Synchronize data from an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance to a PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster - Data Transmission Service

This topic describes how to synchronize data from an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance to a PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster by using Data Transmission Service (DTS).

Prerequisites

The destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster is created. The available storage space of the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster is larger than the total size of the data in the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. For more information, see Create a cluster.
A database is created in the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster to receive data. For more information, see Database management.

Usage notes

Note

During schema synchronization, DTS synchronizes foreign keys from the source database to the destination database.
During full data synchronization and incremental data synchronization, DTS temporarily disables the constraint check and cascade operations on foreign keys at the session level. If you perform the cascade update and delete operations on the source database during data synchronization, data inconsistency may occur.

Limit type	Description
Limits on the source database	The tables that you want to synchronize must have PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints, and all fields must be unique. Otherwise, the destination database may contain duplicate data records. If you select tables as the objects to be synchronized and you want to edit the tables, such as renaming tables or columns in the destination database, you can synchronize up to 5,000 tables in a single data synchronization task. If you run a task to synchronize more than 5,000 tables, a request error occurs. In this case, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to synchronize the tables or configure a task to synchronize the entire database. The following requirements for WAL logs must be met: The value of the wal_level parameter is set to logical. If you perform only incremental data synchronization, the WAL logs of the source database must be stored for more than 24 hours. If you perform both full data synchronization and incremental data synchronization, the WAL logs of the source database must be stored for at least seven days. Otherwise, DTS may fail to obtain the WAL logs and the task may fail. In exceptional circumstances, data inconsistency or loss may occur. After full data synchronization is complete, you can set the retention period to more than 24 hours. Make sure that you set the retention period of WAL logs based on the preceding requirements. Otherwise, service reliability or performance in the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of DTS may not be guaranteed. If the source database has one or more long-running transactions and incremental data is synchronized in the data synchronization task, the write-ahead logging (WAL) logs generated before the long-running transactions in the source database are committed may be accumulated. As a result, the disk space of the source database may be insufficient. During schema synchronization and full data synchronization, do not execute DDL statements to change the schemas of databases or tables. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails.
Other limits	A data synchronization task can synchronize data from only one database. To synchronize data from multiple databases, you must create a data synchronization task for each database. If you run a full or incremental data synchronization task, the tables to be synchronized from the source database contain foreign keys, triggers, or event triggers, and the account of the destination database is a privileged account, DTS temporarily sets the session_replication_role parameter to replica at the session level during full or incremental data synchronization. If the account of the destination database does not have the permission, you must manually set the session_replication_role parameter to replica in the destination database. During full or incremental data synchronization, if you perform cascade update or delete operations on the source database while the session_replication_role parameter is set to replica, data inconsistency may occur. After the data synchronization task is released, you can change the value of the session_replication_role parameter back to origin. If you select a schema as the object to be synchronized, take note of the following limits: If you create a table in the schema or run the RENAME command to rename the table, you must execute the `ALTER TABLE schema.table REPLICA IDENTITY FULL;` statement before you write data to the table. This ensures data consistency. When you execute this statement, we recommend that you do not lock the table. Otherwise, a deadlock occurs. Note Replace the `schema` and `table` in the preceding sample statement with the actual schema name and table name. We recommend that you perform this operation during off-peak hours. DTS creates the following temporary tables in the source database to obtain the DDL statements of incremental data, the schemas of incremental tables, and the heartbeat information. During data synchronization, do not delete temporary tables in the source database. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails. After the DTS instance is released, temporary tables are automatically deleted. `public.dts_pg_class`, `public.dts_pg_attribute`, `public.dts_pg_type`, `public.dts_pg_enum`, `public.dts_postgres_heartbeat`, `public.dts_ddl_command`, and `public.dts_args_session`. To ensure that the latency of data synchronization is accurate, DTS adds a heartbeat table to the source database. The name of the heartbeat table is dts_postgres_heartbeat. During data synchronization, DTS creates a replication slot in the source database to replicate data. The replication slot is prefixed with `dts_sync_`. DTS can obtain the incremental logs of the source database within the last 15 minutes by using this replication slot. Note After the DTS instance is released, the replication slot is automatically deleted. If you change the password of the source database or delete the IP addresses of DTS from the IP address whitelist, the replication slot cannot be automatically deleted. In this case, you must delete the replication slot in the source database to prevent the replication slot from piling up. If the data synchronization task is released or fails, DTS automatically deletes the replication slot. If a primary/secondary switchover is performed on the source PostgreSQL database, you must log on to the secondary database to delete the replication slot. Before you synchronize data, evaluate the impact of data synchronization on the performance of the source and destination databases. We recommend that you synchronize data during off-peak hours. During initial full data synchronization, DTS uses the read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the loads on the database servers. During initial full data synchronization, concurrent INSERT operations cause fragmentation in the tables of the destination database. Therefore, after initial full data synchronization is complete, the size of the used tablespace of the destination database is larger than that of the source database. If no data from other sources is written to the destination database during data synchronization, you can use DMS to perform online DDL operations on source tables. For more information, see Perform lock-free DDL operations. Data inconsistency between the source and destination databases occurs if data from other sources is written to the destination database during data synchronization. For example, if you use DMS to execute online DDL statements while data from other sources is written to the destination database, data loss may occur in the destination database. DTS does not check the validity of metadata, such as sequences. You must manually check the validity of metadata. After your workloads are switched to the destination database, newly written sequences do not increment from the maximum value of the sequences in the source database. Therefore, you must query the maximum value of the sequences in the source database before you switch your workloads to the destination database. Then, you must specify the queried maximum value as the starting value of the sequences in the destination database. You can run the following statements to query the maximum value of the sequences in the source database: `do language plpgsql $$ declare nsp name; rel name; val int8; begin for nsp,rel in select nspname,relname from pg_class t2 , pg_namespace t3 where t2.relnamespace=t3.oid and t2.relkind='S' loop execute format($_$select last_value from %I.%I$_$, nsp, rel) into val; raise notice '%', format($_$select setval('%I.%I'::regclass, %s);$_$, nsp, rel, val+1); end loop; end; $$;`
Special cases	If the source database is an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance, take note of the following limits: During data synchronization, do not modify the endpoint and zone of the ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails. If the source database is a self-managed PostgreSQL database, take note of the following limits: The values of the max_wal_senders and max_replication_slots parameters must be greater than the sum of the following numbers: the number of used replication slots in the self-managed PostgreSQL database and the number of DTS instances that must be created to synchronize data from this database. If the source database is a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance provided by Google Cloud Platform, you must set Database Account to a database account with the cloudsqlsuperuser permission for the source database. When you select the objects to be synchronized, you must select the objects that the specified account is authorized to manage. Otherwise, you must grant the OWNER permission on the selected objects to the specified account. Note An account with the cloudsqlsuperuser permission cannot manage the data that is owned by other accounts that have the cloudsqlsuperuser permission.

