Deploy Highly Available PostgreSQL Cluster in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) using KubeDB

Overview

KubeDB is the Kubernetes Native Database Management Solution which simplifies and automates routine database tasks such as Provisioning, Monitoring, Upgrading, Patching, Scaling, Volume Expansion, Backup, Recovery, Failure detection, and Repair for various popular databases on private and public clouds. The databases that KubeDB supports are MongoDB, Elasticsearch, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, PostgreSQL, ProxySQL, Percona XtraDB, Memcached and PgBouncer. You can find the guides to all the supported databases in KubeDB . In this tutorial we will deploy Highly Available PostgreSQL Cluster in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). We will cover the following steps:

  1. Install KubeDB
  2. Deploy PostgreSQL Cluster
  3. Horizontal Scaling of PostgreSQL Cluster
  4. Vertical Scaling of PostgreSQL Cluster

Get Cluster ID

We need the cluster ID to get the KubeDB License. To get cluster ID, we can run the following command:

$ kubectl get ns kube-system -o jsonpath='{.metadata.uid}'
fc435a61-c74b-9243-83a5-f1110ef2462c

Get License

Go to Appscode License Server to get the license.txt file. For this tutorial we will use KubeDB Enterprise Edition.

License Server

Install KubeDB

We will use helm to install KubeDB. Please install helm here if it is not already installed. Now, let’s install KubeDB.

$ helm repo add appscode https://charts.appscode.com/stable/
$ helm repo update

$ helm search repo appscode/kubedb
NAME                              	CHART VERSION	APP VERSION	DESCRIPTION                                       
appscode/kubedb                   	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	KubeDB by AppsCode - Production ready databases...
appscode/kubedb-autoscaler        	v0.18.0      	v0.18.0    	KubeDB Autoscaler by AppsCode - Autoscale KubeD...
appscode/kubedb-catalog           	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	KubeDB Catalog by AppsCode - Catalog for databa...
appscode/kubedb-community         	v0.24.2      	v0.24.2    	KubeDB Community by AppsCode - Community featur...
appscode/kubedb-crds              	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	KubeDB Custom Resource Definitions                
appscode/kubedb-dashboard         	v0.9.0       	v0.9.0     	KubeDB Dashboard by AppsCode                      
appscode/kubedb-enterprise        	v0.11.2      	v0.11.2    	KubeDB Enterprise by AppsCode - Enterprise feat...
appscode/kubedb-grafana-dashboards	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	A Helm chart for kubedb-grafana-dashboards by A...
appscode/kubedb-metrics           	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	KubeDB State Metrics                              
appscode/kubedb-one               	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	KubeDB and Stash by AppsCode - Production ready...
appscode/kubedb-ops-manager       	v0.20.0      	v0.20.0    	KubeDB Ops Manager by AppsCode - Enterprise fea...
appscode/kubedb-opscenter         	v2023.04.10  	v2023.04.10	KubeDB Opscenter by AppsCode                      
appscode/kubedb-provisioner       	v0.33.0      	v0.33.0    	KubeDB Provisioner by AppsCode - Community feat...
appscode/kubedb-schema-manager    	v0.9.0       	v0.9.0     	KubeDB Schema Manager by AppsCode                 
appscode/kubedb-ui                	v2023.03.23  	0.3.28     	A Helm chart for Kubernetes                       
appscode/kubedb-ui-server         	v2021.12.21  	v2021.12.21	A Helm chart for kubedb-ui-server by AppsCode     
appscode/kubedb-webhook-server    	v0.9.0       	v0.9.0     	KubeDB Webhook Server by AppsCode  

# Install KubeDB Enterprise operator chart
$ helm install kubedb appscode/kubedb \
  --version v2023.04.10 \
  --namespace kubedb --create-namespace \
  --set kubedb-provisioner.enabled=true \
  --set kubedb-ops-manager.enabled=true \
  --set kubedb-autoscaler.enabled=true \
  --set kubedb-dashboard.enabled=true \
  --set kubedb-schema-manager.enabled=true \
  --set-file global.license=/path/to/the/license.txt

Let’s verify the installation:

$ kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=kubedb"
NAMESPACE   NAME                                            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-autoscaler-776cc57d65-pm7s7       1/1     Running   0          3m52s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-dashboard-79bd4cf8b4-nmfgg        1/1     Running   0          3m52s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-ops-manager-846b4f87b8-d8b49      1/1     Running   0          3m52s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-provisioner-8586db7789-vs2c2      1/1     Running   0          3m52s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-schema-manager-5886cf4794-bdq62   1/1     Running   0          3m52s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-webhook-server-dd5d5646f-qcv88    1/1     Running   0          3m52s

We can list the CRD Groups that have been registered by the operator by running the following command:

$ kubectl get crd -l app.kubernetes.io/name=kubedb
NAME                                              CREATED AT
elasticsearchautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com   2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
elasticsearchdashboards.dashboard.kubedb.com      2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
elasticsearches.kubedb.com                        2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
elasticsearchopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com           2023-04-12T10:22:41Z
elasticsearchversions.catalog.kubedb.com          2023-04-12T10:19:52Z
etcds.kubedb.com                                  2023-04-12T10:22:44Z
etcdversions.catalog.kubedb.com                   2023-04-12T10:19:53Z
kafkas.kubedb.com                                 2023-04-12T10:22:54Z
kafkaversions.catalog.kubedb.com                  2023-04-12T10:19:53Z
mariadbautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com         2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
mariadbdatabases.schema.kubedb.com                2023-04-12T10:22:42Z
mariadbopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com                 2023-04-12T10:23:01Z
mariadbs.kubedb.com                               2023-04-12T10:22:43Z
mariadbversions.catalog.kubedb.com                2023-04-12T10:19:53Z
memcacheds.kubedb.com                             2023-04-12T10:22:47Z
memcachedversions.catalog.kubedb.com              2023-04-12T10:19:54Z
mongodbautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com         2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
mongodbdatabases.schema.kubedb.com                2023-04-12T10:22:38Z
mongodbopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com                 2023-04-12T10:22:45Z
mongodbs.kubedb.com                               2023-04-12T10:22:39Z
mongodbversions.catalog.kubedb.com                2023-04-12T10:19:54Z
mysqlautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com           2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
mysqldatabases.schema.kubedb.com                  2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
mysqlopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com                   2023-04-12T10:22:57Z
mysqls.kubedb.com                                 2023-04-12T10:22:38Z
mysqlversions.catalog.kubedb.com                  2023-04-12T10:19:54Z
perconaxtradbautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com   2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
perconaxtradbopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com           2023-04-12T10:23:15Z
perconaxtradbs.kubedb.com                         2023-04-12T10:22:51Z
perconaxtradbversions.catalog.kubedb.com          2023-04-12T10:19:55Z
pgbouncers.kubedb.com                             2023-04-12T10:22:51Z
pgbouncerversions.catalog.kubedb.com              2023-04-12T10:19:55Z
postgresautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com        2023-04-12T10:22:37Z
postgresdatabases.schema.kubedb.com               2023-04-12T10:22:41Z
postgreses.kubedb.com                             2023-04-12T10:22:41Z
postgresopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com                2023-04-12T10:23:08Z
postgresversions.catalog.kubedb.com               2023-04-12T10:19:55Z
proxysqlautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com        2023-04-12T10:22:38Z
proxysqlopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com                2023-04-12T10:23:11Z
proxysqls.kubedb.com                              2023-04-12T10:22:53Z
proxysqlversions.catalog.kubedb.com               2023-04-12T10:19:56Z
publishers.postgres.kubedb.com                    2023-04-12T10:23:25Z
redisautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com           2023-04-12T10:22:38Z
redises.kubedb.com                                2023-04-12T10:22:53Z
redisopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com                   2023-04-12T10:23:04Z
redissentinelautoscalers.autoscaling.kubedb.com   2023-04-12T10:22:38Z
redissentinelopsrequests.ops.kubedb.com           2023-04-12T10:23:18Z
redissentinels.kubedb.com                         2023-04-12T10:22:53Z
redisversions.catalog.kubedb.com                  2023-04-12T10:19:56Z
subscribers.postgres.kubedb.com                   2023-04-12T10:23:28Z

Deploy PostgreSQL Cluster

We are going to Deploy PostgreSQL Cluster by using KubeDB. First, let’s create a Namespace in which we will deploy the database.

