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Quickstart to Serving Cluster

A serving cluster is a self-contained server that combines both compute and storage for real-time production serving. Once you have cleaned your data through your Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) pipelines, you can import it into a serving cluster to deliver significant performance gains.

Before you start​

The following procedure assumes that you have already created a serving cluster and obtained its endpoint and access credentials.

Step 1: Set up connection​

Once you have obtained the cluster credentials or an API key, you can use it to connect to your cluster.

python
from pymilvus import MilvusClient, DataType
from pymilvus.bulk_writer import bulk_import
import json
from pymilvus.bulk_writer import get_import_progress

SERVING_CLUSTER_ENDPOINT = "https://{cluster-id}.{region}.vectordb.zillizcloud.com:19530"
TOKEN = "YOUR_ZILLIZ_API_KEY"
# A valid token could be either
# - An API key, or
# - Use your Zilliz Cloud API key

# 1. Set up a Milvus client
client = MilvusClient(
    uri=SERVING_CLUSTER_ENDPOINT,
    token=TOKEN
)

Step 2: (Optional) Create a database.​

A serving cluster ships with a default database. If you choose that, skip this step. You can also create a database as follows:

python
# connect to the serving cluster
client.create_database(
    db_name="my_database"
)

Step 3: Create a collection.​

Once the database is ready, you can create managed collections in it. Unlike an external collection that maps collection columns to external data files, a managed collection asks you to import data for significant performance gains.

The following example demonstrates how to set up the collection schema and create a collection.

python
schema = MilvusClient.create_schema()

schema.add_field(
    field_name="product_id",
    datatype=DataType.INT64,
    is_primary=True
)

schema.add_field(
    field_name="product_name",
    datatype=DataType.VARCHAR,
    max_length=512
)

schema.add_field(
    field_name="embedding",
    datatype=DataType.FLOAT_VECTOR,
    dim=768
)

Then you can create a collection with the above schema. If you decide to use the default database, you can safely skip the db_name parameter.

python
client.use_database(
    db_name="my_database"
)

# create the collection
client.create_collection(
    collection_name="prod_collection",
    schema=schema
)

Step 4: Create indexes.​

You need to create indexes for all vector fields and, optionally, for selected scalar fields.

python
index_params = client.prepare_index_params()

# Add indexes
index_params.add_index(
    field_name="embedding",
    index_type="AUTOINDEX",
    metric_type="COSINE"
)

index_params.add_index(
    field_name="product_name", 
    index_type="AUTOINDEX"
)

client.create_index(
    db_name="my_database",
    collection_name="prod_collection",
    index_params=index_params
)

Step 5: Load the collection.​

Once indexes are ready, load the collection into memory.

python
client.load_collection(
    db_name="my_database",
    collection_name="prod_collection"
)

Step 6: Import data.​

Once everything is set up, you can import the processed data. The following example assumes that you have stored the processed data in an external storage bucket.

For the data format in your bucket or storage integrations, refer to Format Options.

python
# The path should be relative to the root 
# of a zilliz cloud volume or an external storage
OBJECT_URLS = [[                                                                                                             
    "https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/your-bucket/path/in/external/storage.json"                                           
]]                                                                                                                           

ACCESS_KEY = "YOUR_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY"                                                                                       
SECRET_KEY = "YOUR_STORAGE_SECRET_KEY"

res = bulk_import(
    api_key="YOUR_ZILLIZ_API_KEY",
    url="https://api.cloud.zilliz.com",
    cluster_id="inxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    db_name="my_database",
    collection_name="prod_collection",
    object_urls=OBJECT_URLS,
    access_key=ACCESS_KEY,
    secret_key=SECRET_KEY
)

# job-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With the returned job ID, you can monitor its progress.

python
# Get bulk-insert job progress
resp = get_import_progress(
    api_key="YOUR_ZILLIZ_API_KEY",
    url="https://api.cloud.zilliz.com",
    cluster_id="inxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    job_id="job-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
)

print(json.dumps(resp.json(), indent=4))

Step 7: Serve your data.​

Once the import completes, you can invite users to consume your data through searches, queries, and hybrid searches.

python
query_vector = [0.3580376395471989, -0.6023495712049978, 0.18414012509913835, -0.26286205330961354, 0.9029438446296592, ...]
res = client.search(
    db_name="my_database",
    collection_name="prod_collection",
    anns_field="embedding",
    data=[query_vector],
    limit=3,
    output_fields=["product_name"]
)
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