Quick start for the BigAnimal free trial

Follow this quick walk-through to configure a PostgreSQL 15 cluster on BigAnimal running against AWS with a free trial account.

Step 1: Create an account and sign into the portal

If you haven't done so already, you'll need to create your EDB account.

Then, use your newly created account to access the BigAnimal free trial portal.

Step 2: Create an AWS cluster

1. Select the Clusters link on the left to navigate to the Clusters page.

2. Select Create New Cluster.

   You should now find yourself at the Create Cluster page.

3. Select Single Node as your cluster type.

4. For Provider, select AWS.

5. Select Next: Cluster Settings.

6. In the Cluster Name field, enter AWS PostgreSQL cluster.

7. In the Password field, enter a strong, memorable password.

   This is the admin password for the cluster.

8. For Database Type, select PostgreSQL.

   This selection gives you an official build of PostgreSQL.

9. For Postgres Version, select 15.

10. For Region, select US East 1.

11. For Instance Type and Storage, only one set of options is available in the trial. Select each option.

12. Select Create Cluster. You'll be brought back to the Clusters page with your newly configured cluster now populating the list. It usually takes a minute or two for your cluster to be ready but can take up to an hour. A progress bar is shown near the right.

Managing your cluster

After you select Create Cluster, you'll be brought back to the Clusters page with your newly configured cluster now populating the list. In the free trial, you can provision only one cluster at a time. That said, you can delete your cluster, start a new cluster, and even restore a deleted cluster. BigAnimal automatically backs up clusters.

Once your first cluster is fully provisioned, your 14-day free trial officially starts, and a countdown appears telling you how many days are left in your trial.

Step 3: Connect to your new cluster

1. Select your cluster to get an overview of how it has been configured. Select the Connect tab to see more information about how to connect to your cluster.

2. Select the Overview tab and copy the Quick Connect command. Paste it into a terminal where psql is installed. It will prompt for your password and put you on a SQL command line.

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   $ psql -W "postgres://edb_admin@p-qzwv2ns7pj.pg.biganimal.io:5432/edb_admin?sslmode=require"
   Password: 
   psql (15.2)
   SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, compression: off)
   Type "help" for help.
   
   edb_admin=> 

Things to try

Create a new database

We're going to create some sample math data, so we're going to create a database called math. We could use the default edb_admin database, but best practice is to isolate data.

1. Create a new math database.

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   create database math;

   Note

   Normally, we would also create a separate, limited-privilege user to own this database. However, the free trial user can't create users, so we can only create the database.

2. Connect to the math database. You're prompted for the edb_admin password you provided in Step 2 above.

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   \connect math

Populate a table and query it

We're going to use temporary tables to calculate prime numbers using a Sieve of Eratosthenes.

1. Create a table called primes for storing prime numbers.

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   CREATE TABLE primes (
     num INTEGER,
     PRIMARY KEY (num)
   );

2. Populate the table with all prime numbers up to 1000. (This code is based on code from David Fetter.)

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   -- Based on https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Sieve_of_Eratosthenes
   
   WITH RECURSIVE
   t0(m) AS (
       VALUES(1000)
   ),
   t1(n) AS (
       VALUES(2)
   UNION ALL
       SELECT n+1 FROM t1 WHERE n < (SELECT m FROM t0)
   ),
   t2 (n, i) AS (
       SELECT 2*n, 2
       FROM t1 WHERE 2*n <= (SELECT m FROM t0)
   UNION ALL
       (
           WITH t3(k) AS (
               SELECT max(i) OVER () + 1 FROM t2
           ),
           t4(k) AS (
               SELECT DISTINCT k FROM t3
           )
           SELECT k*n, k
           FROM
               t1
           CROSS JOIN
               t4
           WHERE k*k <= (SELECT m FROM t0)
       )
   )
   INSERT INTO primes (
     SELECT n FROM t1 EXCEPT
     SELECT n FROM t2
     ORDER BY 1
   );

3. Select the largest prime number less than 1000.

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   SELECT max(num)
   FROM primes
   WHERE num < 1000;

Further reading

Now that you've got the basics, see what else BigAnimal offers:

• Backup and restore
• Import data
• CLI reference
• API reference

• On this page
• Step 1: Create an account and sign into the portal
• Step 2: Create an AWS cluster
• Step 3: Connect to your new cluster
• Things to try
• Further reading