$ kubectl create namespace demo
namespace/demo created

Here is the yaml of the PostgreSQL CRO we are going to use:

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Postgres
metadata:
  name: postgres-cluster
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "15.1"
  replicas: 3
  standbyMode: Hot
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "gp2"
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  terminationPolicy: WipeOut

Let’s save this yaml configuration into postgres-cluster.yaml Then create the above PostgreSQL CRO

$ kubectl apply -f postgres-cluster.yaml
postgres.kubedb.com/postgres-cluster created

In this yaml,

  • In this yaml we can see in the spec.version field specifies the version of PostgreSQL. Here, we are using PostgreSQL version 15.1. You can list the KubeDB supported versions of PostgreSQL by running kubectl get postgresversions command.
  • spec.standby is an optional field that specifies the standby mode hot or warm to use for standby replicas. In hot standby mode, standby replicas can accept connection and run read-only queries. In warm standby mode, standby replicas can’t accept connection and only used for replication purpose.
  • spec.storage.storageClassName is the name of the StorageClass used to provision PVCs.
  • spec.terminationPolicy field is Wipeout means that the database will be deleted without restrictions. It can also be “Halt”, “Delete” and “DoNotTerminate”. Learn More about these checkout Termination Policy .

Once these are handled correctly and the PostgreSQL object is deployed, you will see that the following objects are created:

$ kubectl get all -n demo
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/postgres-cluster-0   2/2     Running   0          2m25s
pod/postgres-cluster-1   2/2     Running   0          2m4s
pod/postgres-cluster-2   2/2     Running   0          97s

NAME                               TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                      AGE
service/postgres-cluster           ClusterIP   10.100.248.168   <none>        5432/TCP,2379/TCP            2m30s
service/postgres-cluster-pods      ClusterIP   None             <none>        5432/TCP,2380/TCP,2379/TCP   2m30s
service/postgres-cluster-standby   ClusterIP   10.100.106.115   <none>        5432/TCP                     2m30s

NAME                                READY   AGE
statefulset.apps/postgres-cluster   3/3     2m32s

NAME                                                  TYPE                  VERSION   AGE
appbinding.appcatalog.appscode.com/postgres-cluster   kubedb.com/postgres   15.1      2m36s

NAME                                   VERSION   STATUS   AGE
postgres.kubedb.com/postgres-cluster   15.1      Ready    2m59s

Let’s check if the database is ready to use,

$ kubectl get pg -n demo postgres-cluster
NAME               VERSION   STATUS   AGE
postgres-cluster   15.1      Ready    4m

We have successfully deployed PostgreSQL cluster in AWS. Now we can exec into the container to use the database.

Accessing Database Through CLI

To access the database through CLI, we have to get the credentials to access. KubeDB will create Secret and Service for the database postgres-cluster that we have deployed. Let’s check them using the following commands,

$ kubectl get secret -n demo -l=app.kubernetes.io/instance=postgres-cluster
NAME                    TYPE                       DATA   AGE
postgres-cluster-auth   kubernetes.io/basic-auth   2      4m34s

$ kubectl get service -n demo -l=app.kubernetes.io/instance=postgres-cluster
NAME                       TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                      AGE
postgres-cluster           ClusterIP   10.100.248.168   <none>        5432/TCP,2379/TCP            4m57s
postgres-cluster-pods      ClusterIP   None             <none>        5432/TCP,2380/TCP,2379/TCP   4m57s
postgres-cluster-standby   ClusterIP   10.100.106.115   <none>        5432/TCP                     4m57s

Now, we are going to use postgres-cluster-auth to get the credentials.

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo postgres-cluster-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.username}' | base64 -d
postgres

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo postgres-cluster-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 -d
8~SL94YiCY2~9jQr

Insert Sample Data

In this section, we are going to login into our PostgreSQL pod and insert some sample data.

