Riak is a scalable, fault-tolerant, open source key/value database intended to be the primary mechanism for data storage in production applications.

The Joyent Riak SmartMachine is a dynamically scalable virtual machine that is preconfigured to run Riak, Basho's Dynamo-inspired key/value store.

Riak SmartMachines are available in two flavors: Open Source and Enterprise DS. The Open Source version of Riak is derived as a subset from the Enterprise DS version. The Enterprise DS version of Riak is available for a subscription license fee but includes addtional features such as:

• SNMP support
• Inter-datacenter replication (separate from intra-datacenter replication, which is supported in the open source version)
• A web-based administration interface
• Direct support from Basho Technologies.

In this topic:

In this section:

• Available Riak SmartMachine Configurations
• Troubleshooting a Riak SmartMachine
• Additional Resources

Release notes for this image:

Riak SmartMachine Release Notes 

Logging into your Riak SmartMachine

Log into your Riak SmartMachine the same way you log into a standard SmartMachine:

Notable Riak Component Locations

Look for Riak SmartMachine components in the following locations:

• Riak package: Loaded from pkgsrc
• Riak executables: /opt/local/sbin
• Riak configuration files: /opt/local/etc/riak

Starting and stopping Riak nodes

Joyent SmartMachines use SMF to start and stop services.

The usual 'riak stop' and 'riak start' commands will not work properly on a SmartMachine.

Building a Riak Cluster

Nodes only need to be joined to one node in a cluster. The following steps create a 3-node cluster by joining both node2 and node3 to node1.