Warning

Multi-node support is deprecated.

TimescaleDB v2.13 is the last version that includes multi-node support. It supports multi-node installations with PostgreSQL versions 13, 14, and 15. For more information, see Multi-node Deprecation.

To set up multi-node on a self-hosted TimescaleDB instance, you need:

  • A PostgreSQL instance to act as an access node (AN)
  • One or more PostgreSQL instances to act as data nodes (DN)
  • TimescaleDB installed and set up on all nodes
  • Access to a superuser role, such as postgres, on all nodes

The access and data nodes must begin as individual TimescaleDB instances. They should be hosts with a running PostgreSQL server and a loaded TimescaleDB extension. For more information about installing self-hosted TimescaleDB instances, see the installation instructions. Additionally, you can configure high availability with multi-node to increase redundancy and resilience.

The multi-node TimescaleDB architecture consists of an access node (AN) which stores metadata for the distributed hypertable and performs query planning across the cluster, and a set of data nodes (DNs) which store subsets of the distributed hypertable dataset and execute queries locally. For more information about the multi-node architecture, see about multi-node.

If you intend to use continuous aggregates in your multi-node environment, check the additional considerations in the continuous aggregates section.

When you have installed TimescaleDB on the access node and as many data nodes as you require, you can set up multi-node and create a distributed hypertable.

Note

Before you begin, make sure you have considered what partitioning method you want to use for your multi-node cluster. For more information about multi-node and architecture, see the About multi-node section.

  1. On the access node (AN), run this command and provide the hostname of the first data node (DN1) you want to add:

    SELECT add_data_node('dn1', 'dn1.example.com')
  2. Repeat for all other data nodes:

    SELECT add_data_node('dn2', 'dn2.example.com')
    SELECT add_data_node('dn3', 'dn3.example.com')
  3. On the access node, create the distributed hypertable with your chosen partitioning. In this example, the distributed hypertable is called example, and it is partitioned on time and location:

    SELECT create_distributed_hypertable('example', 'time', 'location');
  4. Insert some data into the hypertable. For example:

    INSERT INTO example VALUES ('2020-12-14 13:45', 1, '1.2.3.4');

When you have set up your multi-node installation, you can configure your cluster. For more information, see the configuration section.

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