Getting Started with ClusterControl

Welcome to the ClusterControl documentation! This guide will help you get started with ClusterControl, a powerful and user-friendly tool designed to simplify the deployment, management, and monitoring of high-availability database clusters. Whether you're working with open-source databases such as MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, MongoDB, Redis, Valkey as well as proprietary options like SQL Server, MongoDB Enterprise, and EDB, ClusterControl provides a unified interface and advanced features to automate and secure your database operations.

What is ClusterControl?

ClusterControl is an all-in-one database management system that provides robust features for monitoring, scaling, and automating database clusters developed by Severalnines.

It supports multiple database technologies and offers a single platform for:

• Automated Deployment: Deploy various database clusters with a few clicks, supporting topologies like master-slave, Galera clusters, and sharded environments.

• Comprehensive Monitoring: Gain real-time visibility into cluster health, resource usage, and performance metrics with customizable dashboards and alerts.

• Backup and Recovery: Schedule automatic backups, configure retention policies, and restore clusters with ease.

• Scaling and Load Balancing: Automatically or manually scale clusters to handle workload spikes while ensuring stability and high availability.

• Security and Compliance: Manage user permissions, enforce SSL, and track access logs to maintain a secure database environment.

With its focus on ease of use and powerful automation, ClusterControl is ideal for both seasoned database administrators and those new to database cluster management.

Why Choose ClusterControl?

Managing a database cluster can be complex, involving manual configuration, monitoring, and scaling to ensure that applications run smoothly. ClusterControl simplifies these processes by centralizing them in an intuitive, graphical interface, with support for essential features:

• High Availability: ClusterControl’s clustering and failover capabilities minimize downtime and keep databases available.

• Centralized Management: Handle all cluster configurations, monitoring, and updates from a single control panel.

• Automation and Efficiency: Reduce manual effort with automated tasks like backups, recovery, scaling, and upgrades.

• Multi-Database Support: A wide range of supported databases and cloud integrations make ClusterControl a versatile tool.

Editions and releases

ClusterControl comes in 3 editions - Community, Advanced and Enterprise editions, within the same binary. Please review the ClusterControl product page for features comparison between these editions.

All new ClusterControl installations will be automatically configured with a 30-day fully functional Enterprise edition trial license (1). When the license expires, ClusterControl defaults to the Community Edition. To upgrade from Community to Advanced or Enterprise, you need a valid software license. For commercial information, please contact us.

1. This requires an internet connection for automatic license retrieval and activation. For an offline environment, reach out to our Sales department at [email protected] to request for a free trial license.

Starting from ClusterControl 2.2.0 (September 2024), ClusterControl provides 2 releases:

Release branch	Version	Release date
Yearly long-term support (LTS)	2.2.0	September 2024
Latest (default)	2.3.2	April 2025

See Release Notes for details of all ClusterControl's releases.

Target users

ClusterControl is a database management and automation platform designed for DBAs (Database Administrators), DevOps teams, system administrators, and IT operations professionals who are responsible for deploying, managing, and maintaining database clusters. Its target users typically have a need for high-availability, scalability, performance monitoring, and automation in database environments.

Target user	Purpose	Use case
DBAs (Database Administrators)	ClusterControl simplifies tasks like database deployment, configuration, backup, and scaling. It also provides monitoring, failure recovery, and performance optimization, reducing the manual work DBAs have to do.	Automating repetitive tasks like backups, failover management, and upgrades for complex database systems.
DevOps Engineers	DevOps teams benefit from ClusterControl’s ability to automate infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tasks, enabling rapid provisioning and scaling of databases.	Deploying and managing database clusters as part of continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
System Administrators / IT Operations	For IT admins responsible for managing infrastructure, ClusterControl offers a unified dashboard for monitoring database health, setting up alerts, and troubleshooting database issues across multiple environments.	Monitoring and maintaining database uptime, setting up automated alerts, and ensuring disaster recovery protocols are in place.
Development Teams (for large-scale applications)	Developers working on applications with high database demands use ClusterControl to ensure that their databases are scalable and reliable, supporting high-performance queries and transactions.	Scaling databases to handle increased traffic as application usage grows.
Companies Managing Multiple Databases	Organizations running multiple database engines (like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc.) can use ClusterControl to centrally manage these varied database environments.	Managing hybrid database environments with multiple technologies under one platform.
Enterprises with High-Availability Requirements	Enterprises that require high availability and failover solutions for mission-critical databases use ClusterControl for its robust failover, replication, and clustering capabilities.	Ensuring zero-downtime for databases running business-critical applications.