ClickHouse/docs/en/operations/settings/settings.md

Settings

distributed_product_mode

Changes the behavior of distributed subqueries.

ClickHouse applies this setting when the query contains the product of distributed tables, i.e. when the query for a distributed table contains a non-GLOBAL subquery for the distributed table.

Restrictions:

• Only applied for IN and JOIN subqueries.
• Only if the FROM section uses a distributed table containing more than one shard.
• If the subquery concerns a distributed table containing more than one shard,
• Not used for a table-valued remote function.

Possible values:

• deny — Default value. Prohibits using these types of subqueries (returns the "Double-distributed in/JOIN subqueries is denied" exception).
• local — Replaces the database and table in the subquery with local ones for the destination server (shard), leaving the normal IN/JOIN.
• global — Replaces the IN/JOIN query with GLOBAL IN/GLOBAL JOIN.
• allow — Allows the use of these types of subqueries.

enable_optimize_predicate_expression

Turns on predicate pushdown in SELECT queries.

Predicate pushdown may significantly reduce network traffic for distributed queries.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

Usage

Consider the following queries:

1. SELECT count() FROM test_table WHERE date = '2018-10-10'
2. SELECT count() FROM (SELECT * FROM test_table) WHERE date = '2018-10-10'

If enable_optimize_predicate_expression = 1, then the execution time of these queries is equal, because ClickHouse applies WHERE to the subquery when processing it.

If enable_optimize_predicate_expression = 0, then the execution time of the second query is much longer, because the WHERE clause applies to all the data after the subquery finishes.

fallback_to_stale_replicas_for_distributed_queries

Forces a query to an out-of-date replica if updated data is not available. See "Replication".

ClickHouse selects the most relevant from the outdated replicas of the table.

Used when performing SELECT from a distributed table that points to replicated tables.

By default, 1 (enabled).

force_index_by_date

Disables query execution if the index can't be used by date.

Works with tables in the MergeTree family.

If force_index_by_date=1, ClickHouse checks whether the query has a date key condition that can be used for restricting data ranges. If there is no suitable condition, it throws an exception. However, it does not check whether the condition actually reduces the amount of data to read. For example, the condition Date != ' 2000-01-01 ' is acceptable even when it matches all the data in the table (i.e., running the query requires a full scan). For more information about ranges of data in MergeTree tables, see "MergeTree".

force_primary_key

Disables query execution if indexing by the primary key is not possible.

Works with tables in the MergeTree family.

If force_primary_key=1, ClickHouse checks to see if the query has a primary key condition that can be used for restricting data ranges. If there is no suitable condition, it throws an exception. However, it does not check whether the condition actually reduces the amount of data to read. For more information about data ranges in MergeTree tables, see "MergeTree".

fsync_metadata

Enables or disables fsync when writing .sql files. Enabled by default.

It makes sense to disable it if the server has millions of tiny table chunks that are constantly being created and destroyed.

enable_http_compression

Enables or disables data compression in the response to an HTTP request.

For more information, read the HTTP interface description.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

http_zlib_compression_level

Sets the level of data compression in the response to an HTTP request if enable_http_compression = 1.

Possible values: Numbers from 1 to 9.

Default value: 3.

http_native_compression_disable_checksumming_on_decompress

Enables or disables checksum verification when decompressing the HTTP POST data from the client. Used only for ClickHouse native compression format (not used with gzip or deflate).

For more information, read the HTTP interface description.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

send_progress_in_http_headers

Enables or disables sending of the X-ClickHouse-Progress header in an answer from clickhouse-server.

For more information, read the HTTP interface description.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

input_format_allow_errors_num

Sets the maximum number of acceptable errors when reading from text formats (CSV, TSV, etc.).

The default value is 0.

Always pair it with input_format_allow_errors_ratio. To skip errors, both settings must be greater than 0.

If an error occurred while reading rows but the error counter is still less than input_format_allow_errors_num, ClickHouse ignores the row and moves on to the next one.

