---
title: "Provision an Aerospike Cloud database cluster"
description: "Guide on provisioning an Aerospike Cloud database cluster using the management console or Cloud APIs."
---

# Provision an Aerospike Cloud database cluster

> For the complete documentation index see: [llms.txt](https://aerospike.com/docs/llms.txt)
> 
> All documentation pages available in markdown.

You can provision Aerospike Cloud database clusters through the Cloud console or with the Cloud APIs. This guide includes the steps for doing both.

## Prerequisites

-   You have already set up an Aerospike Cloud account
-   Your Aerospike Cloud account has been granted node entitlements by Aerospike

::: about node entitlements
Node entitlements control the maximum number of Aerospike Cloud database nodes your account can provision.

New Aerospike Cloud accounts start with **0 node entitlements**. To provision or launch clusters, Aerospike must grant node entitlements to your account. See [Entitlements](https://aerospike.com/docs/cloud/manage/entitlements).
:::

## Provision a cluster

-   [Console](#tab-panel-2046)
-   [API](#tab-panel-2047)

1.  Navigate to the clusters page.
    
    Click **Provision cluster**.
    
2.  Follow the prompts. Choose the options that suit your needs.
    
    If a region or instance type you need is unavailable reach out to support or your Sales Engineer.
    
    ::: note
    Strong Consistency (SC) is only available with **Hybrid memory**.
    :::
    
3.  Choose instance size.
    
    Here you can choose which cloud instance type should provide the underlying infrastructure for your Aerospike database cluster.
    
    ::: note
    You may select instance types with disk space for in-memory only Aerospike database clusters but the disks will not be utilized.
    
    You may not choose instance type without disk storage space for a local-disk storage Aerospike database cluster.
    :::
    
4.  Advanced configuration.
    
    You can skip this step during the quickstart, since all necessary fields will be populated for you. If you want to learn more about [Advanced configuration](https://aerospike.com/docs/cloud/manage/advanced-config) check out this guide.
    
5.  Review and launch
    
    Finalize your selections match what you want and launch the cluster.
    

1.  Create a Cloud API key and retrieve a bearer token. See [Using Cloud APIs](https://aerospike.com/docs/cloud/manage-apis/cloud-api-use) for how to create a key to use with the API.
    
2.  Make a POST request with a database spec. Example:
    
    Terminal window
    
    ```bash
    curl -X POST "https://api.aerospike.com/v1/database/clusters" \
    
        -H "Authorization: Bearer <BEARER_TOKEN>" \
    
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    
        --data '{"name":"my-first-cluster","infrastructure":{"provider":"aws","instanceType":"i4i.large","region":"us-east-1","availabilityZoneCount":2},"aerospikeCloud":{"clusterSize":2,"dataStorage":"memory"},"aerospikeServer":{"namespaces":[{"name":"test"}]}}'
    ```
    

::: notes
-   Aerospike Cloud provisions new cloud infrastructure for every database cluster. The time it takes to create that infrastructure varies by cloud provider and resource type. It takes about 20 minutes to fully provision a new database cluster, with some variation by region and specific configuration.
-   During provisioning time, you can create your first [database user](https://aerospike.com/docs/cloud/manage/database-users) or configure your [VPC peering connection](https://aerospike.com/docs/cloud/manage/vpc-peering).
-   For best performance and cost, deploy the cluster in the same region (and availability zone, if possible) as your application.
-   You can use the CIDR range provided by the cluster to choose an application CIDR that will not conflict and prepare for VPC peering on the application side.
-   Aerospike Cloud queues peering and user operations, completing them as soon as the database cluster is active and healthy.
:::