AV-1 Warehouse Release Notes
AWS AV-1 distinction
Starting with release
620.0.18, there is a distinction between the Avalanche architecture for AWS. Please refer to the AWS AV-2 release note for details.
March 11, 2021
The database engine was updated to 6.1.0-20204.
Menu items are moved from logged-in user menu in the upper right corner of the Avalanche console to the Avalanche Help menu in the lower right corner. For more information, see
Access Documentation and Help and
Log Out.
February 8, 2021
The database engine was updated to 6.1.0-20201.
Automatic Partitioning
When creating a partitioned table, the AUTOMATIC partitioning scheme randomly distributes rows evenly among the partitions. AUTOMATIC is an alternative to the HASH partitioning scheme, used in earlier releases, in which rows are distributed evenly among the partitions according to a hash value.
For more information, see
CREATE TABLE and
Partitioned Tables, and
Automatic Partitioning in the
SQL Language Guide.
Desktop Data Loader (Azure Only)
The Avalanche Desktop Data Loader enables you to load table data from UTF-8 delimited text files from your local machine into a running Avalanche Azure warehouse. Loading data in this way creates a new configuration that records basic details that can be used over again. For more information, see the Data Loading Guide.
Documentation Updates
The Avalanche Tutorial is added to the documentation set. The tutorial will help you quickly understand basic tasks and lead you in accomplishing them, including creating a data warehouse, understanding the warehouses console and warehouse details, launching the Query Editor and querying sample data, and deleting the warehouse.
November 20, 2020
Documentation Updates
• The
SQL Language Guide is improved. The Terminal Monitor is now referred to as the
Actian SQL CLI. A new
TRUNCATE TABLE statement was added.
• A new Security Guide was added. It describes security features and includes instructions for defining various types of users and authorizing user access.
As always, to ensure you are seeing the latest doc changes,
clear your browser cache.
October 27, 2020
[Deprecated] WebConnect
WebConnect (formerly JSON Data Loader) has been deprecated and should no longer be used.
October 1, 2020
• Database engine updated to 6.0.0-08802.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements.
Avalanche Warehouse
• Monitoring capability – You can now monitor the warehouse for useful information and get more insights into what is going on, including charting this information for trends. Monitoring is available on both AWS and Azure. You will need to create a new warehouse to access this functionality.
• Security improvements – Actian has integrated with a leading intrusion detection system provider, and each new warehouse now has active monitoring to scan for threats. Actian’s operations team has a central dashboard and advanced reporting to take action when needed.
• Better backup automation – Prevent warehouse shutdown when a backup is in progress.
• Warehouse diagnostic logs support – You can generate diagnostic logs from the web console for the Actian Support team to analyze.
• Submit feedback – You may submit feedback or new ideas directly from the Avalanche web console.
• Open a support case (for Enterprise customers) or ask the community using shortcuts in the UI.
• Improved STAR server setup – STAR server starts up by default now.
• Improved interoperability with a Google Chrome update.
Avalanche Integration Manager
• Macro Manager – Create global macros to share with other users within the same account or create macros for use throughout all of the users’ configurations.
• File Manager – Upload files to your own repository for access throughout your configurations or templates. Upload files at the account level to share with other users as well.
• Language sensitivity updates throughout application.
• Create Template Wizard.
• Create Configuration Wizard improvements.
• Configuration or Template Files section – Ability to link files from the main file manager to use in executions.
• Ability to set a Run Location on a Configuration.
• Raw log viewer – Ability to view the unformatted contents of a job log and copy its contents directly to the clipboard.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements.
June 18, 2020
• Query History support for the Query Editor
• Improved connection reliability to Azure warehouses on startup
June 11, 2020
• External table enhancements – Support for predicate pushdown on external tables. During query execution, data is filtered as close to the source as possible to avoid loading unnecessary data into memory. This is limited by the ability of the external data source to support the filter used. See
Using External Tables.
• Workload management:
“Workload management provides the capability of effectively controlling, managing, and monitoring a work flow across computing systems. Workload management in database management systems (DBMSs) is the process or act of monitoring and controlling work (i.e., requests) executing on a database system in order to make efficient use of system resources in addition to achieving any performance objectives assigned to that work.” (
https://www.computer.org/csdl/journal/tk/2018/07/08086184/13rRUxAAT89)
Currently, workload management within Avalanche enables the ability to limit user activities to help control workloads and better manage performance within the database. For example, a user can set a limit to not return more than 10,000 rows of data to a specific user or group, thus enabling better management of database resources.
The following features help to manage workload of the database:
– Control the access mode for the database – You can disallow insert, update, delete, truncate, copy, and DDL operations using the GRANT READONLY statement.
– Limit row count – The database privilege QUERY_ROW_LIMIT n can be granted to a role, user, group, or public to limit the number of rows returned in a query. This can be set at the session level using SET ACTUAL MAXROW n.
– Abort queries based on defined limits – The database privilege QUERY_ROW_STEP_LIMIT n can be granted to a role, user, group, or public to specify the number of rows an individual query step is allowed to return before the query is canceled. This can be set at session level using SET MAXROWSTEP n.
For details, see the SQL Language Guide.
May 2020
• Database engine updated to 6.0.0-17219.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
• Released Avalanche Elastic Scaling feature for Microsoft Azure warehouses
April 2020
• Database engine updated to 6.0.0-17216
• Miscellaneous bug fixes
• Redesigned the web console with multi-cloud warehouse management for both AWS and Azure
• Improved warehouse startup time in certain situations involving large transactions