Billing

Synchronization type	Task configuration fee
Schema synchronization and full data synchronization	Free of charge.
Incremental data synchronization	Charged. For more information, see Billing overview.

Supported synchronization topologies

One-way one-to-one synchronization
One-way one-to-many synchronization
One-way cascade synchronization
One-way many-to-one synchronization

For more information about the synchronization topologies supported by DTS, see Synchronization topologies.

SQL operations that can be synchronized

Operation type	SQL statement
DML	INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
DDL	DDL operations can be synchronized only by data synchronization tasks that are created after October 1, 2020. Important To use a data synchronization task created before May 12, 2023 to synchronize DDL operations, you must create triggers and functions in the source database to capture DDL information before you configure the data synchronization task. For more information, see Use triggers and functions to implement incremental DDL migration for PostgreSQL databases. You cannot synchronize data of the BIT type during incremental data synchronization. If the database account of the source database is a privileged account and the minor engine version of the ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance is 20210228 or later, DTS can synchronize the following DDL statements. For information about how to update the minor engine version of an instance, see Update the minor engine version. CREATE TABLE and DROP TABLE ALTER TABLE, including RENAME TABLE, ADD COLUMN, ADD COLUMN DEFAULT, ALTER COLUMN TYPE, DROP COLUMN, ADD CONSTRAINT, ADD CONSTRAINT CHECK, and ALTER COLUMN DROP DEFAULT TRUNCATE TABLE (The version of the source self-managed PostgreSQL database must be 11 or later.) CREATE INDEX ON TABLE Important You cannot synchronize additional information of DDL statements, such as CASCADE or RESTRICT. You cannot synchronize the DDL statements from a session that executes the `SET session_replication_role = replica` statement. You cannot synchronize DDL statements that are executed by invoking functions. If multiple SQL statements committed by the source database at the same time contain both DML and DDL statements, DTS does not synchronize the DDL statements. If multiple SQL statements committed by the source database at the same time contain DDL statements for objects that are not synchronized, the DDL statements are not synchronized.

