watsonx.data Lite plan

The Lite plan allows you to provision an IBM® watsonx.data instance that is free to use, with capacity limit of 2000 Resource Units, and time frame limit of 30 days. You can use the account to explore and familiarize yourself with watsonx.data. For more information about the features and limitations of Lite plan, see Lite plan.

Provisioning a Lite plan instance is use case driven. The watsonx.data instance is configured based on the selected use case:

Generative AI : AI developers or Data engineers can explore the Generative AI use cases using this option. The provisioned instance includes Presto, Milvus, Spark, a read-only sample IBM COS storage that is associated to the Presto engine, and sample worksheet with GoSales data in it.
High Performance BI : Data engineers can explore BI visualization functionalities using this option. The provisioned instance includes Presto (C++), Spark, Query Optimizer, a read-only sample IBM COS storage that is associated to the Presto engine, and tpcds is available as the sample worksheet for benchmarking.
Data Engineering : Data engineers can explore various workload driven use cases using this option. The provisioned instance includes Presto (Java), Spark, a read-only sample IBM COS storage that is associated to the Presto engine, and sample worksheet with GoSales data in it.

After provisioning the Lite plan instance, you can monitor the resource unit usage from the Billing and Usage page available in the watsonx.data console. For more information, see Billing and Usage.

Only one active Lite plan instance is allowed for IBM Cloud trial or paid account users. However, if the existing Lite plan instance is deleted before consuming the 2000 RUs, a new instance can be created and the remaining RUs can be consumed. Paid account users can create multiple Lite plan instances in different resource groups. If the account has multiple Lite instances active at the same time, the resource unit consumption for the account will be the sum of resource units consumed by each individual instance.

When the limit is reached, any active Lite plan instance owned by the account is disabled and new Lite plan instances cannot be created.

To access all the features and functionalities without resource or time limit, you must have an Enterprise watsonx.data instance in the paid IBM Cloud account. In this tutorial, you learn how to provision watsonx.data instance (Lite plan) and explore its features.

Provisioning watsonx.data Lite plan through UI
Provisioning watsonx.data Lite plan through CLI

Before you begin

To provision watsonx.data Lite plan instance, you must have a trial account (or a paid account) on the IBM Cloud. Trial IBM Cloud accounts can have only one resource group.

Provisioning watsonx.data Lite plan through UI

Perform the following steps to provision a Lite plan instance:

Go to the watsonx.data provisioning page.
Click the Create tab. Select IBM Cloud as the cloud platform to deploy watsonx.data.

In the Management method field, Fully managed is the default option, which indicates that IBM manages all the network complexities.

Click About tab and read through to understand about the resource units consumed by engine/service, and estimate your consumption of 2000 RUs in the watsonx.data Lite plan instance.
In the Select a pricing plan field, select Lite.
Select a location from the Choose a location drop-down list.
Enter the service name. The service name can be any string. This service name is used in the web console to identify the new deployment.
Select the resource group.

IBM Cloud trial accounts can have only one resource group.
Optional: Enter the tags and access management tags.
Select one of the use cases to proceed:
- Generative AI : The provisioned instance includes Presto, Milvus and Spark.
- High Performance BI : The provisioned instance includes Presto (C++) and Spark.
- Data Engineering : The provisioned instance includes Presto (Java) and Spark.
In the Summary page, review the license agreement and select the checkbox to agree.
Click Create. The Preparing watsonx.data page opens that displays the progress. The watsonx.data Console opens after provisioning is complete.

Provisioning watsonx.data Lite plan through CLI

Perform the following steps to provision a Lite plan instance by using CLI.

ibmcloud login --sso -a https://cloud.ibm.com

Select an account in which you want to create an instance.
Create a new formation.
```
ibmcloud resource service-instance-create <instance-name> lakehouse <plan-id> <region> -g <resource-group> -p '{"datacenter": "<data-center>","cloud_type": "<cloud-type>","use_case": "<use_case_template>"}'
```
- instance-name: Name of the instance. For example, watsonx.data-abc.
- lakehouse: watsonx.data service.
- plan-id : The plan-id is lakehouse-lite for regions eu-de, us-east, us-south, jp-tok, and eu-gb. It must be lakehouse-lite-mcsp for au-syd region.
- region: The available regions are eu-de, us-south, jp-tok, eu-gb, and au-syd.
- resource-group: Choose one of the available resource groups in your IBM Cloud account. Most accounts have a Default group. For more information, see Managing resource groups.
- datacenter: Use one of the following. This parameter must match the region that you have selected.
  - ibm:us-south:dal
  - ibm:eu-de:fra
  - ibm:eu-gb:lon
  - ibm:au-syd:syd
  - ibm:jp-tok:tok
- cloud_type:
  - ibm: For fully managed account instances (default).
  - aws_vpc: For customer-owned account instances.
- use_case_template: You can provision the Lite plan instance based on three use cases. The valid values accepted by the parameter are ai (Generative AI), workloads (Data Engineering), and performance (High Performance BI). The default value is workloads.
  
  For availability and general information related to customer-owned account deployed instances, contact your IBM sales representative or open a support ticket.
Example 1 : Provision a Lite plan in us-south region.
```
ibmcloud resource service-instance-create watsonx.data-abc lakehouse lakehouse-lite us-south -g Default -p '{"datacenter": "ibm:us-east:wdc", "use_case": "workloads"}'
```
Example 2 : Provision a Lite plan in Sydney region.
```
ibmcloud resource service-instance-create <instance-name> lakehouse lakehouse-lite-mcsp au-syd -g <resource-group> -p '{"datacenter": "ibm:au-syd:syd"}'
```

Check the status of the new instance.

ibmcloud resource service-instance <instance-name>

Reference

To explore the features of watsonx.data web console, see Lite plan.