If input_format_allow_errors_num is exceeded, ClickHouse throws an exception.

input_format_allow_errors_ratio

Sets the maximum percentage of errors allowed when reading from text formats (CSV, TSV, etc.). The percentage of errors is set as a floating-point number between 0 and 1.

The default value is 0.

Always pair it with input_format_allow_errors_num. To skip errors, both settings must be greater than 0.

If an error occurred while reading rows but the error counter is still less than input_format_allow_errors_ratio, ClickHouse ignores the row and moves on to the next one.

If input_format_allow_errors_ratio is exceeded, ClickHouse throws an exception.

input_format_values_interpret_expressions

Enables or disables the full SQL parser if the fast stream parser can't parse the data. This setting is used only for the Values format at the data insertion. For more information about syntax parsing, see the Syntax section.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.

  In this case, you must provide formatted data. See the Formats section.

• 1 — Enabled.

  In this case, you can use an SQL expression as a value, but data insertion is much slower this way. If you insert only formatted data, then ClickHouse behaves as if the setting value is 0.

Default value: 1.

Example of Use

Insert the DateTime type value with the different settings.

SET input_format_values_interpret_expressions = 0;
INSERT INTO datetime_t VALUES (now())

Exception on client:
Code: 27. DB::Exception: Cannot parse input: expected ) before: now()): (at row 1)

SET input_format_values_interpret_expressions = 1;
INSERT INTO datetime_t VALUES (now())

Ok.

The last query is equivalent to the following:

SET input_format_values_interpret_expressions = 0;
INSERT INTO datetime_t SELECT now()

Ok.

input_format_defaults_for_omitted_fields

Turns on/off the extended data exchange between a ClickHouse client and a ClickHouse server. This setting applies for INSERT queries.

When executing the INSERT query, the ClickHouse client prepares data and sends it to the server for writing. The client gets the table structure from the server when preparing the data. In some cases, the client needs more information than the server sends by default. Turn on the extended data exchange with input_format_defaults_for_omitted_fields = 1.

When the extended data exchange is enabled, the server sends the additional metadata along with the table structure. The composition of the metadata depends on the operation.

Operations where you may need the extended data exchange enabled:

• Inserting data in JSONEachRow format.

For all other operations, ClickHouse doesn't apply the setting.

!!! note "Note" The extended data exchange functionality consumes additional computing resources on the server and can reduce performance.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

input_format_skip_unknown_fields

Enables or disables skipping insertion of extra data.

When writing data, ClickHouse throws an exception if input data contain columns that do not exist in the target table. If skipping is enabled, ClickHouse doesn't insert extra data and doesn't throw an exception.

Supported formats:

• JSONEachRow
• CSVWithNames
• TabSeparatedWithNames
• TSKV

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

input_format_with_names_use_header

Enables or disables checking the column order when inserting data.

To improve insert performance, we recommend disabling this check if you are sure that the column order of the input data is the same as in the target table.

Supported formats:

• CSVWithNames
• TabSeparatedWithNames

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 1.

join_default_strictness

Sets default strictness for JOIN clauses.

Possible values

• ALL — If the right table has several matching rows, the data is multiplied by the number of these rows. This is the normal JOIN behavior from standard SQL.
• ANY — If the right table has several matching rows, only the first one found is joined. If the right table has only one matching row, the results of ANY and ALL are the same.
• Empty string — If ALL or ANY is not specified in the query, ClickHouse throws an exception.

Default value: ALL

join_use_nulls

Sets the type of JOIN behavior. When merging tables, empty cells may appear. ClickHouse fills them differently based on this setting.

Possible values

• 0 — The empty cells are filled with the default value of the corresponding field type.
• 1 — JOIN behaves the same way as in standard SQL. The type of the corresponding field is converted to Nullable, and empty cells are filled with NULL.

