Run Vantage Express on VirtualBox

Author: Adam Tworkiewicz
Last updated: January 9th, 2023

Overview

This how-to shows how to gain access to a Teradata database by running it on your local machine. There are many ways to install Teradata. This document optimizes for the lowest time to first query without spending money on cloud resources. Once you finish the steps you will have a working Teradata Vantage Express database on your computer.

Starting with version 17.20, Vantage Express includes the following analytics packages: Vantage Analytics Library, Bring Your Own Model (BYOM), API Integration with AWS SageMaker.

Prerequisites

  1. A computer using one of the following operating systems: Windows 10, Linux or Intel-based MacOS.

    For M1/M2 MacOS systems, see Run Vantage Express on UTM.
  2. 30GB of disk space and enough CPU and RAM to be able to dedicate at least one core and 6GB RAM to the virtual machine.

  3. Admin rights to be able to install and run the software.

Installation

Download required software

  1. The latest version of Vantage Express VirtualBox Open Virtual Appliance (OVA).

    If you have not used the Teradata Downloads website before, you will need to register first.
  2. VirtualBox, version 6.1.

    You can also install VirtualBox using brew and other package managers.

Run installers

  1. Install VirtualBox by running the installer and accepting the default values.

VirtualBox includes functionality that requires elevated privileges. When you start VirtualBox for the first time, you will be asked to confirm this elevated access. You may also need to reboot your machine to activate the VirtualBox kernel plugin.

Run Vantage Express

  1. Start VirtualBox.

  2. Go to File → Import Appliance…​ menu.

  3. In File field, select the downloaded OVA file.

  4. On the next screen, accept the defaults and click on Import.

  5. Back in the main VirtualBox panel, start the Vantage Express appliance double clicking on VM Vantage 17.20.

    Start VM
  6. Press ENTER to select the highlighted LINUX boot partition.

    Boot Manager Menu
  7. On the next screen, press ENTER again to select the default SUSE Linux kernel.

    Grub Menu
  8. After completing the bootup sequence a terminal login prompt as shown in the screenshot below will appear. Don’t enter anything in the terminal. Wait till the system starts the GUI.

    Wait for GUI
  9. After a while the following prompt will appear - assuming that you did not enter anything after the command login prompt above. Press okay button in the screen below.

    OK Security Popup
  10. Once the VM is up, you will see its desktop environment. When prompted for username/password enter root for both.

    VM Login
  11. The database is configured to autostart with the VM. To confirm that the database has started go to the virtual desktop and start Gnome Terminal.

    Start Gnome Terminal
  12. In the terminal execute pdestate command that will inform you if Vantage has already started:

    To paste into Gnome Terminal press SHIFT+CTRL+V.
    watch pdestate -a

    You want to wait till you see the following message:

    PDE state is RUN/STARTED.
    DBS state is 5: Logons are enabled - The system is quiescent
    See examples of messages that pdestate returns when the database is still initializing.
    PDE state is DOWN/HARDSTOP.
    
    PDE state is START/NETCONFIG.
    
    PDE state is START/GDOSYNC.
    
    PDE state is START/TVSASTART.
    
    PDE state is START/READY.
    PDE state is RUN/STARTED.
    
    DBS state is 1/1: DBS Startup - Initializing DBS Vprocs
    PDE state is RUN/STARTED.
    
    DBS state is 1/5: DBS Startup - Voting for Transaction Recovery
    PDE state is RUN/STARTED.
    
    DBS state is 1/4: DBS Startup - Starting PE Partitions
    PDE state is RUN/STARTED.
  13. Now that the database is up, go back to the virtual desktop and launch Teradata Studio Express.

    Start Teradata Studio Express
  14. When you first start it you will be offered a tour. Once you close the tour, you will see a wizard window to add a new connection. Select Teradata:

    New Connection Profile
  15. On the next screen, connect to the database on your localhost using dbc for the username and password:

    New Connection

Run sample queries

  1. Once in Teradata Studio Express, go to Query Development perspective (go to the top menu and select WindowQuery Development).

  2. Connect using the previously created connection profile by double-clicking on Database ConnectionsNew Teradata.

  3. Using dbc user, we will create a new database called HR. Copy/paste this query and run it by hitting the run query button (Run Query Button) or pressing F5 key:

    CREATE DATABASE HR
    AS PERMANENT = 60e6, -- 60MB
        SPOOL = 120e6; -- 120MB
    Were you able to run the query?
  4. Let’s create a sample table and insert some data and query it. We will first create a table to hold employee information:

    CREATE SET TABLE HR.Employees (
       GlobalID INTEGER,
       FirstName VARCHAR(30),
       LastName VARCHAR(30),
       DateOfBirth DATE FORMAT 'YYYY-MM-DD',
       JoinedDate DATE FORMAT 'YYYY-MM-DD',
       DepartmentCode BYTEINT
    )
    UNIQUE PRIMARY INDEX ( GlobalID );
  5. Now, let’s insert a record:

    INSERT INTO HR.Employees (
       GlobalID,
       FirstName,
       LastName,
       DateOfBirth,
       JoinedDate,
       DepartmentCode
    )
    VALUES (
       101,
       'Adam',
       'Tworkowski',
       '1980-01-05',
       '2004-08-01',
       01
    );
  6. Finally, let’s see if we can retrieve the data:

    SELECT * FROM HR.Employees;

    You should get the following results:

    GlobalID  FirstName  LastName   DateOfBirth  JoinedDate  DepartmentCode
    --------  ---------  ---------- -----------  ----------  --------------
         101  Adam       Tworkowski  1980-01-05  2004-08-01               1

Updating VirtualBox Guest Extensions

VirtualBox Guest Extensions is a piece of software that runs in a VM. It makes the VM run faster on VirtualBox. It also improves the resolution of the VM screen and its responsiveness to resizing. It implements two-way clipboard, and drag and drop between the host and the guest. VirtualBox Guest Extensions in the VM needs to match the version of your VirtualBox install. You will likely have to update VirtualBox Guest Extensions for optimal performance.

To update VirtualBox Guest Extensions:

  1. Insert the VirtualBox Guest Extensions DVD by clicking on SATA Port 3: [Optical Drive] in Storage section:

    Insert Guest Additions DVD
  2. Back in the VM window, start the Gnome Terminal application.

  3. Run the following command in the terminal:

    mount /dev/cdrom /media/dvd; /media/dvd/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Summary

In this guide we have covered how to quickly create a working Teradata environment. We used Teradata Vantage Express in a VM running on VMware. In the same VM, we ran Teradata Studio Express to issue queries. We installed all software locally and didn’t have to pay for cloud resources.

Further reading

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please visit our community forum where you can get support and interact with other community members.
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