$ kubectl exec -it postgres-cluster-0 -n demo -c postgres -- bash
postgres-cluster-0:/$ psql -d "user=postgres password=8~SL94YiCY2~9jQr"
psql (15.1)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# \l
                                                  List of databases
     Name      |  Owner   | Encoding |  Collate   |   Ctype    | ICU Locale | Locale Provider |   Access privileges   
---------------+----------+----------+------------+------------+------------+-----------------+-----------------------
 kubedb_system | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | 
 postgres      | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | 
 template0     | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | =c/postgres          +
               |          |          |            |            |            |                 | postgres=CTc/postgres
 template1     | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | =c/postgres          +
               |          |          |            |            |            |                 | postgres=CTc/postgres
(4 rows)

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE music;
CREATE DATABASE

postgres=# \l
                                                  List of databases
     Name      |  Owner   | Encoding |  Collate   |   Ctype    | ICU Locale | Locale Provider |   Access privileges   
---------------+----------+----------+------------+------------+------------+-----------------+-----------------------
 kubedb_system | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | 
 music         | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | 
 postgres      | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | 
 template0     | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | =c/postgres          +
               |          |          |            |            |            |                 | postgres=CTc/postgres
 template1     | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | =c/postgres          +
               |          |          |            |            |            |                 | postgres=CTc/postgres
(5 rows)

postgres=# \c music
You are now connected to database "music" as user "postgres".

music=# CREATE TABLE artist (name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, song VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL);
CREATE TABLE

music=# INSERT INTO artist (name, song) VALUES('John Denver', 'Country Roads');
INSERT 0 1

music=# SELECT * FROM artist;
    name     |     song      
-------------+---------------
 John Denver | Country Roads
(1 row)

music=# \q

postgres-cluster-0:/$ exit
exit

We’ve successfully inserted some sample data to our database. More information about Run & Manage PostgreSQL on Kubernetes can be found in PostgreSQL Kubernetes

Horizontal Scaling of PostgreSQL Cluster

Horizontal Scale Up

Here, we are going to increase the number of PostgreSQL replicas to meet the desired number of replicas. Before applying Horizontal Scaling, let’s check the current number of PostgreSQL replicas,

$ kubectl get postgres -n demo postgres-cluster -o json | jq '.spec.replicas'
3

Create PostgresOpsRequest

In order to scale up, we have to create a PostgresOpsRequest CR with our desired replicas. Let’s create it using this following yaml,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: PostgresOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: horizontal-scale-up
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: HorizontalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: postgres-cluster
  horizontalScaling:
      replicas: 5

In this yaml,

  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing horizontal scaling operation on postgres-cluster database.
  • spec.type specifies that we are performing HorizontalScaling on our database.
  • spec.horizontalScaling.replicas specifies the desired number of replicas after scaling.

Let’s save this yaml configuration into horizontal-scale-up.yaml and apply it,

$ kubectl apply -f horizontal-scale-up.yaml
postgresopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/horizontal-scale-up created

Let’s wait for PostgresOpsRequest STATUS to be Successful. Run the following command to watch PostgresOpsRequest CR,

$ watch kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo
NAME                  TYPE                STATUS       AGE
horizontal-scale-up   HorizontalScaling   Successful   2m26s

From the above output we can see that the PostgresOpsRequest has succeeded. Now, we are going to verify the number of replicas,

$ kubectl get postgres -n demo postgres-cluster -o json | jq '.spec.replicas'
5

From all the above outputs we can see that the number of replicas is now increased to 5. That means we have successfully scaled up the number of PostgreSQL replicas.

Horizontal Scale Down

Now, we are going to scale down the number of PostgreSQL replicas to meet the desired number of replicas.

Create PostgresOpsRequest

In order to scale down, again we need to create a PostgresOpsRequest CR with our desired replicas. Let’s create it using this following yaml,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: PostgresOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: horizontal-scale-down
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: HorizontalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: postgres-cluster
  horizontalScaling:
      replicas: 3

In this yaml,

  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing horizontal scaling operation on postgres-cluster database.
  • spec.type specifies that we are performing HorizontalScaling on our database.
  • spec.horizontalScaling.replicas specifies the desired number of replicas after scaling.