Default value: 0.

max_block_size

In ClickHouse, data is processed by blocks (sets of column parts). The internal processing cycles for a single block are efficient enough, but there are noticeable expenditures on each block. The max_block_size setting is a recommendation for what size of block (in number of rows) to load from tables. The block size shouldn't be too small, so that the expenditures on each block are still noticeable, but not too large, so that the query with LIMIT that is completed after the first block is processed quickly. The goal is to avoid consuming too much memory when extracting a large number of columns in multiple threads, and to preserve at least some cache locality.

Default value: 65,536.

Blocks the size of max_block_size are not always loaded from the table. If it is obvious that less data needs to be retrieved, a smaller block is processed.

preferred_block_size_bytes

Used for the same purpose as max_block_size, but it sets the recommended block size in bytes by adapting it to the number of rows in the block. However, the block size cannot be more than max_block_size rows. By default: 1,000,000. It only works when reading from MergeTree engines.

merge_tree_uniform_read_distribution

ClickHouse uses multiple threads when reading from MergeTree* tables. This setting turns on/off the uniform distribution of reading tasks over the working threads. The algorithm of the uniform distribution aims to make execution time for all the threads approximately equal in a SELECT query.

Possible values

• 0 — Do not use uniform read distribution.
• 1 — Use uniform read distribution.

Default value: 1.

merge_tree_min_rows_for_concurrent_read

If the number of rows to be read from a file of a MergeTree* table exceeds merge_tree_min_rows_for_concurrent_read then ClickHouse tries to perform a concurrent reading from this file on several threads.

Possible values

Any positive integer.

Default value: 163840.

merge_tree_min_rows_for_seek

If the distance between two data blocks to be read in one file is less than merge_tree_min_rows_for_seek rows, then ClickHouse does not seek through the file, but reads the data sequentially.

Possible values

Any positive integer.

Default value: 0.

merge_tree_coarse_index_granularity

When searching data, ClickHouse checks the data marks in the index file. If ClickHouse finds that required keys are in some range, it divides this range into merge_tree_coarse_index_granularity subranges and searches the required keys there recursively.

Possible values

Any positive even integer.

Default value: 8.

merge_tree_max_rows_to_use_cache

If ClickHouse should read more than merge_tree_max_rows_to_use_cache rows in one query, it does not use the cash of uncompressed blocks. The uncompressed_cache_size server setting defines the size of the cache of uncompressed blocks.

Possible values

Any positive integer.

Default value: 1048576.

min_bytes_to_use_direct_io

The minimum data volume required for using direct I/O access to the storage disk.

ClickHouse uses this setting when reading data from tables. If the total storage volume of all the data to be read exceeds min_bytes_to_use_direct_io bytes, then ClickHouse reads the data from the storage disk with the O_DIRECT option.

Possible values

• 0 — Direct I/O is disabled.
• Positive integer.

Default value: 0.

log_queries

Setting up query logging.

Queries sent to ClickHouse with this setup are logged according to the rules in the query_log server configuration parameter.

Example:

log_queries=1

max_insert_block_size

The size of blocks to form for insertion into a table. This setting only applies in cases when the server forms the blocks. For example, for an INSERT via the HTTP interface, the server parses the data format and forms blocks of the specified size. But when using clickhouse-client, the client parses the data itself, and the 'max_insert_block_size' setting on the server doesn't affect the size of the inserted blocks. The setting also doesn't have a purpose when using INSERT SELECT, since data is inserted using the same blocks that are formed after SELECT.

Default value: 1,048,576.

The default is slightly more than max_block_size. The reason for this is because certain table engines (*MergeTree) form a data part on the disk for each inserted block, which is a fairly large entity. Similarly, *MergeTree tables sort data during insertion, and a large enough block size allows sorting more data in RAM.

max_replica_delay_for_distributed_queries

Disables lagging replicas for distributed queries. See "Replication".

Sets the time in seconds. If a replica lags more than the set value, this replica is not used.

Default value: 300.

Used when performing SELECT from a distributed table that points to replicated tables.

max_threads

The maximum number of query processing threads, excluding threads for retrieving data from remote servers (see the 'max_distributed_connections' parameter).

