Set Up a PostgreSQL Cluster

Prerequisites: Prior to setting up a database, please make sure you are working within a provisioned VDC that contains at least one virtual machine from which to access the database. The VM you create is counted against the quota allocated in your contract.

Note: Database Manager is available only for contract administrators, owners, and users with Access and manage DBaaS privilege. You can set the privilege via the DCD group privileges.

Create a Cluster

To create a Postgres cluster, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the DCD, go to Menu > Databases > PostgreSQL.

Info: The Resource allocation section displays the resources allotted to your contract and the number of used and unused resources if you have already created PostgreSQL clusters.

2. In the PostgreSQL cluster overview window, click Create cluster to create a new Postgres cluster.

3. Specify the following:

Provide an appropriate Cluster Name.
Select a Location where your data for the database cluster will be stored. You can select an available datacenter within the cluster's data directory to create your cluster.

4. To create a Postgres Cluster from the available backups directly, you can go to the Create from backup section and follow these steps:

Select a Backup cluster from the drop-down list of cluster backups.
Click the Calendar icon in the Recover target time field to select a date and time:
- Select the recovery date from the calendar.
- Select the recovery time using the clock.

5. To configure your Cluster, enter the following details in the Cluster configuration section:

a. Select the appropriate PostgreSQL Version. IONOS Database Manager supports versions 12, 13, 14, and 15.

b. Enter the number of Instances in the cluster. One PostgreSQL instance always manages the data of exactly one database cluster. You can create a maximum of five instances within a cluster.

Note: Here, you will have a primary node and one or more standby nodes that run a copy of the active database, so you have n-1 standby instances in the cluster.

c. Select the mode of replication in the Synchronization mode field; Asynchronous mode is selected by default. The following are the available replication modes:

Asynchronous: In asynchronous mode, the primary PostgreSQL instance does not wait for a replica to indicate that it wrote the data. The cluster can lose some committed transactions to ensure availability.
Synchronous: Synchronous replication allows the primary node to be run standalone. The primary PostgreSQL instance will wait for any or all replicas. So, no transactions are lost during failover.
Strictly Synchronous: It is similar to the synchronous mode but requires two operating nodes.

d. Select a Backup Location that is explicitly your backup location (region). You can have off-site backups by using a region that is not included in your database region.

6. Specify the following in the Instance configuration section:

Number of CPUs (per instance): Select the number of CPU cores using the slider or choose from the available shortcut values.
RAM Size (per instance): Select the RAM size using the slider or choose from the available shortcut values.
Storage Type: Select a storage type for your instance. HDD is set by default.
Storage Size: Enter the storage size value in Gigabytes.

7. In the Network configuration section, provide the following information to connect your cluster with the datacenter:

Datacenter: Select a datacenter from the available list.
Datacenter LAN: Select a LAN for your datacenter.
Private IP: Select a private IP address from the drop-down list. For more information, see Private IP Address Ranges.

Note: To know your private IP address/Subnet, you need to:

Create a single server connected to an empty private LAN and check the IP assigned to that NIC in that LAN. The DHCP in that LAN always uses a /24 subnet, so you must reuse the first 3 octets to reach your database.
To prevent a collision with the DHCP IP range, it is recommended to use IP addresses ending between x.x.x.3/24 and x.x.x.10/24 (which are never assigned by DHCP).
If you have disabled DHCP on your private LAN, you must discover the IP address on your own.

8. In the Maintenance period (optional) section, you can set a maintenance day and time using the pre-defined format (hh:mm:ss) or the clock.

Select a Day from the drop-down list.

Note: We recommend choosing the day and time appropriately because the maintenance occurs in a 4-hour-long window.

9. Provide the following details in the User Creation section:

Username: Enter a username to provide access to the Postgres Cluster for the respective user.
Password: Enter a password for the respective user.

Note: The credentials will be overwritten if the user already exists in the backup.

Result: The Estimated costs will be displayed based on the input. It is exclusive and certain variables like traffic and backup are not considered.

10. Click Save to create the Postgres Cluster.

Result: Your Postgres Cluster is now created.