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Yandex Managed Service for ClickHouse®
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      • Managing shards
      • Managing shard groups
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In this article:

  • Listing shard groups in a cluster
  • Viewing detailed information about a shard group
  • Creating a shard group
  • Changing a shard group
  • Deleting a group of shards
  1. Step-by-step guides
  2. Sharding
  3. Managing shard groups

Managing shards in a ClickHouse® cluster

Written by
Yandex Cloud
Updated at May 13, 2025
  • Listing shard groups in a cluster
  • Viewing detailed information about a shard group
  • Creating a shard group
  • Changing a shard group
  • Deleting a group of shards

You can group several shards of a ClickHouse® cluster in a shard group and save tables in this group.

Listing shard groups in a clusterListing shard groups in a cluster

Management console
CLI
REST API
gRPC API
  1. In the management console, go to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
  2. Click the cluster name and open the Shard groups tab.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To get a list of shard groups in a cluster, run the command:

yc managed-clickhouse shard-groups list \
   --cluster-name=<cluster_name>

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. Use the Cluster.ListShardGroups method and send the following request, e.g., via cURL:

    curl \
      --request GET \
      --header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
      --url 'https://mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net/managed-clickhouse/v1/clusters/<cluster_ID>/shardGroups'
    

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

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. 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.

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

    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>"
          }' \
      mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
      yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.ListShardGroups
    

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

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

Viewing detailed information about a shard groupViewing detailed information about a shard group

Management console
CLI
REST API
gRPC API
  1. In the management console, go to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
  2. Click the cluster name and open the Shard groups tab.
  3. Select a shard group to view detailed information.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To view detailed information about a shard group in a cluster, run the command:

yc managed-clickhouse shard-groups get \
  --cluster-name=<cluster_name> \
  --name=<shard_group_name>

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. Use the Cluster.GetShardGroup method and send the following request, e.g., via cURL:

    curl \
      --request GET \
      --header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
      --url 'https://mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net/managed-clickhouse/v1/clusters/<cluster_ID>/shardGroups/<shard_group_name>'
    

    You can request the cluster ID with a list of clusters in the folder and the shard group name with a list of groups in the cluster.

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. 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.

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

    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>",
            "shard_group_name": "<shard_group_name>"
          }' \
      mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
      yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.GetShardGroup
    

    You can request the cluster ID with a list of clusters in the folder and the shard group name with a list of groups in the cluster.

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

Creating a shard groupCreating a shard group

Management console
CLI
Terraform
REST API
gRPC API
  1. In the management console, go to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
  2. Click the cluster name and open the Shard groups tab.
  3. Click Create shard group.
  4. Fill in the form fields and click Apply.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To create a shard group in a cluster, run the command:

yc managed-clickhouse shard-groups create \
  --cluster-name=<cluster_name> \
  --name=<shard_group_name> \
  --description=<shard_group_description> \
  --shards=<list_of_shard_names>

Where --shards is the list of list of shard names to include in the group.

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

You can request a shard name with a list of shards in the cluster.

  1. Open the current Terraform configuration file with an infrastructure plan.

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

  2. Add the shard_group description section to the Managed Service for ClickHouse® cluster description.

    resource "yandex_mdb_clickhouse_cluster" "<cluster_name>" {
      ...
      shard_group {
        name        = "<shard_group_name>"
        description = "<optional_shard_group_description>"
        shard_names = [
          # List of shards in the group
          "<shard_1_name>",
          ...
          "<shard_N_name>"
        ]
      }
    }
    
  3. 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.

  4. 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
  }
}
  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. Use the Cluster.CreateShardGroup method and send the following request, e.g., via cURL:

    curl \
      --request POST \
      --header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --url 'https://mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net/managed-clickhouse/v1/clusters/<cluster_ID>/shardGroups' \
      --data '{
                "shardGroupName": "<shard_group_name>",
                "description": "<shard_group_description>",
                "shardNames": [
                  "<shard_1>", "<shard_2>", ... "<shard_N>"
                ]
              }'
    

    Where:

    • shardGroupName: Shard group name.
    • description: Shard group description.
    • shardNames: List of shards to include into the new group.

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

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. 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.

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

    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>",
              "shard_group_name": "<shard_group_name>",
              "description": "<shard_group_description>",
              "shard_names": [
                "<shard_1>", "<shard_2>", ... "<shard_N>"
              ]
            }' \
        mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
        yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.CreateShardGroup
    

    Where:

    • shard_group_name: Shard group name.
    • description: Shard group description.
    • shard_names: List of shards to include into the new group.