This parameter applies to threads that perform the same stages of the query processing pipeline in parallel. For example, when reading from a table, if it is possible to evaluate expressions with functions, filter with WHERE and pre-aggregate for GROUP BY in parallel using at least 'max_threads' number of threads, then 'max_threads' are used.

Default value: 2.

If less than one SELECT query is normally run on a server at a time, set this parameter to a value slightly less than the actual number of processor cores.

For queries that are completed quickly because of a LIMIT, you can set a lower 'max_threads'. For example, if the necessary number of entries are located in every block and max_threads = 8, then 8 blocks are retrieved, although it would have been enough to read just one.

The smaller the max_threads value, the less memory is consumed.

max_compress_block_size

The maximum size of blocks of uncompressed data before compressing for writing to a table. By default, 1,048,576 (1 MiB). If the size is reduced, the compression rate is significantly reduced, the compression and decompression speed increases slightly due to cache locality, and memory consumption is reduced. There usually isn't any reason to change this setting.

Don't confuse blocks for compression (a chunk of memory consisting of bytes) with blocks for query processing (a set of rows from a table).

min_compress_block_size

For MergeTree" tables. In order to reduce latency when processing queries, a block is compressed when writing the next mark if its size is at least 'min_compress_block_size'. By default, 65,536.

The actual size of the block, if the uncompressed data is less than 'max_compress_block_size', is no less than this value and no less than the volume of data for one mark.

Let's look at an example. Assume that 'index_granularity' was set to 8192 during table creation.

We are writing a UInt32-type column (4 bytes per value). When writing 8192 rows, the total will be 32 KB of data. Since min_compress_block_size = 65,536, a compressed block will be formed for every two marks.

We are writing a URL column with the String type (average size of 60 bytes per value). When writing 8192 rows, the average will be slightly less than 500 KB of data. Since this is more than 65,536, a compressed block will be formed for each mark. In this case, when reading data from the disk in the range of a single mark, extra data won't be decompressed.

There usually isn't any reason to change this setting.

max_query_size

The maximum part of a query that can be taken to RAM for parsing with the SQL parser. The INSERT query also contains data for INSERT that is processed by a separate stream parser (that consumes O(1) RAM), which is not included in this restriction.

Default value: 256 KiB.

interactive_delay

The interval in microseconds for checking whether request execution has been canceled and sending the progress.

Default value: 100,000 (checks for canceling and sends the progress ten times per second).

connect_timeout, receive_timeout, send_timeout

Timeouts in seconds on the socket used for communicating with the client.

Default value: 10, 300, 300.

poll_interval

Lock in a wait loop for the specified number of seconds.

Default value: 10.

max_distributed_connections

The maximum number of simultaneous connections with remote servers for distributed processing of a single query to a single Distributed table. We recommend setting a value no less than the number of servers in the cluster.

Default value: 1024.

The following parameters are only used when creating Distributed tables (and when launching a server), so there is no reason to change them at runtime.

distributed_connections_pool_size

The maximum number of simultaneous connections with remote servers for distributed processing of all queries to a single Distributed table. We recommend setting a value no less than the number of servers in the cluster.

Default value: 1024.

connect_timeout_with_failover_ms

The timeout in milliseconds for connecting to a remote server for a Distributed table engine, if the 'shard' and 'replica' sections are used in the cluster definition. If unsuccessful, several attempts are made to connect to various replicas.

Default value: 50.

connections_with_failover_max_tries

The maximum number of connection attempts with each replica for the Distributed table engine.

Default value: 3.

extremes

Whether to count extreme values (the minimums and maximums in columns of a query result). Accepts 0 or 1. By default, 0 (disabled). For more information, see the section "Extreme values".

use_uncompressed_cache

Whether to use a cache of uncompressed blocks. Accepts 0 or 1. By default, 0 (disabled). Using the uncompressed cache (only for tables in the MergeTree family) can significantly reduce latency and increase throughput when working with a large number of short queries. Enable this setting for users who send frequent short requests. Also pay attention to the uncompressed_cache_size configuration parameter (only set in the config file) – the size of uncompressed cache blocks. By default, it is 8 GiB. The uncompressed cache is filled in as needed and the least-used data is automatically deleted.

