Manually Scale Clusters and Frontend Groups

Use manual scaling to make a one-time change to a cluster's compute or cache capacity as workload requirements change.

Warning:

• Scaling can temporarily interrupt connections and delay requests.
• Scaling in compute can reduce cache capacity, but not below the minimum for the target compute size. If cache capacity decreases, cached data beyond the new capacity is removed, which can affect request response times.

Choose what to scale

Choose the resource to scale based on your workload and capacity requirements:

You need	Action	Behavior and limits
More query concurrency or compute capacity	Scale out Compute.	Increase on-demand resources.
Lower compute cost after traffic drops	Scale in on-demand Compute.	On-demand compute supports scale-in.
More room for hot data without more vCPU	Scale out Cache separately.	Separate cache scale-in is not supported.
A lower cache capacity	Scale in on-demand Compute.	Cache capacity can decrease, subject to the minimum cache capacity for the target compute size.

Understand cache changes

By default, target cache capacity changes in proportion to compute resources. The current scaling drawer shows the target compute and cache configuration before you submit the change.

When you scale out cache separately, compute capacity does not change. Review all displayed target values before you confirm the change.

Before you scale

• You need permission to manage compute resources in the warehouse.
• The cluster must be Running, and the warehouse must not be in the Creating state.
• If Scaling is unavailable, point to it to view the reason.
• Disable AutoScaling before you perform manual scaling.
• If a time-based policy is enabled, the manual-scaling panel prompts you to disable it before scaling.
• Review the estimated cost for the target configuration before you confirm a change.
• If Cache is unavailable, point to it to view the reason. If the tooltip indicates a waiting period after a recent scaling operation, retry after that period ends.

Scale on-demand compute or cache

1. Log in to the VeloDB Cloud console.
2. In the upper-left corner, select the warehouse that contains the cluster.
3. In the left navigation pane, under Compute, click Clusters.
4. Click Physical Clusters.
5. Click Card, then select the running cluster to display its details panel.
6. Click Scaling.
7. If a resource menu opens, select On-Demand (Hourly).
8. In Elastic Scaling, under Scaling Strategy, select Manual Scaling.
9. Under Scaling Configuration, select Compute or Cache.
10. Under Target Configuration, select the target capacity.
11. Review the estimated cost for the target configuration.
12. Click Confirm.
13. In the confirmation dialog, review the cost and service impact, and then click Confirm.

The console confirms that the scaling request was submitted. The cluster status changes to Scaling and returns to Running when the operation finishes. Verify the new compute and cache values in the cluster details panel.

Scale Frontend Groups

Frontend (FE) nodes handle query parsing, planning, and metadata management for a warehouse. Use Frontend Groups to view the warehouse's FE resource group and scale it when high shard counts or high concurrent query volume create an FE bottleneck.

This section describes scaling the default FE group, identified by the Default label. The specifications and free baseline described here apply to this group.

Note:

• Scaling the default FE group changes FE resources only. It does not change a physical cluster's compute or cache capacity.
• To enable FE group expansion for a warehouse, contact VeloDB Cloud Support. When enabled, Frontend Groups appears under Compute in the VeloDB Cloud console.

Before you begin

• You need permission to manage compute resources in the warehouse.
• The default FE group must be Running, and the warehouse must not be in the Creating state.
• If Scale Out/In is unavailable, check the tooltip for the reason.

FE resource specifications

Each warehouse is provisioned with a default Small FE group at no charge. You can scale up to larger specifications when needed. Scaling above Small is billed as Fe Compute, charged per vCPU at the Cluster Compute rate.

The free baseline covers VeloDB Cloud FE compute charges. For BYOC warehouses, cloud resource charges still apply.

Specification	Compute per node	Pricing
Small	4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM	Free
Medium	8 vCPU, 32 GB RAM	Billed by vCPU-hour
Large	16 vCPU, 64 GB RAM	Billed by vCPU-hour
XLarge	32 vCPU, 128 GB RAM	Billed by vCPU-hour

View a Frontend Group

1. Log in to the VeloDB Cloud console.
2. In the upper-left corner, select the warehouse.
3. In the left navigation pane, under Compute, click Frontend Groups.
4. Click the group labeled Default to open its details page.

The group card shows its compute specification, node count, and creation time. The details page shows Frontend Group ID, Frontend Group Name, Created At, Started At, Running Time, and On-Demand Resources. For warehouses on AWS, it also shows CPU Architecture.

Scale a Frontend Group

Scaling back to Small stops new Fe Compute charges for the default FE group.

1. On the Frontend Groups page, click the group labeled Default to open its details page.
2. Click Scale Out/In.
3. In Scaling Configuration, review Current Configuration.
4. Under Target Configuration, select the target Compute specification.
5. Review the estimated cost, if displayed, then click Confirm.
6. In the confirmation prompt, review the impact and click Confirm.

After scaling completes, the warehouse uses the selected FE specification.

Billing

After you scale above Small, use Billing Statements to review Fe Compute usage and charges.

1. In the left navigation pane, click Billing.
2. Click Billing Statements.
3. On the Summary tab, select Monthly, Daily, or Hourly granularity and select the time range. The summary shows the billing status, pretax discounted amount, deduction amounts, and outstanding balance.
4. On the Details tab, select Monthly, Daily, or Hourly granularity and select the time range.
5. Find rows where Component is Fe Compute.
6. To download the statement, click Export on either tab.

The details table uses UTC (UTC + 0) for Start Time and End Time and includes the following fields:

Column	Description
Warehouse ID	The warehouse that incurred the charge.
Cluster ID	The cluster that incurred the charge, when applicable.
Cluster Name	The cluster name, when applicable.
Component	The billed resource, such as Fe Compute, Cluster Compute, Cluster Cache, or Storage.
Billing Method	The billing method, such as On-Demand.
Usage	The measured usage, such as vCPU-Hour or GB-Hour.
Pretax Gross Amount	The amount before discounts and deductions.
Discount Amount	The discount applied to the gross amount.
Pretax Discounted Amount	The amount after discounts and before deductions.
Outstanding Balance	The remaining amount due after deductions.

See also

• Review scaling strategies to choose the right approach for the workload.
• Auto Scaling for dynamic workload changes.
• Time-Based Scaling when workload peaks follow a fixed schedule.