ClickHouse/docs/en/sql-reference/table-functions/cluster.md
Pablo Musa f6abe68b60
Clarify sentence about clusterAllReplicas
The explanation about `clusterAllReplicas` is not clear. This change tries to simplify the sentence and clarify the explanation.
2024-03-12 10:52:22 +01:00

60 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

---
slug: /en/sql-reference/table-functions/cluster
sidebar_position: 30
sidebar_label: cluster
title: "cluster, clusterAllReplicas"
---
Allows to access all shards (configured in the `remote_servers` section) of a cluster without creating a [Distributed](../../engines/table-engines/special/distributed.md) table. Only one replica of each shard is queried.
`clusterAllReplicas` function — same as `cluster`, but all replicas are queried. Each replica in a cluster is used as a separate shard/connection.
:::note
All available clusters are listed in the [system.clusters](../../operations/system-tables/clusters.md) table.
:::
**Syntax**
``` sql
cluster(['cluster_name', db.table, sharding_key])
cluster(['cluster_name', db, table, sharding_key])
clusterAllReplicas(['cluster_name', db.table, sharding_key])
clusterAllReplicas(['cluster_name', db, table, sharding_key])
```
**Arguments**
- `cluster_name` Name of a cluster that is used to build a set of addresses and connection parameters to remote and local servers, set `default` if not specified.
- `db.table` or `db`, `table` - Name of a database and a table.
- `sharding_key` - A sharding key. Optional. Needs to be specified if the cluster has more than one shard.
**Returned value**
The dataset from clusters.
**Using Macros**
`cluster_name` can contain macros — substitution in curly brackets. The substituted value is taken from the [macros](../../operations/server-configuration-parameters/settings.md#macros) section of the server configuration file.
Example:
```sql
SELECT * FROM cluster('{cluster}', default.example_table);
```
**Usage and Recommendations**
Using the `cluster` and `clusterAllReplicas` table functions are less efficient than creating a `Distributed` table because in this case, the server connection is re-established for every request. When processing a large number of queries, please always create the `Distributed` table ahead of time, and do not use the `cluster` and `clusterAllReplicas` table functions.
The `cluster` and `clusterAllReplicas` table functions can be useful in the following cases:
- Accessing a specific cluster for data comparison, debugging, and testing.
- Queries to various ClickHouse clusters and replicas for research purposes.
- Infrequent distributed requests that are made manually.
Connection settings like `host`, `port`, `user`, `password`, `compression`, `secure` are taken from `<remote_servers>` config section. See details in [Distributed engine](../../engines/table-engines/special/distributed.md).
**See Also**
- [skip_unavailable_shards](../../operations/settings/settings.md#skip_unavailable_shards)
- [load_balancing](../../operations/settings/settings.md#load_balancing)