For queries that read at least a somewhat large volume of data (one million rows or more), the uncompressed cache is disabled automatically in order to save space for truly small queries. This means that you can keep the 'use_uncompressed_cache' setting always set to 1.

replace_running_query

When using the HTTP interface, the 'query_id' parameter can be passed. This is any string that serves as the query identifier. If a query from the same user with the same 'query_id' already exists at this time, the behavior depends on the 'replace_running_query' parameter.

0 (default) – Throw an exception (don't allow the query to run if a query with the same 'query_id' is already running).

1 – Cancel the old query and start running the new one.

Yandex.Metrica uses this parameter set to 1 for implementing suggestions for segmentation conditions. After entering the next character, if the old query hasn't finished yet, it should be canceled.

schema

This parameter is useful when you are using formats that require a schema definition, such as Cap'n Proto. The value depends on the format.

stream_flush_interval_ms

Works for tables with streaming in the case of a timeout, or when a thread generates max_insert_block_size rows.

The default value is 7500.

The smaller the value, the more often data is flushed into the table. Setting the value too low leads to poor performance.

load_balancing

Specifies the algorithm of replicas selection that is used for distributed query processing.

ClickHouse supports the following algorithms of choosing replicas:

• Random (by default)
• Nearest hostname
• In order
• First or random

Random (by default)

load_balancing = random

The number of errors is counted for each replica. The query is sent to the replica with the fewest errors, and if there are several of these, to any one of them. Disadvantages: Server proximity is not accounted for; if the replicas have different data, you will also get different data.

Nearest Hostname

load_balancing = nearest_hostname

The number of errors is counted for each replica. Every 5 minutes, the number of errors is integrally divided by 2. Thus, the number of errors is calculated for a recent time with exponential smoothing. If there is one replica with a minimal number of errors (i.e. errors occurred recently on the other replicas), the query is sent to it. If there are multiple replicas with the same minimal number of errors, the query is sent to the replica with a host name that is most similar to the server's host name in the config file (for the number of different characters in identical positions, up to the minimum length of both host names).

For instance, example01-01-1 and example01-01-2.yandex.ru are different in one position, while example01-01-1 and example01-02-2 differ in two places. This method might seem primitive, but it doesn't require external data about network topology, and it doesn't compare IP addresses, which would be complicated for our IPv6 addresses.

Thus, if there are equivalent replicas, the closest one by name is preferred. We can also assume that when sending a query to the same server, in the absence of failures, a distributed query will also go to the same servers. So even if different data is placed on the replicas, the query will return mostly the same results.

In Order

load_balancing = in_order

Replicas with the same number of errors are accessed in the same order as they are specified in configuration. This method is appropriate when you know exactly which replica is preferable.

First or Random

load_balancing = first_or_random

This algorithm chooses the first replica in the set or a random replica if the first is unavailable. It's effective in cross-replication topology setups, but useless in other configurations.

The first_or_random algorithm solves the problem of the in_order algorithm. With in_order, if one replica goes down, the next one gets a double load while the remaining replicas handle the usual amount of traffic. When using the first_or_random algorithm, load is evenly distributed among replicas that are still available.

prefer_localhost_replica

Enables/disables preferable using the localhost replica when processing distributed queries.

Possible values:

• 1 — ClickHouse always sends a query to the localhost replica if it exists.
• 0 — ClickHouse uses the balancing strategy specified by the load_balancing setting.

Default value: 1.

!!! warning "Warning" Disable this setting if you use max_parallel_replicas.

totals_mode

How to calculate TOTALS when HAVING is present, as well as when max_rows_to_group_by and group_by_overflow_mode = 'any' are present. See the section "WITH TOTALS modifier".

totals_auto_threshold

The threshold for totals_mode = 'auto'. See the section "WITH TOTALS modifier".

max_parallel_replicas

The maximum number of replicas for each shard when executing a query. For consistency (to get different parts of the same data split), this option only works when the sampling key is set. Replica lag is not controlled.

compile

Enable compilation of queries. By default, 0 (disabled).

