update Alibaba Cloud Hologres result

[jiahuizz]

Like the previous submission, deployment outside Alibaba Cloud is not supported. Performance verification therefore requires access to a Hologres instance on Alibaba Cloud. We apologize for this limitation. The testing methodology is documented in README.md, and we are happy to provide vouchers to assist with validation.
We are submitting updated results in this version due to the release of a new system iteration that includes several optimizations.

[TimothyDing]

@rschu1ze Could you help us to review it?

[jiahuizz]

Sorry for the confusion — I think there might have been a misunderstanding. This is actually a submission for ClickBench, and the JSONBench submissions are in a different repository. Would it be convenient for you to take a look at this ClickBench submission first?

[wangmj17]

Sorry for the delay, I got a bit sidetracked.

This PR represents the first non-on-premise aka. the first cloud entry for JSONBench. Looking at the current dashboard, all entries run on the same hardware (i.e. there is no hardware dimension in the selector on top). This is different from the ClickBench dashboard which has a "machine" selector. So we either add a machine selector (I can do that) or another toggle "on-premise" vs. "cloud" to make clear that not all systems run on equally sized hardware.

Hi, thank you for the reply! I am the committer for JSONBench result of Hologres. We think it is better to add a toggle "on-premise" vs. "cloud". If you think "machine selector" is better, it is also ok with us.

[jiahuizz]

Would you be available to review this PR when you get a moment? Thanks so much in advance! @rschu1ze

[alexey-milovidov]

I confirmed with @rschu1ze that he will review this PR as soon as possible.

PS. This is a PR to ClickBench, not JSONBench.

[rschu1ze]

After trying for almost 20 minutes, I managed to create a Alibaba Cloud account.

(Side note: I had to provide my mobile phone number to continue. I have about 30 online accounts in my password manager and not a single on of them needed my phone number.)

I then tried to create a Hologres account. The page asks me for a "Specification". I could not find anywhere whether I should choose "Compute-group type" or "General purpose". What specification did you use in this ClickBench submission? Please add to the README.md file.

Another question: "Zone J" and "Zone K" refer to geographical zones and there is no performance difference between them, right?

The page also asks about the number of "Gateway nodes" (--> next screenshot). Does that mean the number of "CU"s in the JSON result files in this PR or is it something different? Asking because the "CU" could also be the "Reserved Computing Resources of Virtual Warehouse" in the screenshot and it is ambiguous which values to choose for both.

The same page also asks about "Enabling Serverless computing" (--> next screenshot) and that this option is free. Should I turn this on, or keep it off? (please also document in the Readme.md)

I should specify a VPC and a "vSwitch" (<-- what does that mean?). There is a dialog to create them but I would appreciate an idiot-level guide to do so.

The bottom of the page presents a pricing proposal (next screenshot).

Not sure if that is a UI bug but it says 105 US-Dollar per CU (and for experimentation, I selected 2000 CUs). Does that mean if I click "Buy", that 2000 x 105 = ca. 210000 USD will be charged from my (private!) credit card?

[jiahuizz]

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. Below is a detailed step-by-step guide to help you set up the Alibaba Cloud Hologres instance and run the benchmark successfully.

1. Create an Alibaba Cloud Account and Provide Your UID

Please first create an Alibaba Cloud account. After registration, kindly provide us with your UID (Account ID), which you can find by:

• Clicking on your profile icon in the top-right corner → Account Center
  We will issue you an Alibaba Cloud coupon to support your testing, so please share your UID with us.

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2. Purchase an Alibaba Cloud Hologres Instance

When creating the Hologres instance, please use the following configuration:

• Region: China (Beijing)
  (The new version is in gray-scale release in China (Beijing). Choosing this region ensures you can access the latest features)
• Specifications: ✅ Compute Group Type
• Zone: Zone L
• Gateway Nodes: 2 Pieces
• Reserved Computing Resources of Virtual Warehouse: 128 CU
  (This is the actual compute unit (CU) value used in the JSON result files.)
• Allocate to Initial Virtual Warehouse: Yes
• Enable Serverless Computing: ✅ True (Enabled)
• Storage Redundancy Type: LRS
• VPC & vSwitch:
  • You need to create a new VPC.
    • Region: China (Beijing)
    • Name: Any name you prefer
    • IPv4 CIDR Block: Select "Manually enter" and use one of the recommended values
    • IPv6 CIDR Block: Do Not Assign
  • During VPC creation, you’ll also create a vSwitch:
    • Name: Any name
    • Zone: Beijing Zone L
    • IPv4 CIDR: Automatically filled based on VPC CIDR

  💡 A VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) is a private network in the cloud. The vSwitch is a subnet within the VPC. We need both Hologres and ECS instances in the same VPC for fast internal communication.

• Instance Name: Choose any name
• Service-linked Role: Click Create

Once everything is configured and you’ve received the coupon, click Buy Now to proceed.

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3. Purchase an ECS Instance (as Client Machine)

This ECS instance acts as a client to download data, run queries, and load data into Hologres.

• Billing Method: Pay-as-you-go (you can release it after testing)
• Region: China (Beijing)
• Network & Security Group:
  • VPC: Select the one you just created
  • vSwitch: Automatically populated
• Instance Type:
  • Series: Compute Optimized c9i
  • Instance: ecs.c9i.4xlarge (16 vCPUs, 32 GiB RAM)
    (This is not performance-critical — it only runs the client script.)
• Image:
  • Alibaba Cloud Linux → Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit
• System Disk:
  • Size: 2048 GiB
  • Performance: PL3
    (Larger and faster disk improves import speed since we’re loading ~70GB of TSV data. IO on the ECS can be a bottleneck.)
• Public IP Address: ✅ Assign Public IPv4 Address
• Management Settings:
  • Logon Credential: Custom Password
  • Username: root
  • Set a secure password

Click Create Order to launch the instance.

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4. Connect to the ECS and Run the Benchmark

After the ECS instance is ready:

1. SSH into the ECS instance.

2. Install Git and clone the repo:

   yum -y install git
   git clone https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickBench.git
   cd ClickBench/hologres

3. Run the benchmark script:

   ./benchmark.sh <AccessKeyID> <AccessKeySecret> <Host> <Port>

   • AccessKeyID & AccessKeySecret:
     Go to the Alibaba Cloud Console → Profile Icon → AccessKey → Create one if needed.
   • Host & Port:
     In the Hologres console, click your instance ID → Copy the VPC Endpoint (e.g., hgxxx-cn-beijing-vpc.hologres.aliyuncs.com:xxxx).
     • Host = domain without port (e.g., hgxxx-cn-beijing-vpc.hologres.aliyuncs.com)
     • Port = the number after :

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That’s it! You’re all set to run the benchmark.
Let us know if you encounter any issues — we’re happy to help. Also, we’ll update the README.md shortly with these instructions for future users.

Thank you again for your valuable feedback!