How to Create a Namespace in Aerospike Database

                     This post is about creating a namespace in Aerospike.

I could not find any concrete method to create a namespace like create database in MySQL and MongoDB. So I am suggesting a way to create a namespace in Aerospike Database.

Step-1: Locate config file aerospike.conf and open it in your favorite editor and make sure you have permission to modify the file. In my system the path of file /etc/aerospike/aerospike.conf (Default in Ubuntu). Here the content of the file.

# Aerospike database configuration file.

service {
 user root
 group root
 paxos-single-replica-limit 1 # Number of nodes where the replica
 pidfile /var/run/aerospike/asd.pid
 service-threads 4
 transaction-queues 4
 transaction-threads-per-queue 4
 proto-fd-max 15000
}

logging {
 # Log file must be an absolute path.
 file /var/log/aerospike/aerospike.log {
  context any info
 }
}

network {
 service {
  address any
  port 3000
 }

 heartbeat {
  mode multicast
  address 239.1.99.222
  port 9918

  # To use unicast-mesh heartbeats, remove the 3 lines above, and see
  # aerospike_mesh.conf for alternative.

  interval 150
  timeout 10
 }

 fabric {
  port 3001
 }

 info {
  port 3003
 }
}

namespace test {
 replication-factor 2
 memory-size 4G
 default-ttl 30d # 30 days, use 0 to never expire/evict.

 storage-engine memory
}

namespace bar {
 replication-factor 2
 memory-size 4G
 default-ttl 30d # 30 days, use 0 to never expire/evict.

 storage-engine memory

 # To use file storage backing, comment out the line above and use the
 # following lines instead.
# storage-engine device {
#  file /opt/aerospike/data/bar.dat
#  filesize 16G
#  data-in-memory true # Store data in memory in addition to file.
# }
}

Step-2: Find the test namespace which is by default in Aerospike. Copy the segment of test namespace

namespace test {
 replication-factor 2
 memory-size 4G
 default-ttl 30d # 30 days, use 0 to never expire/evict.

 storage-engine memory
}

and paste it after the test namespace block. Rename it to your namespace (I am renaming it to mytest). It should look like.

namespace test {
 replication-factor 2
 memory-size 4G
 default-ttl 30d # 30 days, use 0 to never expire/evict.

 storage-engine memory
}

namespace mytest {
 replication-factor 2
 memory-size 4G
 default-ttl 30d # 10 days, use 0 to never expire/evict.

 storage-engine memory
}

namespace bar {
 replication-factor 2
 memory-size 4G
 default-ttl 30d # 30 days, use 0 to never expire/evict.

 storage-engine memory

 # To use file storage backing, comment out the line above and use the
 # following lines instead.
# storage-engine device {
#  file /opt/aerospike/data/bar.dat
#  filesize 16G
#  data-in-memory true # Store data in memory in addition to file.
# }
}

Step-3: Save the file and you just created a new namespace in Aerospike database. To check go to the aql prompt execute type the following command.

aql>show namespaces

aql>show sets

and you will see the newly created namespace.


You can also configure the namespace according to your requirement in the same config file. Like if you want the data persistence, change the storage engine from in memory to HDD or SSD. See the bar namespace configuration at the end of the config file or look aerospike website.