Compilation is only used for part of the query-processing pipeline: for the first stage of aggregation (GROUP BY). If this portion of the pipeline was compiled, the query may run faster due to deployment of short cycles and inlining aggregate function calls. The maximum performance improvement (up to four times faster in rare cases) is seen for queries with multiple simple aggregate functions. Typically, the performance gain is insignificant. In very rare cases, it may slow down query execution.

min_count_to_compile

How many times to potentially use a compiled chunk of code before running compilation. By default, 3. For testing, the value can be set to 0: compilation runs synchronously and the query waits for the end of the compilation process before continuing execution. For all other cases, use values ​​starting with 1. Compilation normally takes about 5-10 seconds. If the value is 1 or more, compilation occurs asynchronously in a separate thread. The result will be used as soon as it is ready, including queries that are currently running.

Compiled code is required for each different combination of aggregate functions used in the query and the type of keys in the GROUP BY clause. The results of compilation are saved in the build directory in the form of .so files. There is no restriction on the number of compilation results, since they don't use very much space. Old results will be used after server restarts, except in the case of a server upgrade – in this case, the old results are deleted.

output_format_json_quote_64bit_integers

If the value is true, integers appear in quotes when using JSON* Int64 and UInt64 formats (for compatibility with most JavaScript implementations); otherwise, integers are output without the quotes.

format_csv_delimiter

The character interpreted as a delimiter in the CSV data. By default, the delimiter is ,.

insert_quorum

Enables quorum writes.

• If insert_quorum < 2, the quorum writes are disabled.
• If insert_quorum >= 2, the quorum writes are enabled.

Default value: 0.

Quorum writes

INSERT succeeds only when ClickHouse manages to correctly write data to the insert_quorum of replicas during the insert_quorum_timeout. If for any reason the number of replicas with successful writes does not reach the insert_quorum, the write is considered failed and ClickHouse will delete the inserted block from all the replicas where data has already been written.

All the replicas in the quorum are consistent, i.e., they contain data from all previous INSERT queries. The INSERT sequence is linearized.

When reading the data written from the insert_quorum, you can use the select_sequential_consistency option.

ClickHouse generates an exception

• If the number of available replicas at the time of the query is less than the insert_quorum.
• At an attempt to write data when the previous block has not yet been inserted in the insert_quorum of replicas. This situation may occur if the user tries to perform an INSERT before the previous one with the insert_quorum is completed.

See also the following parameters:

• insert_quorum_timeout
• select_sequential_consistency

insert_quorum_timeout

Quorum write timeout in seconds. If the timeout has passed and no write has taken place yet, ClickHouse will generate an exception and the client must repeat the query to write the same block to the same or any other replica.

Default value: 60 seconds.

See also the following parameters:

• insert_quorum
• select_sequential_consistency

select_sequential_consistency

Enables or disables sequential consistency for SELECT queries:

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 0.

Usage

When sequential consistency is enabled, ClickHouse allows the client to execute the SELECT query only for those replicas that contain data from all previous INSERT queries executed with insert_quorum. If the client refers to a partial replica, ClickHouse will generate an exception. The SELECT query will not include data that has not yet been written to the quorum of replicas.

See Also

• insert_quorum
• insert_quorum_timeout

allow_experimental_cross_to_join_conversion

Enables or disables:

1. Rewriting of queries with multiple JOIN clauses from the syntax with commas to the JOIN ON/USING syntax. If the setting value is 0, ClickHouse doesn't process queries with the syntax with commas, and throws an exception.
2. Converting of CROSS JOIN into INNER JOIN if conditions of join allow it.

Possible values:

• 0 — Disabled.
• 1 — Enabled.

Default value: 1.

Original article