BlueXP Blog

Cloud Volumes Service for PostgreSQL

Written by Prabu Arjunan, Solution Architect | May 6, 2020 4:16:54 PM

PostgreSQL, also called as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL is a powerful, open-source object-relational database system with over 30 years of active development that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, feature robustness, and performance. It is a highly stable database management system, backed by more than 30 years of community development, which has contributed to its high levels of resilience, integrity, and correctness. AWS is an excellent platform for running traditional RDBMSs; by using Cloud Volumes Service for AWS as storage, provides a value-added database solution. The design of your PostgreSQL installation on Amazon EC2 is largely dependent on the scale at which you are trying to operate. 

PostgreSQL Storage Solution for Cloud

With Cloud Volumes Service for AWS, you can run a high-performance database with maximum data protection. Underlying that security is NetApp SnapshotTM technology, which offers a crucial option for rapid, efficient database backup and restoration. By design, CVS for AWS provides eleven 9s of data durability.  

With consistently high performance of over 460k IOPS, Cloud Volumes Service provides shared persistent storage with high throughput and low latency. It easily meets the demands of large PostgreSQL databases, with SLAs that guarantee performance

Increase the Resilience of PostgreSQL Databases with Snapshot Copies

You can easily create a snapshot copy of a PostgreSQL database using NetApp SnapshotTM  technology.  Snapshot copies act as logical backups. They’re point-in-time representations of your data, with a rapid revert function that allows you to restore your database. You create snapshot copies manually or schedule the creation of snapshot copies using the Cloud Volumes Service API or graphical user interface (GUI); rapid revert is also available.

Snapshot copies are fast, plentiful, and nondisruptive. A NetApp Snapshot copy simply manipulates block pointers, creating a “frozen” read-only view of a volume that enables your applications to access older versions of files and directory hierarchies without special programming. Snapshot copy creation takes only a few seconds regardless of the size of the volume or the level of activity within the environment. Since they are read-only, incremental copies, you only pay for the space consumed by new data written.  

Supported Protocols

Cloud Volumes Service for AWS delivers fully-managed file services for both NFS and SMB, as well as dual-protocol support. PostgreSQL can be deployed on Cloud Volumes Service with the NFS and SMB protocol.

Speed Up Time to Market With Instant Copy 

Most organizations need multiple copies of data for testing and development. PostgreSQL landscapes are littered with system copies for variety of uses; creating and refreshing those copies can be cumbersome. Typically, creating copies of PostgreSQL landscapes is a time-consuming and tedious process. Cloud Volumes Service for AWS allows you to instantly copy database files, drastically improving the process of copying, backing up, and reverting. The process takes almost no time, which ultimately leads to lower costs by way of a quicker time to market.  

Data Durability  

With Cloud Volumes Service, data is protected not just against multiple drive failures, but also against numerous storage media errors that can harm your data durability and your data integrity. And with eleven nines of durability—based on the experience of over 300,000 customers—you don’t have to worry that your data is going to disappear. Durability is underpinned by the product’s SLA.  

High Availability 

Cloud Volumes Service offers 99.99% availability. Built on industry leading hardware and software, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service is characterized by high availability and uptime, both of which are enabled by architectural features, such as redundant network paths, failover, and advanced data protection. 
 
Because NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for AWS sits centrally in relation to each of the Availability Zones within an AWS region, your service is unaffected by Availability Zone outages. You can access your data from any Availability Zone within the region without having to replicate content. This availability is covered by CVS’s SLA. 

Security and Encryption 

NetApp Cloud Volumes Service uses at-rest encryption, relying on the XTS-AES 256-bit encryption algorithm.  CVS encrypts your data without compromising your storage application performance. NetApp manages and rotates encryption keys for you, thus, this single-source solution can increase your organization’s overall compliance with industry and government regulations without compromising your user experience. 

Discover the dynamic change of performance tier and the benefits:

When you use CVS for AWS, you control your cloud performance by dynamically adjusting service levels. If you need to increase performance, you can increase the allocation (for example, 10TB provides 160MB/s) and/or choose a higher service level. 

  • The Standard service level offers very economical cloud storage, at just $0.10 per gigabyte per month. It enables throughput up to 16MB/s for each terabyte allocated. This level is ideal as a low-cost solution for infrequently accessed data.  
  • The Premium service level delivers a good mix of cost and performance. At a cost of $0.20 per gigabyte per month, it offers 4x the performance of the Standard level, with 64MB/s for each terabyte allocated. This is a good fit for many applications where data capacity and performance needs are balanced. 
  • The Extreme service level provides the best performance. At a cost of $0.30 per gigbyte per month, it enables up to 128MB/s for each terabyte allocated, and cloud volumes can scale to deliver several GB/s for reads and writes. Extreme is the best fit for high-performance workloads.  

One of the unique features of NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for AWS is the capability to change performance on-the-fly. If the requirement is to have the Extreme performance tier for two hours a day and Standard performance for the rest, Cloud Volumes Service for AWS can use API calls or a scheduler in Linux to facilitate that process.

Rest APIs

Cloud Volumes Service has rest APIs that can be called by various orchestration engines and scripting languages. This blog includes some example scripts that you can leverage to get started. 

Ready to Get Started?

Check out Cloud Volumes Service for AWS to learn more and signup for a personalized demo. There’s a lot Cloud Volumes Services can offer Postgres workloads in the cloud.

Next Steps

Are you ready to dive deeper? Download this Technical Report providing details step-by-step tutorial on How to Move PostgreSQL Data Directory to Cloud Volumes Service for AWS. After completing the steps described in this repot, you will have successfully moved your PostgreSQL data directory to a new location residing on a Cloud Volumes Service volume.