Service operations - Replicas

Instance redundancy refers to having replicas of your database running simultaneously. In the case of a database failure, a replica is an up-to-date, running database that can take over immediately.

You can enable a replica for your single-node services. The replicas are asynchronous, and if your primary database fails, the replica automatically assumes the role of primary, and a new standby replica is created. Any missing data writes are retrieved from backup and replayed on the new primary, to account for any lag at the time of failure. Because replicas are asynchronous, it is possible that not all data is captured, so there might be a small amount of data loss.

When this occurs, connections to the original, failed database are closed and need to be reopened. The entire process usually takes a few seconds. Timescale Cloud does not currently offer synchronous replicas.

Creating a database replica

1. Log in to your Timescale Cloud account and click the service you want to replicate.
2. Navigate to the Operations tab, and select Replication.
3. Check the pricing of the replica, and click Add a replica. Confirm the action by clicking Add replica.
4. You can see the replicas for each service by clicking on the service name, navigating to the Operations tab, and selecting Replication. Replicas are not shown in the main Services section, as they are not independent.
5. You can see connection information for the replica by navigating to the Overview tab. In the Connection info section, select the replica from the Role drop down menu to populate the section with the replica's connection details.