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Quickstart ​

Get from a new account to a running cluster in your own AWS infrastructure. This guide has four stages:

  1. Finish signup
  2. Connect your AWS account
  3. Create a network
  4. Provision a cluster

Budget 10 to 15 minutes, plus 15 to 25 minutes of background provisioning in AWS.

Before you begin ​

You'll need:

  • An AWS account where you can deploy a CloudFormation stack (i.e. permission to create IAM roles).
  • The AWS region you want to run workloads in.

1. Finish signup ​

Signup has three steps, shown as a progress indicator at the top of the page.

  1. Set up your organization. Enter a workspace name. This becomes your LakeSail organization. You can add teammates later.
  2. Create your account. Fill in your email, password, and name.
  3. Verify your email. LakeSail sends a verification link to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm.
  4. (Optional) Set up 2FA. If your organization requires two-factor authentication, scan the QR code with an authenticator app and enter the 6-digit code. See MFA for enrollment and recovery details.

Once verified, you land in the LakeSail console and can connect infrastructure.

2. Connect your AWS account ​

LakeSail provisions clusters inside your own AWS account using a cross-account IAM role deployed via CloudFormation. Credentials never leave AWS. LakeSail only holds the role ARN and assumes it on demand. Before approving the connection, your security team can review what the role grants, and what LakeSail can and cannot do, in Security & IAM.

  1. In the sidebar, open Settings → Cloud Accounts.
  2. Click Connect AWS account. The Add AWS Account modal opens.
  3. Click Launch Stack on AWS. A new tab opens AWS CloudFormation with the LakeSail trust stack pre-filled. Review and create the stack.
  4. Wait for the stack status to reach CREATE_COMPLETE. Open the stack's Outputs tab and copy the Role ARN value.
  5. Back in LakeSail, paste the ARN into IAM Role ARN. Optionally set an Account alias to help identify this account later.
  6. Click Verify Connection. LakeSail assumes the role to confirm it's wired up correctly.
  7. When verification succeeds, click Save & Setup Network to continue straight to the next step.

Prefer to deploy manually?

Expand the Advanced section in the modal and click Download Template to apply the CloudFormation template through the AWS Console, CLI, or an IaC tool. Paste the resulting role ARN back into LakeSail and verify as usual.

3. Create a network ​

A network is a VPC that LakeSail provisions in your connected AWS account. Clusters run inside this VPC.

  1. Open Settings → Cloud Networks (or continue from step 2's Save & Setup Network).
  2. Click Create network.
  3. Fill in:
    • Name, e.g. production-network.
    • Cloud Account: the one you connected in step 2.
    • Region: where the VPC should live.
    • IPv4 CIDR Range, e.g. 10.0.0.0/16. Must not overlap the LakeSail platform VPC CIDR or any VPC you intend to peer with.
  4. Click Create Network. The network moves through Creating → Provisioning → Active as LakeSail deploys the VPC, subnets, and security groups (typically a few minutes).

When provisioning completes, click Create Cluster to continue.

4. Provision a cluster ​

With an account and network in place, you can create your first cluster.

  1. Open Clusters in the sidebar.
  2. Click Create cluster. The Create External Cluster modal opens.
  3. Fill in:
    • Network: the one you just created. The cluster inherits its cloud account and region.
    • Cluster Name, e.g. my-first-cluster.
    • Management Node Size: accept the default m8g.large. This is a small ARM-based instance that's sufficient to run the cluster's control plane for evaluation.
    • Min / Desired / Max Management Nodes: accept the defaults 1 / 2 / 3. Two nodes give you basic high availability; the autoscaler can add a third under load.
    • Disk Size (GB): accept the default 100.
    • Allowed IPs List: leave empty for private-only access. You can add CIDRs later if you need to reach the cluster endpoint from outside the VPC.
  4. Click Create Cluster.

LakeSail walks through the provisioning stages (preparing, deploying to AWS, and waiting for system readiness) with a live progress bar. Provisioning typically takes 15 to 25 minutes, and the progress bar may remain on a single stage for an extended period. When you see Cluster Ready, the cluster is up and can accept queries and jobs.

Compute vs. management nodes

The sizes above configure management (system) nodes only. Compute nodes for your jobs and queries are selected per-workload, so you don't need to over-provision here.

API reference ​

Every step in this guide can be done programmatically:

Next steps ​

Can't find the answer here? Email us: support@lakesail.com