Timescale is a PostgreSQL data platform for time-series, events, and analytics. It gives you the reliability of PostgreSQL, the time-series superpowers of TimescaleDB, and the peace of mind of a fully managed service. It provides features like automatic backup and restore, high availability with replication, seamless scaling and resizing, and much more.

In the Timescale console, you create a service to house your Timescale database. Each service contains a single database. If you need more databases, you can create additional services for each.

When you create a new service, a new tsdbadmin user is created. This is your administration user that you can connect to your database with.

The Timescale Service Explorer shows you all the information about your service, including the tables you have created, how much data has been ingested, and additional information like compression, policies, and continuous aggregates.

When you have your service up and running, you can use a tool like psql to connect to it from the command prompt on your local machine. You can then use psql to create tables and add data directly into your database.

In this section, you sign up for a Timescale account, create a service, and connect to it from your local machine using psql. Don't forget to download the cheat sheet when you create your service, it contains important information that you need later on.

For more information, see the services section.

When you have a service up and running, you can connect to it from your local system using the psql command-line utility. If you've used PostgreSQL before, you might already have psql installed. If not, check out the installing psql section.

  1. In the Timescale portal, at the Services tab, find the service you want to connect to, and check it is marked as Running.

  2. Optional If you have not stored a copy of your password, you can reset it by navigating to the Operations tab, and clicking Reset password. You can choose your own password for the service, or allow Timescale to generate a secure password for you. Take a note of your new password.

  3. On your local system, at the command prompt, connect to the service using your unique connection string provided by Timescale:

    psql "postgres://tsdbadmin:<PASSWORD>@<HOST>:<PORT>/tsdb?sslmode=require"

    If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this, followed by the psql prompt:

    psql (14.5, server 15.3 (Ubuntu 15.3-1.pgdg22.04+1))
    SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
    Type "help" for help.
    tsdb=>

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