1.2 Points to Consider before moving to Vertica

This section is intended to help you make an informed decision about moving to the Vertica database. Some important aspects that you need to carefully consider before enabling Vertica in your zone are:

  • ZENworks does not mandate the use of Vertica. However, you should configure Vertica if:

    • You have more than 10 thousand devices in the zone and if you use the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) feature. In such a scenario, as significant amount of data is stored in the database, it is mandatory to have the Vertica database installed in the zone.

      NOTE:For zones with a lesser number of devices, you can continue using the existing RDBMS, as all features (except for trend charts) will continue to work seamlessly.

    • You want to view the trending charts displayed within the Patch Tracker and CVE Tracker dashlets. Irrespective of the number of devices in the zone, trend data will be displayed only when Vertica is enabled.

  • When you configure Vertica in the zone:

    • Vertica will only process data for the Dashboard feature.

    • ZENworks will process data from Vertica only for the Security dashlets. The bundle dashlets will read data from the existing RDBMS unless you manually configure these dashlets (Device Assignment Status dashlet and the Bundle Deployment Status dashlet) to obtain data from Vertica, which is documented in the Software Distribution Guide.

      NOTE:The bundle dashlets will work seamlessly with the existing RDBMS, even when you have a sizable number of devices in the zone.

  • ZENworks will continue to use the existing RDBMS as the primary database.

    • The RDBMS will continue to receive data from the ZENworks Primary Server. As an initial step, data will be migrated in bulk from the RDBMS to Vertica, after which the RDBMS will continuously sync data with Vertica at an interval of every 10 to 15 minutes, using the Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper components.

    • The RDBMS will retain all data, except for the following which will be directly stored in Vertica:

      • CVE trend data and Patch trend data: If you remove Vertica from the zone, you will lose this data.

      • CVE Vulnerability Status data.

  • ZENworks currently does not provide you with a control to disable Vertica automatically, if you no longer want to use it in your zone. You need to manually disable it in the zone, which is documented in Removing Vertica.