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Horizontal Scale Postgres Cluster

This guide will show you how to use KubeDB enterprise operator to increase/decrease the number of members of a Postgres Cluster.

Before You Begin

  • At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.

  • Install KubeDB community and enterprise operator in your cluster following the steps here.

  • You should be familiar with the following KubeDB concepts:

To keep everything isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.

$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/guides/postgres/scaling/horizontal-scaling/scale-horizontally/yamls directory of kubedb/doc repository.

Apply Horizontal Scaling on Postgres Cluster

Here, we are going to deploy a Postgres Cluster using a supported version by KubeDB operator. Then we are going to apply horizontal scaling on it.

Prepare Cluster

At first, we are going to deploy a Cluster server with 3 members. Then, we are going to add two additional members through horizontal scaling. Finally, we will remove 1 member from the cluster again via horizontal scaling.

Find supported Postgres Version:

When you have installed KubeDB, it has created PostgresVersion CR for all supported Postgres versions. Let’s check the supported Postgres versions,

$ kubectl get postgresversion
NAME                       VERSION   DISTRIBUTION   DB_IMAGE                               DEPRECATED   AGE
10.16                      10.16     Official       postgres:10.16-alpine                               63s
10.16-debian               10.16     Official       postgres:10.16                                      63s
10.19                      10.19     Official       postgres:10.19-bullseye                             63s
10.19-bullseye             10.19     Official       postgres:10.19-bullseye                             63s
11.11                      11.11     Official       postgres:11.11-alpine                               63s
11.11-debian               11.11     Official       postgres:11.11                                      63s
11.14                      11.14     Official       postgres:11.14-alpine                               63s
11.14-bullseye             11.14     Official       postgres:11.14-bullseye                             63s
11.14-bullseye-postgis     11.14     PostGIS        postgis/postgis:11-3.1                              63s
12.6                       12.6      Official       postgres:12.6-alpine                                63s
12.6-debian                12.6      Official       postgres:12.6                                       63s
12.9                       12.9      Official       postgres:12.9-alpine                                63s
12.9-bullseye              12.9      Official       postgres:12.9-bullseye                              63s
12.9-bullseye-postgis      12.9      PostGIS        postgis/postgis:12-3.1                              63s
13.2                       13.2      Official       postgres:13.2-alpine                                63s
13.2-debian                13.2      Official       postgres:13.2                                       63s
13.5                       13.5      Official       postgres:13.5-alpine                                63s
13.5-bullseye              13.5      Official       postgres:13.5-bullseye                              63s
13.5-bullseye-postgis      13.5      PostGIS        postgis/postgis:13-3.1                              63s
14.1                       14.1      Official       postgres:14.1-alpine                                63s
14.1-bullseye              14.1      Official       postgres:14.1-bullseye                              63s
14.1-bullseye-postgis      14.1      PostGIS        postgis/postgis:14-3.1                              63s
9.6.21                     9.6.21    Official       postgres:9.6.21-alpine                              63s
9.6.21-debian              9.6.21    Official       postgres:9.6.21                                     63s
9.6.24                     9.6.24    Official       postgres:9.6.24-alpine                              63s
9.6.24-bullseye            9.6.24    Official       postgres:9.6.24-bullseye                            63s
timescaledb-2.1.0-pg11     11.11     TimescaleDB    timescale/timescaledb:2.1.0-pg11-oss                63s
timescaledb-2.1.0-pg12     12.6      TimescaleDB    timescale/timescaledb:2.1.0-pg12-oss                63s
timescaledb-2.1.0-pg13     13.2      TimescaleDB    timescale/timescaledb:2.1.0-pg13-oss                63s
timescaledb-2.5.0-pg14.1   14.1      TimescaleDB    timescale/timescaledb:2.5.0-pg14-oss                63s

The version above that does not show DEPRECATED true is supported by KubeDB for Postgres. You can use any non-deprecated version. Here, we are going to create a Postgres Cluster using Postgres 13.2.

Deploy Postgres Cluster:

In this section, we are going to deploy a Postgres Cluster with 3 members. Then, in the next section we will scale-up the cluster using horizontal scaling. Below is the YAML of the Postgres cr that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Postgres
metadata:
  name: pg
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "13.2"
  replicas: 3
  standbyMode: Hot
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  terminationPolicy: WipeOut

Let’s create the Postgres cr we have shown above,

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2023.01.17/docs/guides/postgres/scaling/horizontal-scaling/scale-horizontally/postgres.yaml
postgres.kubedb.com/pg created

Wait for the cluster to be ready:

KubeDB operator watches for Postgres objects using Kubernetes API. When a Postgres object is created, KubeDB operator will create a new StatefulSet, Services, and Secrets, etc. A secret called pg-auth (format: {postgres-object-name}-auth) will be created storing the password for postgres superuser. Now, watch Postgres is going to Running state and also watch StatefulSet and its pod is created and going to Running state,

$ watch -n 3 kubectl get postgres -n demo pg
Every 3.0s: kubectl get postgres -n demo pg                        emon-r7: Thu Dec  2 15:31:16 2021

NAME   VERSION   STATUS   AGE
pg     13.2      Ready    4h40m


$ watch -n 3 kubectl get sts -n demo pg
Every 3.0s: kubectl get sts -n demo pg                             emon-r7: Thu Dec  2 15:31:38 2021

NAME   READY   AGE
pg     3/3     4h41m



$ watch -n 3 kubectl get pods -n demo
Every 3.0s: kubectl get pod -n demo                                emon-r7: Thu Dec  2 15:33:24 2021

NAME   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pg-0   2/2     Running   0          4h25m
pg-1   2/2     Running   0          4h26m
pg-2   2/2     Running   0          4h26m

Let’s verify that the StatefulSet’s pods have joined into cluster,

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

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo pg-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.\password}' | base64 -d
b3b5838EhjwsiuFU

So, we can see that our cluster has 3 members. Now, we are ready to apply the horizontal scale to this Postgres cluster.

Scale Up

Here, we are going to add 2 replicas in our Cluster using horizontal scaling.

Create PostgresOpsRequest:

To scale up your cluster, you have to create a PostgresOpsRequest cr with your desired number of replicas after scaling. Below is the YAML of the PostgresOpsRequest cr that we are going to create,

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

Here,

  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing operation on pg Postgres database.
  • spec.type specifies that we are performing HorizontalScaling on our database.
  • spec.horizontalScaling.replicas specifies the expected number of replicas after the scaling.

Let’s create the PostgresOpsRequest cr we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2023.01.17/docs/guides/postgres/scaling/horizontal-scaling/scale-horizontally/yamls/pg-scale-up.yaml
postgresopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/pg-scale-up created

Verify Scale-Up Succeeded:

If everything goes well, KubeDB enterprise operator will scale up the StatefulSet’s Pod. After the scaling process is completed successfully, the KubeDB enterprise operator updates the replicas of the Postgres object.

First, we will wait for PostgresOpsRequest to be successful. Run the following command to watch PostgresOpsRequest cr,

$ watch kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-up
Every 2.0s: kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-up     emon-r7: Thu Dec  2 17:57:36 2021

NAME          TYPE                STATUS       AGE
pg-scale-up   HorizontalScaling   Successful   8m23s

You can see from the above output that the PostgresOpsRequest has succeeded. If we describe the PostgresOpsRequest, we will see that the Postgres cluster is scaled up.

kubectl describe postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-up
Name:         pg-scale-up
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind:         PostgresOpsRequest
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2021-12-02T11:49:13Z
  Generation:          1
  Managed Fields:
    API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:annotations:
          .:
          f:kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration:
      f:spec:
        .:
        f:databaseRef:
          .:
          f:name:
        f:horizontalScaling:
          .:
          f:replicas:
        f:type:
    Manager:      kubectl-client-side-apply
    Operation:    Update
    Time:         2021-12-02T11:49:13Z
    API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:status:
        .:
        f:conditions:
        f:observedGeneration:
        f:phase:
    Manager:         kubedb-enterprise
    Operation:       Update
    Time:            2021-12-02T11:49:13Z
  Resource Version:  49610
  UID:               cc62fe84-5c13-4c77-b130-f748c0beff27
Spec:
  Database Ref:
    Name:  pg
  Horizontal Scaling:
    Replicas:  5
  Type:        HorizontalScaling
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2021-12-02T11:49:13Z
    Message:               Postgres ops request is horizontally scaling database
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Progressing
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Progressing
    Last Transition Time:  2021-12-02T11:50:38Z
    Message:               Successfully Horizontally Scaled Up
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                ScalingUp
    Status:                True
    Type:                  ScalingUp
    Last Transition Time:  2021-12-02T11:50:38Z
    Message:               Successfully Horizontally Scaled Postgres
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Successful
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Successful
  Observed Generation:     1
  Phase:                   Successful
Events:
  Type    Reason          Age    From                        Message
  ----    ------          ----   ----                        -------
  Normal  PauseDatabase   10m    KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Pausing Postgres demo/pg
  Normal  PauseDatabase   10m    KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully paused Postgres demo/pg
  Normal  ScalingUp       9m17s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully Horizontally Scaled Up
  Normal  ResumeDatabase  9m17s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Resuming PostgreSQL demo/pg
  Normal  ResumeDatabase  9m17s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully resumed PostgreSQL demo/pg
  Normal  Successful      9m17s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully Horizontally Scaled Database

Now, we are going to verify whether the number of members has increased to meet up the desired state. So let’s check the new pods logs to see if they have joined in the cluster as new replica.

$ kubectl logs   -n demo                 pg-4  -c postgres -f
waiting for the role to be decided ...
running the initial script ...
Running as Replica
Attempting pg_isready on primary
Attempting query on primary
take base basebackup...
2021-12-02 11:50:11.062 GMT [17] LOG:  skipping missing configuration file "/etc/config/user.conf"
2021-12-02 11:50:11.062 GMT [17] LOG:  skipping missing configuration file "/etc/config/user.conf"
2021-12-02 11:50:11.075 UTC [17] LOG:  starting PostgreSQL 13.2 on x86_64-pc-linux-musl, compiled by gcc (Alpine 10.2.1_pre1) 10.2.1 20201203, 64-bit
2021-12-02 11:50:11.075 UTC [17] LOG:  listening on IPv4 address "0.0.0.0", port 5432
2021-12-02 11:50:11.075 UTC [17] LOG:  listening on IPv6 address "::", port 5432
2021-12-02 11:50:11.081 UTC [17] LOG:  listening on Unix socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"
2021-12-02 11:50:11.088 UTC [30] LOG:  database system was interrupted; last known up at 2021-12-02 11:50:10 UTC
2021-12-02 11:50:11.148 UTC [30] LOG:  entering standby mode
2021-12-02 11:50:11.154 UTC [30] LOG:  redo starts at 0/8000028
2021-12-02 11:50:11.157 UTC [30] LOG:  consistent recovery state reached at 0/8000100
2021-12-02 11:50:11.157 UTC [17] LOG:  database system is ready to accept read only connections
2021-12-02 11:50:11.162 UTC [35] LOG:  started streaming WAL from primary at 0/9000000 on timeline 2

You can see above that this pod is streaming wal from primary as replica. It verifies that we have successfully scaled up.

Scale Down

Here, we are going to remove 1 replica from our cluster using horizontal scaling.

Create PostgresOpsRequest:

To scale down your cluster, you have to create a PostgresOpsRequest cr with your desired number of members after scaling. Below is the YAML of the PostgresOpsRequest cr that we are going to create,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: PostgresOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: pg-scale-down
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: HorizontalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: pg
  horizontalScaling:
    replicas: 4

Let’s create the PostgresOpsRequest cr we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2023.01.17/docs/guides/postgres/scaling/horizontal-scaling/scale-horizontally/yamls/pg-scale-down.yaml
postgresopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/pg-scale-down created

Verify Scale-down Succeeded:

If everything goes well, KubeDB enterprise operator will scale down the StatefulSet’s Pod. After the scaling process is completed successfully, the KubeDB enterprise operator updates the replicas of the Postgres object.

Now, we will wait for PostgresOpsRequest to be successful. Run the following command to watch PostgresOpsRequest cr,

$ watch kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-down
Every 2.0s: kubectl get postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-down    emon-r7: Thu Dec  2 18:15:37 2021

NAME            TYPE                STATUS       AGE
pg-scale-down   HorizontalScaling   Successful   115s

You can see from the above output that the PostgresOpsRequest has succeeded. If we describe the PostgresOpsRequest, we shall see that the Postgres cluster is scaled down.

$ kubectl describe  postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-down
Name:         pg-scale-down
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind:         PostgresOpsRequest
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2021-12-02T12:13:42Z
  Generation:          1
  Managed Fields:
    API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:annotations:
          .:
          f:kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration:
      f:spec:
        .:
        f:databaseRef:
          .:
          f:name:
        f:horizontalScaling:
          .:
          f:replicas:
        f:type:
    Manager:      kubectl-client-side-apply
    Operation:    Update
    Time:         2021-12-02T12:13:42Z
    API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:status:
        .:
        f:conditions:
        f:observedGeneration:
        f:phase:
    Manager:         kubedb-enterprise
    Operation:       Update
    Time:            2021-12-02T12:13:42Z
  Resource Version:  52120
  UID:               c69ea56e-e21c-4b1e-8a80-76f1b74ef2ba
Spec:
  Database Ref:
    Name:  pg
  Horizontal Scaling:
    Replicas:  4
  Type:        HorizontalScaling
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2021-12-02T12:13:42Z
    Message:               Postgres ops request is horizontally scaling database
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Progressing
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Progressing
    Last Transition Time:  2021-12-02T12:14:42Z
    Message:               Successfully Horizontally Scaled Down
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                ScalingDown
    Status:                True
    Type:                  ScalingDown
    Last Transition Time:  2021-12-02T12:14:42Z
    Message:               Successfully Horizontally Scaled Postgres
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Successful
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Successful
  Observed Generation:     1
  Phase:                   Successful
Events:
  Type    Reason          Age    From                        Message
  ----    ------          ----   ----                        -------
  Normal  PauseDatabase   2m31s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Pausing Postgres demo/pg
  Normal  PauseDatabase   2m31s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully paused Postgres demo/pg
  Normal  ScalingDown     91s    KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully Horizontally Scaled Down
  Normal  ResumeDatabase  91s    KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Resuming PostgreSQL demo/pg
  Normal  ResumeDatabase  91s    KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully resumed PostgreSQL demo/pg
  Normal  Successful      91s    KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully Horizontally Scaled Database

Now, we are going to verify whether the number of members has decreased to meet up the desired state, Let’s check, the postgres status if it’s ready then the scale-down is successful.

$ kubectl get postgres -n demo pg
Every 3.0s: kubectl get postgres -n demo pg                         emon-r7: Thu Dec  2 18:16:39 2021

NAME   VERSION   STATUS   AGE
pg     13.2      Ready    7h26m

You can see above that our Postgres cluster now has a total of 4 members. It verifies that we have successfully scaled down.

Cleaning Up

To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

kubectl delete pg -n demo pg
kubectl delete postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-up
kubectl delete postgresopsrequest -n demo pg-scale-down