Quickstart with CockroachCloud (30-day trial)

This page shows you how to deploy a CockroachDB cluster on CockroachCloud (free for a 30-day trial for your first cluster), connect to it using a sample workload, and run your first query.

To run CockroachDB on your local machine instead, see Start a Local Cluster.

Before you begin

If you haven't already, sign up for a CockroachCloud account.

Step 1. Create a free cluster

For this tutorial, we will create a 3-node GCP cluster in the us-west2 region.

1. Log in to your CockroachCloud account.
2. On the Overview page, click Create Cluster.
3. On the Create new cluster page, for Cloud provider, select Google Cloud.
4. For Regions & nodes, use the default selection of California (us-west) region and 3 nodes.
5. For Hardware per node, select Option 1 (2vCPU, 60 GB disk).
6. Name the cluster. The cluster name must be 6-20 characters in length, and can include lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes (but no leading or trailing dashes).
7. Click Next.

8. On the Summary page, enter your credit card details.

   Note:

   You won't be charged until after your free trial expires in 30 days.

9. Click Create cluster.

Your cluster will be created in approximately 20-30 minutes. Watch this Getting Started with CockroachCloud video while you wait.

Once your cluster is created, you will be redirected to the Cluster Overview page.

Step 2. Create a SQL user

1. In the left navigation bar, click SQL Users.
2. Click Add User. The Add User dialog displays.
3. Enter a Username and Password.
4. Click Save.

Step 3. Authorize your network

1. In the left navigation bar, click Networking.
2. Click Add Network. The Add Network dialog displays.
3. From the Network dropdown, select Current Network to auto-populate your local machine's IP address.
4. To allow the network to access the cluster's DB Console and to use the CockroachDB client to access the databases, select the DB Console to monitor the cluster and CockroachDB Client to access the databases checkboxes.
5. Click Apply.

Step 4. Get the connection string

1. In the top-right corner of the Console, click the Connect button. The Connect dialog displays.
2. From the User dropdown, select the SQL user you created in Step 2. Create a SQL user.
3. Verify that the us-west2 GCP region and default_db database are selected.
4. Click Continue. The Connect tab is displayed.
5. Click Connection string to get the connection string for your cluster.
6. Create a certs directory on your local workstation.
7. Click the name of the ca.crt file to download the CA certificate to your local machine.
8. Move the downloaded ca.crt file to the certs directory.

Step 5. Run your first query

For this tutorial, we will use the movr workload to run the first query. On your local machine:

1. Download the CockroachDB binary:

   Mac Linux
   $ curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/cockroach-v20.2.8.darwin-10.9-amd64.tgz \
   | tar -xJ
   

   $ wget -qO- https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/cockroach-v20.2.8.linux-amd64.tgz \
   | tar  xvz
   

2. Copy the binary into the PATH so it's easy to run the SQL client from any location:

   Mac Linux
   $ cp -i cockroach-v20.2.8.darwin-10.9-amd64/cockroach /usr/local/bin/
   

   $ sudo cp -i cockroach-v20.2.8.linux-amd64/cockroach /usr/local/bin/
   

3. Initialize the movr workload using the cockroach workload command and the connection string.

   In the connection string, the SQL user's username is prepopulated. Replace <password> with the SQL user's password that you entered in Step 2. Replace the <certs_dir> placeholder with the path to the certs directory that you created in Step 4.

   $ cockroach workload init movr \
   'postgres://<username>:<password>@<global host>:26257/movr?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=<certs_dir>/<ca.crt>'
   

4. Use the built-in SQL client to view the database:

   $ cockroach sql \
   --url='postgres://<username>:<password>@<global host>:26257/movr?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=<certs_dir>/<ca.crt>'
   

   > SHOW TABLES FROM movr;
   

                 table_name
   ------------------------------
     promo_codes
     rides
     user_promo_codes
     users
     vehicle_location_histories
     vehicles
   (6 rows)
   

5. Run your first query:

   > SELECT * FROM movr.users WHERE city='new york';
   

                          id                  |   city   |       name       |           address           | credit_card
   ---------------------------------------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------+--------------
     00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy    | 99176 Anderson Mills        | 8885705228
     051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | new york | James Hamilton   | 73488 Sydney Ports Suite 57 | 8340905892
     0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | new york | Judy White       | 18580 Rosario Ville Apt. 61 | 2597958636
     0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | new york | Devin Jordan     | 81127 Angela Ferry Apt. 8   | 5614075234
     147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | new york | Catherine Nelson | 1149 Lee Alley              | 0792553487
     19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | new york | Nicole Mcmahon   | 11540 Patton Extensions     | 0303726947
   (6 rows)
   

What's next?

Learn more:

• Use the built-in SQL client to connect to your cluster and learn CockroachDB SQL.
• Build a "Hello World" app with the Django framework, or install a client driver for your favorite language.
• Use a local cluster to explore CockroachDB capabilities like fault tolerance and automated repair.

Before you move into production:

• Authorize the network from which your app will access the cluster.
• Download the ca.crt file to every machine from which you want to connect to the cluster.
• Review the production checklist.