Install ClickHouse

Install ClickHouse and gcloud CLI on GCP VM

In this section you’ll install Google Cloud CLI (gcloud) and ClickHouse on your GCP SUSE Linux Arm64 (Axion C4A) VM. These tools are required to:

• Interact with GCP services such as Pub/Sub and Dataflow
• Store and query real-time analytics data efficiently using ClickHouse on Arm64

Install Google Cloud CLI (gcloud)

The Google Cloud CLI is required to authenticate with GCP, publish Pub/Sub messages, and submit Dataflow jobs from the VM.

Download gcloud SDK (Arm64)

    

        
        
curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-linux-arm.tar.gz

    

Extract and install gcloud

    

        
        
tar -xzf google-cloud-cli-linux-arm.tar.gz
cd google-cloud-sdk
./install.sh

    

Accept the default options during installation.

Initialize gcloud

    

        
        
source ~/.bashrc
gcloud init

    

During initialization:

• Select the correct project (for example: imperial-time-xxxxxx)
• Choose the default region (for example: us-central1)

Verify authentication

    

        
        
gcloud auth list

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        Credentialed Accounts
ACTIVE  ACCOUNT
*       <PROJECT_NUMBER>-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com

        
    

Install required system packages and the ClickHouse repo

Refresh system repositories and install basic utilities needed to download and run ClickHouse.

    

        
        
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper addrepo -r https://packages.clickhouse.com/rpm/clickhouse.repo -g
sudo zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys refresh clickhouse-stable

    

Install ClickHouse via the ClickHouse repo

Download and install ClickHouse for SuSE systems:

    

        
        
sudo zypper install -y clickhouse-server clickhouse-client

    

This installs:

• ClickHouse Server – Runs the core database engine and handles all data storage, queries, and processing.
• ClickHouse Client – Provides a command-line interface to connect to the server and run SQL queries.
• ClickHouse Local – Allows running SQL queries on local files without starting a server.
• Default configuration files (/etc/clickhouse-server) – Stores server settings such as ports, users, storage paths, and performance tuning options.

Verify the installed version

Confirm that all ClickHouse components are installed correctly by checking their versions.

    

        
        
clickhouse --version
clickhouse server --version
clickhouse client --version
clickhouse local --version

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        ClickHouse local version 25.11.2.24 (official build).
ClickHouse server version 25.11.2.24 (official build).
ClickHouse client version 25.11.2.24 (official build).

        
    

Create ClickHouse user and directories

Create a dedicated system user and required directories for data, logs, and runtime files.

    

        
        
sudo useradd -r -s /sbin/nologin clickhouse || true
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/clickhouse
sudo mkdir -p /var/log/clickhouse-server
sudo mkdir -p /var/run/clickhouse-client

    

Set proper ownership so ClickHouse can access these directories.

    

        
        
sudo chown -R clickhouse:clickhouse \
  /var/lib/clickhouse \
  /var/log/clickhouse-server \
  /var/run/clickhouse-client
sudo chmod 755 /var/lib/clickhouse \
  /var/log/clickhouse-server \
  /var/run/clickhouse-client

    

Start ClickHouse Server manually

You can just run the ClickHouse server in the foreground to confirm the configuration is valid.

    

        
        
sudo -u clickhouse clickhouse server --config-file=/etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml

    

Keep this terminal open while testing.

Connect using ClickHouse Client

Open a new SSH terminal and connect to the ClickHouse server.

    

        
        
clickhouse client

    

Run a test query to confirm connectivity.

    

        
        
SELECT version();

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        SELECT version()

Query id: ddd3ff38-c0c6-43c5-8ae1-d9d07af4c372

   ┌─version()───┐
1. │ 25.11.2.24 │
   └─────────────┘

1 row in set. Elapsed: 0.001 sec.

        
    

Please close the client SSH terminal and press “ctrl-c” in the server SSH terminal to halt the manual invocation of ClickHouse. FYI, the server may take a few seconds to close down when “ctrl-c” is received.

Create a systemd service

Set up ClickHouse as a system service so it starts automatically on boot.

    

        
        
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/clickhouse-server.service <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=ClickHouse Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=clickhouse
Group=clickhouse
ExecStart=/usr/bin/clickhouse server --config=/etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
LimitNOFILE=1048576

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

    

Reload systemd and enable the service:

    

        
        
sudo systemctl enable clickhouse-server
sudo systemctl start clickhouse-server
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

    

Verify ClickHouse service

Ensure the ClickHouse server is running correctly as a background service.

    

        
        
sudo systemctl status clickhouse-server

    

This confirms that the ClickHouse server is running correctly under systemd and ready to accept connections.

    

        
        ● clickhouse-server.service - ClickHouse Server
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/clickhouse-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-11-27 05:07:42 UTC; 18s ago
   Main PID: 4229 (ClickHouseWatch)
      Tasks: 814
        CPU: 2.629s
     CGroup: /system.slice/clickhouse-server.service
             ├─ 4229 clickhouse-watchdog server --config=/etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml
             └─ 4237 /usr/bin/clickhouse server --config=/etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml

        
    

Final validation

Reconnect to ClickHouse and confirm it is operational.

    

        
        
clickhouse client

    

    

        
        
SELECT version();

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        SELECT version()

Query id: ddd3ff38-c0c6-43c5-8ae1-d9d07af4c372

   ┌─version()───┐
1. │ 25.12.1.168 │
   └─────────────┘

1 row in set. Elapsed: 0.001 sec.

        
    

ClickHouse and gcloud CLI are now successfully installed, configured, and validated on a GCP Axion (Arm64) VM. The system is ready for Pub/Sub testing and Dataflow ETL in the next phase.