Let’s save this yaml configuration into horizontal-scale-down.yaml and apply it,

$ kubectl apply -f horizontal-scale-down.yaml
postgresopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/horizontal-scale-down created

Let’s wait for PostgresOpsRequest STATUS to be Successful. Run the following command to watch PostgresOpsRequest CR,

$ watch kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo
NAME                    TYPE                STATUS       AGE
horizontal-scale-down   HorizontalScaling   Successful   2m11s

From the above output we can see that the PostgresOpsRequest has succeeded. Now, we are going to verify the number of PostgreSQL replicas,

$ kubectl get postgres -n demo postgres-cluster -o json | jq '.spec.replicas'
3

From all the above outputs we can see that the number of replicas is now decreased to 3. That means we have successfully scaled down the number of PostgreSQL replicas.

Vetical Scaling of PostgreSQL Cluster

We are going to scale up the current cpu resource of the PostgreSQL cluster by applying Vertical Scaling. Before applying it, let’s check the current resources,

$ kubectl get pod -n demo postgres-cluster-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  }
}
{}

Vertical Scale Up

Create PostgresOpsRequest

In order to update the resources of the cluster, we have to create a PostgresOpsRequest CR with our desired resources. Let’s create it using this following yaml,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: PostgresOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: vertical-scale-up
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: VerticalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: postgres-cluster
  verticalScaling:
    postgres:
      requests:
        memory: "1100Mi"
        cpu: "0.55"
      limits:
        memory: "1100Mi"
        cpu: "0.55"

In this yaml,

  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing vertical scaling operation on postgres-cluster database.
  • spec.type specifies that we are performing VerticalScaling on our database.
  • spec.verticalScaling.replicaSet specifies the desired resources after scaling.

Let’s save this yaml configuration into vertical-scale-up.yaml and apply it,

$ kubectl apply -f vertical-scale-up.yaml
postgresopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/vertical-scale-up created

Let’s wait for PostgresOpsRequest STATUS to be Successful. Run the following command to watch PostgresOpsRequest CR,

$ watch kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo
NAME                    TYPE                STATUS       AGE
vertical-scale-up       VerticalScaling     Successful   3m5s

We can see from the above output that the PostgresOpsRequest has succeeded. Now, we are going to verify from one of the Pod yaml whether the resources of the database has updated to meet up the desired state. Let’s check with the following command,

$ kubectl get pod -n demo postgres-cluster-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "550m",
    "memory": "1100Mi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "550m",
    "memory": "1100Mi"
  }
}
{}

The above output verifies that we have successfully scaled up the resources of the PostgreSQL cluster.

Vertical Scale Down

Create PostgresOpsRequest

In order to update the resources of the database, we have to create a PostgresOpsRequest CR with our desired resources. Let’s create it using this following yaml,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: PostgresOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: vertical-scale-down
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: VerticalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: postgres-cluster
  verticalScaling:
    postgres:
      requests:
        memory: "1Gi"
        cpu: "0.5"
      limits:
        memory: "1Gi"
        cpu: "0.5"

In this yaml,

  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing vertical scaling operation on postgres-cluster database.
  • spec.type specifies that we are performing VerticalScaling on our database.
  • spec.verticalScaling.replicaSet specifies the desired resources after scaling.

Let’s save this yaml configuration into vertical-scale-down.yaml and apply it,

$ kubectl apply -f vertical-scale-down.yaml
postgresopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/vertical-scale-down created

Let’s wait for PostgresOpsRequest STATUS to be Successful. Run the following command to watch PostgresOpsRequest CR,

$ watch kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo
NAME                      TYPE                STATUS       AGE
vertical-scale-down       VerticalScaling     Successful   3m5s

We can see from the above output that the PostgresOpsRequest has succeeded. Now, we are going to verify from one of the Pod yaml whether the resources of the database has updated to meet up the desired state. Let’s check with the following command,

$ kubectl get pod -n demo postgres-cluster-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  }
}

The above output verifies that we have successfully scaled down the resources of the PostgreSQL cluster.

If you want to learn more about Production-Grade PostgreSQL you can have a look into that playlist below:

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Learn more about PostgreSQL in Kubernetes

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