ClickHouse Requirements#
ClickHouse serves as the next-generation analytics database for Critical Manufacturing MES, storing Operational Data Store (ODS), Canonical Data Model (CDM), and Data Warehouse (DWH) information in a high-performance columnar format.
Critical Manufacturing has pioneered the adoption of ClickHouse in manufacturing environments, leveraging technology typically used in telecommunications and banking sectors. Its columnar storage architecture makes it ideal for analytics workloads and high-cardinality data scenarios.
Learn More
For additional background on Critical Manufacturing adoption of ClickHouse, see Modernizing MES Data Analytics: A ClickHouse Journey ⧉ post on the Developer Blog.
Its usage encompasses the following use cases:
-
Analytics Platform
- ODS Storage - Operational Data Store containing replicated MES transactional data.
- CDM Implementation - Canonical Data Model for standardized data representation.
- DWH Capabilities - Data Warehouse analytics and reporting functionality.
- KPI Calculations - High-performance metrics including OEE, Rate Efficiency, and Performance Efficiency.
-
Online Database Functions
- E142 Map Storage - Used to store semiconductor equipment interface mapping data.
-
Future Applications
- High-Cardinality Scenarios - Potential future use for specialized online high-cardinality data requirements (as E142 maps).
- AI/ML Integration - Exploring use cases for storing vector embeddings to support RAG and LLM.
Minimum System Requirements#
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Version | 24.3 |
| Memory | 16GB |
| CPU | 4vCPUs |
| Disk space | 1TB |
Table: Minimum system requirements for ClickHouse
Recommended System Requirements#
To support the calculation of Rate Efficiency, Performance Efficiency, and OEE KPIs, it is necessary to update to ClickHouse version 25.3.
| Item | Requirement MES ≤ 11.1.4 | Requirement MES ≥ 11.1.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Version | 24.8 | 25.3 |
| Memory | 32GB | 32GB |
| CPU | 8vCPUs | 8vCPUs |
| Disk space | 3TB | 3TB |
Table: Recommended system requirements for ClickHouse
Mandatory ClickHouse Settings
-
Cloud Upgrades: When upgrading from MES versions earlier than 11.0.0 to 11.0.0 or later, and migrating from an in-stack ClickHouse deployment to an external ClickHouse Cloud setup, the
allow_materialized_view_with_bad_selectsetting must be configured before starting the upgrade. For more information, see ClickHouse Migration ⧉. -
Correct ODS Behavior: In ClickHouse, when the
do_not_merge_across_partitions_select_finalsetting is set to1, merging across partitions may cause data duplication when querying ODS state tables (for example,CoreDataModel_T_Material). ClickHouse 25.3 sets this value to0by default; however, some operators may have manually overridden it to1. To ensure correct behavior, this setting must always remain set to0. Starting from MES version 11.2.3, the system automatically enforces this configuration.
Access Control Lists (ACLs)#
The MES system user must have the following permissions to function properly:
- SELECT - Read data from tables
- INSERT - Write data into tables
- ALTER - Modify table schema
- DROP - Delete databases (during setup) or tables
- SHOW - View metadata
- CREATE - Create databases (during setup) or tables
Database Setup and Migration
During initial setup and version upgrades, the MES installation process requires elevated permissions to create or modify database schemas. Ensure these permissions are granted before installation or upgrade procedures.