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Create a cluster

Weaviate Cloud Services (WCS) provides two instance types.

  • Sandbox clusters. Sandbox clusters are small, free clusters designed for learning and experimentation. Sandbox clusters not scalable and expire after 14 days.
  • Managed clusters. Managed clusters are robust, paid clusters designed for production use. Manage clusters scale to meet your needs and don't expire.

Create a cluster​

To create a cluster, click the 'Create cluster' button on the WCS Dashboard page.

Create a cluster

Follow the steps to create a cluster:

Sandbox clusters​

To create a sandbox cluster, follow these steps:

  1. Select the "Free sandbox" tab.
  2. Give your cluster a name. WCS adds a random suffix to sandbox cluster names to ensure uniqueness.
  3. Verify that "Enable Authentication?" is set to "Yes".
  4. Click create.

It takes a minute or two to create the new cluster. When the cluster is ready, WCS displays a check mark (✔️) next to the cluster name.

Managed clusters​

Managed clusters require billing details. WCS prompts you to add billing details if you have not already added them.

To create a managed cluster, follow these steps:

  1. Select the "Managed cluster" tab.
  2. Give your cluster a name.
  3. Select a region.
  4. Accept the terms and conditions.
  5. Click create.

It takes a minute or two to create the new cluster. When the cluster is ready, WCS displays a check mark (✔️) next to the cluster name.

Authentication​

By default, API keys are enabled for all WCS clusters. Managed clusters have an administrator key and a read-only key. Sandbox clusters only have an administrator key.

When you develop your client application, use an API key to connect your client to the cluster. For more details, see authentication.

To get API keys, click the API keys button.

Details expanded

Weaviate core version​

When you provision a new cluster, WCS uses the current version of Weaviate core to set up the new cluster. There may be a short delay between the release of a new Weaviate core version and its availability in WCS.

WCS does not automatically update existing clusters when a new version of Weaviate core is released.

For more details on WCS versioning, see Cluster server version.

Support​

For questions and support, try the following resources:

Weaviate also offers paid support services. If you have a contract with Weaviate, contact your sales representative for details.