Managing a custom geobase in Managed Service for ClickHouse®

Written by

Updated at June 23, 2025

Creating a geobase
Uploading a geobase to Yandex Object Storage
Adding the geobase to the ClickHouse® cluster
Deleting a geobase

A ClickHouse® geobase consists of text files containing the names and hierarchy of regions. You can add several alternative geobases to ClickHouse® to support different views on what regions belong to what countries. For more information, see the ClickHouse® documentation.

To add a custom geobase to a ClickHouse® cluster:

If you are not using your custom geobase, disable it.

Creating a geobase

Create a file named regions_hierarchy.txt. The file must be in TSV tabular format without headers and with the following columns:
- Region ID (UInt32)
- Parent region ID (UInt32)
- Region type (UInt8):
  - 1: Continent
  - 3: Country
  - 4: Federal district
  - 5: Region
  - 6: City
- Population (UInt32): Optional.
To add an alternative hierarchy of regions, create the regions_hierarchy_<suffix>.txt files with the same structure. To use an alternative geobase, pass this suffix when invoking the function. For example:
- regionToCountry(RegionID): Uses the default regions_hierarchy.txt dictionary.
- regionToCountry(RegionID, 'alt'): Uses the dictionary with the alt suffix, regions_hierarchy_alt.txt.
Create a file named regions_names.txt. The file must be in TSV tabular format without headers and with the following columns:
- Region ID (UInt32)
- Region name (String): Cannot contain tab or newline characters, even escaped ones.
To add region names in other languages to your geobase, create the regions_names_<language_code>.txt files with the same structure. For example, you can create regions_names_en.txt for English and regions_names_tr.txt for Turkish.
Create a tar, tar.gz, or zip archive from the geobase files.

Uploading a geobase to Yandex Object Storage

Managed Service for ClickHouse® only works with publicly readable geobases that are uploaded to Yandex Object Storage:

To link your service account to a cluster, assign the iam.serviceAccounts.user role or higher to your Yandex Cloud account.
Upload the geobase archive to Yandex Object Storage.
Connect the service account to the cluster. You will use this service account to configure access to the geobase archive.
Assign the storage.viewer role to the service account.
In the bucket's ACL, add the READ permission to the service account.
Get a link to the geobase archive.

Adding the geobase to the ClickHouse® cluster

Management console

CLI

Terraform

REST API

gRPC API

In the management console, navigate to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
Select the cluster and click Edit in the top panel.
Under DBMS settings, click Settings.
In the Geobase uri field, enter a link to the geobase archive in Yandex Object Storage.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI installed yet, install and initialize it.

By default, the CLI uses the folder specified when creating the profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also set a different folder for any specific command using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To add a geobase:

View the description of the CLI command to update the cluster configuration:
```
yc managed-clickhouse cluster update-config --help
```
Run the command by providing the link to the archive with the connected geobase in the geobase_uri parameter:
```
yc managed-clickhouse cluster update-config <cluster_name_or_ID> \
     --set geobase_uri="<link_to_geobase_archive_in_Object_Storage>"
```
You can request the cluster ID and name with the list of clusters in the folder.

Open the current Terraform configuration file that defines your infrastructure.

For more information about creating this file, see Creating clusters.

In the Managed Service for ClickHouse® cluster settings, add the geobase_uri parameter with the link to the archive containing the geobase to connect in Yandex Object Storage:

resource "yandex_mdb_clickhouse_cluster" "<cluster_name>" {
  ...
  clickhouse {
    config {
      geobase_uri = "<link_to_geobase_archive_in_Object_Storage>"
      ...
    }
  ...
  }
...
}

Make sure the settings are correct.
1. In the command line, navigate to the directory that contains the current Terraform configuration files defining the infrastructure.
2. Run this command:
```
terraform validate
```
  Terraform will show any errors found in your configuration files.
Confirm updating the resources.
1. Run this command to view the planned changes:
```
terraform plan
```
  If you described the configuration correctly, the terminal will display a list of the resources to update and their parameters. This is a verification step that does not apply changes to your resources.
2. If everything looks correct, apply the changes:
  1. Run this command:
```
terraform apply
```
  2. Confirm updating the resources.
  3. Wait for the operation to complete.

For more information, see the Terraform provider documentation.

Time limits

A Terraform provider sets the timeout for Managed Service for ClickHouse® cluster operations:

Creating a cluster, including by restoring one from a backup: 60 minutes.
Editing a cluster: 90 minutes.
Deleting a cluster: 30 minutes.

Operations exceeding the set timeout are interrupted.

How do I change these limits?

Add the timeouts block to the cluster description, for example:

resource "yandex_mdb_clickhouse_cluster" "<cluster_name>" {
  ...
  timeouts {
    create = "1h30m" # 1 hour 30 minutes
    update = "2h"    # 2 hours
    delete = "30m"   # 30 minutes
  }
}

Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:
```
export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
```
Use the Cluster.Update method and send the following request, e.g., via cURL:

Warning

The API method will assign default values to all the parameters of the object you are modifying unless you explicitly provide them in your request. To avoid this, list the settings you want to change in the updateMask parameter as a single comma-separated string.
```
curl \
    --request PATCH \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --url 'https://mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net/managed-clickhouse/v1/clusters/<cluster_ID>' \
    --data '{
              "updateMask": "configSpec.clickhouse.config.geobaseUri",
              "configSpec": {
                "clickhouse": {
                  "config": {
                    "geobaseUri": "<link>"
                  }
                }
              }
            }'
```
Where:
- updateMask: List of parameters to update as a single string, separated by commas.
  
