# 4.3. Database Management

## 4.3.1. Creating a database

This will create a database with `3` replicas and `8` shards.

    curl -X PUT "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5984/database-name?n=3&q=8" --user admin-user

The database is in `data/shards`. Look around on all the nodes and you will find all the parts.

If you do not specify `n` and `q` the default will be used. The default is `3` replicas and `8` shards.

## 4.3.2. Deleting a database

    curl -X DELETE "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5984/database-name --user admin-user

## 4.3.3. Placing a database on specific nodes

In BigCouch, the predecessor to CouchDB 2.0’s clustering functionality, there was the concept of zones. CouchDB 2.0 carries this forward with cluster placement rules.

Warning

Use of the `placement` argument will override the standard logic for shard replica cardinality (specified by `[cluster] n`.)

First, each node must be labeled with a zone attribute. This defines which zone each node is in. You do this by editing the node’s document in the system `_nodes` database, which is accessed node-local via the `GET /_node/_local/_nodes/{node-name}` endpoint.

Add a key value pair of the form:

    "zone": "metro-dc-a"

Alternatively, you can set the `COUCHDB_ZONE` environment variable on each node and CouchDB will configure this document for you on startup.

Do this for all of the nodes in your cluster.

In your config file (`local.ini` or `default.ini`) on each node, define a consistent cluster-wide setting like:

    [cluster]
    placement = metro-dc-a:2,metro-dc-b:1

In this example, it will ensure that two replicas for a shard will be hosted on nodes with the zone attribute set to `metro-dc-a` and one replica will be hosted on a new with the zone attribute set to `metro-dc-b`.

Note that you can also use this system to ensure certain nodes in the cluster do not host any replicas for newly created databases, by giving them a zone attribute that does not appear in the `[cluster]` placement string.