouse Acceleration Edition). For all other workloads, choose Exclusive Instance.
Product type | Description | When to choose |
Exclusive Instance | Provides dedicated computing resources for millisecond-level responses and a full range of features.
You can switch between the Subscription and Pay-as-you-go billing methods. | |
Shared Cluster (Lakehouse Acceleration Edition) | A pay-per-query option that accelerates reads from MaxCompute and OSS. Does not support writing data to Hologres internal tables. Billed based on the volume of data scanned per query. | Low-frequency queries on MaxCompute or OSS data where sub-second response times are sufficient |
You cannot convert between an Exclusive Instance and a Shared Cluster after purchase. For a detailed comparison, see Hologres Shared Cluster.
Purchase an instance
Go to the Hologres product page and click Buy Now.
If this is your first time purchasing a Hologres instance, scroll to the Service-linked Role section at the bottom of the purchase page and click Create Service-linked Role before proceeding.
Select a Product Type: Exclusive Instance or Shared Cluster (Lakehouse Acceleration Edition).
Select a Region and Zone.
To connect Hologres to other Alibaba Cloud services over the private network, place all resources in the same region and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
For cross-region connectivity, use the public network or VPC peering to establish a private network connection.
The region and zone cannot be changed after the instance is created. The zone choice does not affect connectivity or performance.
Configure the instance specifications based on your product type.
For exclusive instances, see Parameters for exclusive instances.
For shared clusters, see Parameters for Shared Clusters.
Not sure how many compute units (CUs) to purchase? See Choose the right instance specifications for sizing guidance.
Set the Instance Name and Resource Group. For Subscription instances, also set the duration.
Click Buy Now. On the Confirm Order page, review your settings, accept the terms of service, and click Activate Now.
On the Activation Completed page, click Management Console. The instance will be ready within a few minutes.
On the Instances page, verify that the instance Status is Running.
Parameters for exclusive instances
Offering type
Choose an offering type (Specifications in the console) based on your isolation and scaling needs:
Offering type | Best for | Notes |
General-purpose | Most workloads | Supports load isolation and horizontal scaling with read-only secondary instances |
Virtual Warehouse | Workloads requiring fine-grained isolation and access control | Better load isolation, more flexible access control, and per-compute-group parameter settings; higher cost due to gateway node fees |
Serverless | Variable or unpredictable workloads | Pay-As-You-Go only; no advance resource purchase; charged for actual Serverless resource usage and storage |
For more information, see Hologres Virtual Warehouse.
Computing resources
If you select General-purpose:
Parameter | Description |
Computing Resources | Select the number of CUs based on your workload. You can scale up or down after the instance is created. For sizing guidance, see Choose the right instance specifications. |
If you select Virtual Warehouse:
Parameter | Description |
Gateway Nodes | Gateways forward requests. Minimum 2 nodes for high availability. The default is 2; adjust later as needed. |
Reserved Computing Resources of Virtual Warehouse | From 32 CU to 8,192 CU in increments of 16 CU. Each compute group requires at least 32 CUs. Purchase based on the number of compute groups you need. |
Allocate to Initial Virtual Warehouse | Static field. No configuration needed. |
Enable Serverless Computing
After enabling this feature, specific DML statements use an independent serverless resource pool, preventing resource waste and contention.
This feature is subject to region and zone availability. You can also enable or disable it after the instance is created. For details, see the Serverless Computing user guide.
Storage resources
For Subscription instances, you can purchase Standard or Infrequent Access storage upfront.
Parameter | Description |
Storage Redundancy Type | LRS stores data in a single zone and poses a high availability risk. For production workloads, select ZRS (3 zones). For details, see Multi-zone deployment. |
Network resources
Parameter | Description |
VPC | Hologres and other Alibaba Cloud services connect over the private network only when they are in the same region and VPC. For cross-region connectivity, use the public network or VPC peering. |
vSwitch | The vSwitch choice does not affect connectivity or performance. |
VPCs and vSwitches are free of charge.
Parameters for Shared Clusters
Network resources
Parameter | Description |
VPC | Hologres and other Alibaba Cloud services connect over the private network only when they are in the same region and VPC. If they are in different VPCs, use the public network or VPC peering to establish a private network connection. |
vSwitch | The vSwitch choice does not affect connectivity or performance. |
VPCs and vSwitches are free of charge.