  Here only one parameter is specified: configSpec.clickhouse.config.geobaseUri.
- configSpec.clickhouse.config.geobaseUri: Link to the geobase archive in Object Storage.
You can request the cluster ID with the list of clusters in the folder.
View the server response to make sure the request was successful.

Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:
```
export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
```
Clone the cloudapi repository:
```
cd ~/ && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/yandex-cloud/cloudapi
```
Below, we assume the repository contents are stored in the ~/cloudapi/ directory.

Use the ClusterService.Update call and send the following request, e.g., via gRPCurl:

Warning

The API method will assign default values to all the parameters of the object you are modifying unless you explicitly provide them in your request. To avoid this, list the settings you want to change in the update_mask parameter as an array of paths[] strings.

Format for listing settings

"update_mask": {
    "paths": [
        "<setting_1>",
        "<setting_2>",
        ...
        "<setting_N>"
    ]
}

grpcurl \
    -format json \
    -import-path ~/cloudapi/ \
    -import-path ~/cloudapi/third_party/googleapis/ \
    -proto ~/cloudapi/yandex/cloud/mdb/clickhouse/v1/cluster_service.proto \
    -rpc-header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
    -d '{
          "cluster_id": "<cluster_ID>",
          "update_mask": {
            "paths": [
              "config_spec.clickhouse.config.geobase_uri"
            ]
          },
          "config_spec": {
            "clickhouse": {
              "config": {
                "geobase_uri": "<link>"
              }
            }
          }
        }' \
    mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
    yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.Update

Where:

update_mask: List of parameters to update as an array of paths[] strings.

Here only one parameter is specified: config_spec.clickhouse.config.geobase_uri.
config_spec.clickhouse.config.geobase_uri: Link to the geobase archive in Object Storage.

You can request the cluster ID with the list of clusters in the folder.

View the server response to make sure the request was successful.

Deleting a geobase

Management console

CLI

REST API

gRPC API

In the management console, navigate to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
Select the cluster and click Edit in the top panel.
Under DBMS settings, click Settings.
Delete the value in the Geobase uri field.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI installed yet, install and initialize it.

To delete a geobase:

View the description of the CLI command to update the cluster configuration:
```
yc managed-clickhouse cluster update-config --help
```
Run the command by providing an empty value in the geobase_uri parameter:
```
yc managed-clickhouse cluster update-config <cluster_name_or_ID> \
     --set geobase_uri=""
```
You can request the cluster ID and name with the list of clusters in the folder.

Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:
```
export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
```
Use the Cluster.Update method and send the following request, e.g., via cURL:

Warning

The API method will assign default values to all the parameters of the object you are modifying unless you explicitly provide them in your request. To avoid this, list the settings you want to change in the updateMask parameter as a single comma-separated string.
```
curl \
    --request PATCH \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --url 'https://mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net/managed-clickhouse/v1/clusters/<cluster_ID>' \
    --data '{
              "updateMask": "configSpec.clickhouse.config.geobaseUri",
              "configSpec": {
                "clickhouse": {
                  "config": {
                    "geobaseUri": ""
                  }
                }
              }
            }'
```
Where:
- updateMask: List of parameters to update as a single string, separated by commas.
  
  Here only one parameter is specified: configSpec.clickhouse.config.geobaseUri.
- configSpec.clickhouse.config.geobaseUri: Link to the geobase archive in Object Storage. Set an empty value for this parameter.
You can request the cluster ID with the list of clusters in the folder.
View the server response to make sure the request was successful.

Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:
```
export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
```
Clone the cloudapi repository:
```
cd ~/ && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/yandex-cloud/cloudapi
```
Below, we assume the repository contents are stored in the ~/cloudapi/ directory.

Use the ClusterService.Update call and send the following request, e.g., via gRPCurl:

Warning

Format for listing settings

"update_mask": {
    "paths": [
        "<setting_1>",
        "<setting_2>",
        ...
        "<setting_N>"
    ]
}

grpcurl \
    -format json \
    -import-path ~/cloudapi/ \
    -import-path ~/cloudapi/third_party/googleapis/ \
    -proto ~/cloudapi/yandex/cloud/mdb/clickhouse/v1/cluster_service.proto \
    -rpc-header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
    -d '{
          "cluster_id": "<cluster_ID>",
          "update_mask": {
            "paths": [
              "config_spec.clickhouse.config.geobase_uri"
            ]
          },
          "config_spec": {
            "clickhouse": {
              "config": {
                "geobase_uri": ""
              }
            }
          }
        }' \
    mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
    yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.Update

Where:

update_mask: List of parameters to update as an array of paths[] strings.

Here only one parameter is specified: config_spec.clickhouse.config.geobase_uri.
config_spec.clickhouse.config.geobase_uri: Link to the geobase archive in Object Storage. Set an empty value for this parameter.

You can request the cluster ID with the list of clusters in the folder.

View the server response to make sure the request was successful.

ClickHouse® is a registered trademark of ClickHouse, Inc.

Managing a custom geobase in Managed Service for ClickHouse®

Creating a geobaseCreating a geobase

Uploading a geobase to Yandex Object StorageUploading a geobase to Yandex Object Storage

Adding the geobase to the ClickHouse® clusterAdding the geobase to the ClickHouse® cluster

Deleting a geobaseDeleting a geobase

Was the article helpful?

Creating a geobase

Uploading a geobase to Yandex Object Storage

Adding the geobase to the ClickHouse® cluster

Deleting a geobase