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

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

Changing a shard groupChanging a shard group

Management console
CLI
Terraform
REST API
gRPC API
  1. In the management console, go to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
  2. Click the cluster name and open the Shard groups tab.
  3. Click for the shard group you need and select Edit.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To change a shard group in a cluster, run the command:

yc managed-clickhouse shard-groups update \
  --cluster-name=<cluster_name> \
  --name=<shard_group_name> \
  --description=<new_description_for_shard_group> \
  --shards=<new_list_of_shard_names>

Where --shards is the new list of shard names to include in the group.

This command replaces the existing list of shards in the group with the new one provided in the --shards parameter. Before running the command, make sure that you have added all the required shards to the new list.

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

You can request the name of the shard group with a list of shard groups in the cluster.

You can request a shard name with a list of shards in the cluster.

  1. Open the current Terraform configuration file with an infrastructure plan.

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

  2. In the Managed Service for ClickHouse® cluster description, change the shard_group section to include the required shard group:

    resource "yandex_mdb_clickhouse_cluster" "<cluster_name>" {
      ...
      shard_group {
        name        = "<new_name_for_shard_group>"
        description = "<new_description_for_shard_group>"
        shard_names = [
          # New list of shards in the group
          "<shard_1_name>",
          ...
          "<shard_N_name>"
        ]
      }
    }
    
  3. 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.

  4. 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
  }
}
  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. Use the Cluster.updateShardGroup 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>/shardGroups/<shard_group_name>' \
      --data '{
                "updateMask": "description,shardNames",
                "description": "<shard_group_description>",
                "shardNames": [
                  "<shard_1>", "<shard_2>", ... "<shard_N>"
                ]
              }'
    

    Where:

    • updateMask: List of parameters to update as a single string, separated by commas.
    • description: New description of the shard group.
    • shardNames: New list of shards to include in the group. To learn shard names, get a list of shards in the cluster. This list will replace the current one, so make sure you have added all the required shards to the new list.

    You can request the cluster ID with a list of clusters in the folder and the shard group name with a list of groups in the cluster.

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. 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.

  3. Use the ClusterService.UpdateShardGroup 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>",
            "shard_group_name": "<shard_group_name>",
            "update_mask": {
              "paths": [
                "description", "shard_names"
              ]
            },
            "description": "<shard_group_description>",
            "shard_names": [
              "<shard_1>", "<shard_2>", ... "<shard_N>"
            ]
          }' \
      mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
      yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.UpdateShardGroup
    

    Where:

    • update_mask: List of parameters to update as an array of paths[] strings.
    • description: New description of the shard group.
    • shard_names: New list of shards to include in the group. To learn shard names, get a list of shards in the cluster. This list will replace the current one, so make sure you have added all the required shards to the new list.

    You can request the cluster ID with a list of clusters in the folder and the shard group name with a list of groups in the cluster.

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

Deleting a group of shardsDeleting a group of shards

Deleting a group of shards doesn't affect the shards in the group: they are kept in the cluster.

Tables created on the deleted group are kept, but they are disabled and attempts to query them result in errors. However, you can delete these tables before or after you delete the shard group.

Management console
CLI
Terraform
REST API
gRPC API
  1. In the management console, go to the folder page and select Managed Service for ClickHouse.
  2. Click the cluster name and open the Shard groups tab.
  3. Click for the shard group you need and select Delete.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To delete a shard group in a cluster, run the command:

yc managed-clickhouse shard-groups delete \
   --cluster-name=<cluster_name> \
   --name=<shard_group_name>

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

You can request the name of the shard group with a list of shard groups in the cluster.

  1. Open the current Terraform configuration file with an infrastructure plan.

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

  2. Delete the shard_group description section for the appropriate group from the Managed Service for ClickHouse® cluster description.

  3. 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.

  4. Type yes and press Enter.

    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
  }
}
  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. Use the Cluster.DeleteShardGroup method and send the following request, e.g., via cURL:

    curl \
      --request DELETE \
      --header "Authorization: Bearer $IAM_TOKEN" \
      --url 'https://mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net/managed-clickhouse/v1/clusters/<cluster_ID>/shardGroups/<shard_group_name>'
    

    You can request the cluster ID with a list of clusters in the folder and the shard group name with a list of groups in the cluster.

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

  1. Get an IAM token for API authentication and put it into the environment variable:

    export IAM_TOKEN="<IAM_token>"
    
  2. 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.

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

    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>",
            "shard_group_name": "<shard_group_name>"
          }' \
      mdb.api.cloud.yandex.net:443 \
      yandex.cloud.mdb.clickhouse.v1.ClusterService.DeleteShardGroup
    

    You can request the cluster ID with a list of clusters in the folder and the shard group name with a list of groups in the cluster.

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

ClickHouse® is a registered trademark of ClickHouse, Inc.

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