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Version: 5.7

Start a Local Cluster from Binary

This tutorial introduces you to Hazelcast in a client/server topology. At the end of this tutorial, you'll know how to start a cluster from the binary distribution, store data in memory, visualize your data and more.

Before You Begin​

To complete this tutorial, you need the following:

PrerequisitesUseful resources
Any supported JDK

Supported Java Virtual Machines

Using Modular Java

A full Hazelcast distribution

Install Hazelcast

Install Hazelcast Enterprise Edition
Your internal IP addressHow to Find Your Internal IP Address

Step 1. Configure the Name of the Cluster​

Cluster configuration is an important step in creating a Hazelcast cluster. In this step, you learn how to configure a cluster by customizing its name.

  1. Open the hazelcast.xml file in the hazelcast-5.7.2/config directory.

  2. Change the value of the hazelcast.cluster-name field to hello-world.

    xml
    <hazelcast>
    <cluster-name>hello-world</cluster-name>
    </hazelcast>
  3. Save and exit the file.

  4. Open the hazelcast-client.xml file in the hazelcast-5.7.2/config directory.

  5. Add the same cluster-name configuration to the hazelcast-client element.

    xml
    <hazelcast-client>
    <cluster-name>hello-world</cluster-name>
    </hazelcast-client>
  6. Save and exit the file.

Step 2. Start a Local Member​

Hazelcast clusters consist of servers called members. These members communicate with each other to form a distributed network. It's these servers that store and process your data in memory.

In this step, you use the cluster management scripts to start a single-member cluster and check its status.

  1. Start a member.

    shell
    bin/hz-start

    You should see your cluster's name in the console:

    Platform console displays the cluster name 'hello-world'

  2. Open a new terminal window and use the cluster command to check the state of your member.

    The --config flag tells the CLI client to connect to the cluster, using the configuration in the hazelcast-client.xml file.

    shell
    bin/hz-cli --config config/hazelcast-client.xml cluster

    You should see something like the following:

    State: ACTIVE (1)
    Version: 5.7.2
    Size: 1 (2)

    ADDRESS UUID
    [192.168.0.2]:5701 27a73154-f4bb-477a-aef2-27ffa6f03a2d (3)
    1. The state of the cluster. An active cluster is one that is operating without restrictions.
    2. The number of members in the cluster.
    3. The internal IP address and UUID of the member.

Step 3. Write Data to Memory​

Hazelcast has lots of distributed data structures available for writing data to memory in your cluster. One of the most popular ways of writing data to memory is to use a distributed map. Maps store key/value pairs called entries, which are replicated and distributed across a cluster.

  1. In a new terminal window, start the SQL shell.

    Mac and Linux
    shell
    bin/hz-cli --config config/hazelcast-client.xml sql
    Windows
    shell
    bin/hz-cli.bat --config config/hazelcast-client.xml sql
  2. Create a map and add data to it.

    sql
    CREATE MAPPING my_distributed_map TYPE IMap OPTIONS ('keyFormat'='varchar','valueFormat'='varchar');

    SINK INTO my_distributed_map VALUES
    ('1', 'John'),
    ('2', 'Mary'),
    ('3', 'Jane');
    OK

Step 4. Read Data from Memory​

You can read the data that you just wrote to memory by connecting to the member with a different client and requesting data from the member.

  1. In a new terminal window, start the SQL shell.

    Mac and Linux
    shell
    bin/hz-cli --config config/hazelcast-client.xml sql
    Windows
    shell
    bin/hz-cli.bat --config config/hazelcast-client.xml sql
  2. Query all data in the map.

    sql
    SELECT * FROM my_distributed_map;
    +--------------------+--------------------+
    |__key |this |
    +--------------------+--------------------+
    |3 |Jane |
    |1 |John |
    |2 |Mary |
    +--------------------+--------------------+
  3. Exit the SQL shell.

    shell
    exit

Step 5. Set up Management Center​

Management Center is a user interface for managing and monitoring your cluster.

In this step, you start a local instance of Management Center and use it to view your cluster's statistics.

  1. Start Management Center.

    shell
    management-center/bin/hz-mc start
  2. In a web browser, go to localhost:8080 and enable dev mode.

    Enabling dev mode in Management center

  3. Enter your cluster's name (hello-world) and your internal IP address.

    You should see that you cluster is in an active state and has a single member. An active cluster is one that is operating without restrictions. To learn more about cluster states, see Cluster States.

    An active cluster in Management Center

  4. Click View Cluster and go to Clients.

    You should see that two clients are connected to your cluster member: Management Center and the Hazelcast client that you used to write data to a map.

  5. Go to Storage > Maps.

    You should see that your cluster has a map called my-distributed-map with three entries (keys and values). You'll also see the total amount of memory that those entries are taking up in your cluster.

    Map metrics in Management Center

    For now, the backup memory is 0 because you don't have any other members in your cluster on which to back up your map entries.

To back up your map, you need to scale up your cluster.

Step 6. Scale your Cluster​

If your cluster starts to run out of memory, you can add more members to it and they will distribute their data across the new members.

Your cluster will even create a copy of any map entries and distribute them across other members of the cluster. This way, your data is secure in case of a single member failure.

In this step, you add two more members to your cluster.

  1. Open a new terminal and run the start script to start another member.

    shell
    cd hazelcast-5.7.2
    bin/hz-start
  2. Repeat the previous step to start another member.

    You should see that your members find and connect to each other automatically to form your hello-world cluster. You can learn more about how members do this in Discovery Mechanisms.

    Console message displays three members connected to the same cluster

    note

    Running more than one member on a single host is useful for testing Hazelcast, but it's not suitable for production.

  3. Back in Management Center, go to Storage > Maps again.

    You should see that the backup memory is the same as the entry memory, meaning that all your map entries have now been copied and distributed among the other two cluster members.

  4. To see how your map entries are distributed among members in your cluster, click my-distributed-map.

    Entries and their backups are distributed evenly across the other members

    You should see that entries and their backups are distributed evenly across each member. This process is called partitioning.

Step 7. Simulate a Member Failure​

If a member fails for any reason, the other cluster members use their backups to repartition the data across the remaining cluster members.

In the terminal of one of your running members, press Ctrl+C to shut down the member.

You should the Hazelcast Shutdown is completed message in the console.

In Management Center, you should also see that the amount of entry memory and backup memory has not changed. All your map entries are still in memory despite a member being shut down. The remaining Hazelcast members have repartitioned the data.

Next Steps​

Now that you have a local cluster, you can continue your journey with the following tutorials:

If you just want to go straight into deploying a production-ready cluster, see our production checklist.

Explore the tools Hazelcast offers for the following use cases:

Or, if you're interested in learning more about topics that we introduced in this tutorial, see the following resources: