# Create External Store

To create a new store in an AxoLake or a self-managed Clickhouse instance, complete the following steps. (For details on deploying AxoLake or an appropriate self-managed Clickhouse instance, [contact our support team](<https://axoflow.com/contact?contact_form_subject=support_request>).)

  * [AxoStore](../../docs/axoflow/storage/create-store/index.md) stores logs locally on the AxoRouter that processed the messages.
  * [External stores](../../docs/axoflow/storage/create-external-store/index.md) use a separately deployed AxoLake or an existing compatible ClickHouse cluster.



## Prerequisites

  * You must have an AxoLake or a self-managed Clickhouse instance available.

  * You’ll need user credentials (username and password) to authenticate to the database. The account must have:

    * `INSERT` privileges for the database where you’re creating the store to send data, and
    * `SELECT` privileges to access the data from the **Search Logs** page.
  * Your AxoRouter instances must be able to access the database on the network level.




## Steps

To create a new store in an AxoLake, complete the following steps.

  1. Navigate to **Routers > Stores > Add Store**.

  2. Enter a **Name** for the store. his name will appear in the list of destinations (with the `-store` suffix) when setting the destination of a Flow. You cannot modify the name of the store later.

![Create Store](/docs/axoflow/storage/create-external-store/create-store.png)

  3. (Optional) Enter a description for the store.

  4. (Optional) Select additional options about which message parts to store:

     * **Include Metadata** : If enabled, the metadata of the events is stored as a separate object. Otherwise, only the metadata that has dedicated fields in the [Storage schema](../../docs/axoflow/reference/storage-schema/index.md) will be recorded.

     * **Include Raw Body** : Store also the original, unparsed (raw) message as a separate field.

**CAUTION:**

Enabling this option approximately doubles the storage size of the message. 

  5. Set **Store type** to **External**.

  6. Enter the name of the **Database** to create the store in. (This is the name of the database you’ve created in AxoLake/Clickhouse. It can only contain letters, numbers, and underscores.)

  7. Set the **gRPC Address** and the **HTTP Address** of the database listener, for example, `10.0.0.123:9100` and `10.0.0.123:9000`. Instead of IP address, you can also use FQDN.

  8. Enter the credentials of the user account used to access the database into the **User** and **Password** fields.

  9. Select **Create**.