Permissions required for database accounts

Database type	Required permissions	References
RDS PostgreSQL	Permissions of a privileged account that is the owner of the database Note If the source database is an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL V9.4 instance and you want to synchronize only DML operations, only the REPLICATION permission is required for the database account.	Create an account and Create a database
PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster	Permissions of the schema owner Note You can use the database owner that is specified when you create the database.	Create a database account and Database management

Procedure

Go to the Data Synchronization Tasks page.
1. Log on to the Data Management (DMS) console.
2. In the top navigation bar, click DTS.
3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose DTS (DTS) > Data Synchronization.
Note
- Operations may vary based on the mode and layout of the DMS console. For more information, see Simple mode and Customize the layout and style of the DMS console.
- You can also go to the Data Synchronization Tasks page of the new DTS console.
On the right side of Data Synchronization Tasks, select the region in which the data synchronization instance resides.
Note
If you use the new DTS console, you must select the region in which the data synchronization instance resides in the top navigation bar.

Click Create Task. On the Create Task page, configure the source and destination databases. The following table describes the parameters.

Section	Parameter	Description
N/A	Task Name	The name of the DTS task. DTS automatically generates a task name. We recommend that you specify a descriptive name that makes it easy to identify the task. You do not need to specify a unique task name.
Source Database	Select an existing DMS database instance	The database instance that you want to use. You can choose whether to use an existing instance based on your business requirements. If you select an existing instance, DTS automatically populates the parameters for the database. If you do not select an existing instance, you must manually configure parameters for the database.
	Database Type	The type of the source database. Select PostgreSQL.
	Access Method	The access method of the source database. Select Alibaba Cloud Instance.
	Instance Region	The region in which the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance resides.
	Replicate Data Across Alibaba Cloud Accounts	Specifies whether data is synchronized across Alibaba Cloud accounts. In this example, No is selected.
	Instance ID	The ID of the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
	Database Name	The name of the database from which objects are synchronized in the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
	Database Account	The database account of the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. For more information about the permissions required for the account, see the Permissions required for database accounts section of this topic.
	Database Password	The password that is used to access the database instance.
	Encryption	Specifies whether to encrypt the connection to the source database. You can configure this parameter based on your business requirements. In this example, Non-encrypted is selected. If you want to establish an SSL-encrypted connection to the source database, perform the following steps: Select SSL-encrypted, upload CA Certificate, Client Certificate, and Private Key of Client Certificate as needed, and then specify Private Key Password of Client Certificate. Note If you set Encryption to SSL-encrypted for a self-managed PostgreSQL database, you must upload CA Certificate. If you want to use the client certificate, you must upload Client Certificate and Private Key of Client Certificate and specify Private Key Password of Client Certificate. For information about how to configure SSL encryption for an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance, see SSL encryption.
Destination Database	Select an existing DMS database instance	The database instance that you want to use. You can choose whether to use an existing instance based on your business requirements. If you select an existing instance, DTS automatically populates the parameters for the database. If you do not select an existing instance, you must manually configure parameters for the database.
	Database Type	The type of the destination database. Select PolarDB for PostgreSQL.
	Access Method	The access method of the destination database. Select Alibaba Cloud Instance.
	Instance Region	The region where the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster resides.
	Instance ID	The ID of the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster.
	Database Name	The name of the database used to receive data in the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster.
	Database Account	The database account of the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster. For more information about the permissions that are required for the database account, see the Permissions required for database accounts section of this topic.
	Database Password	The password that is used to access the database instance.

In the lower part of the page, click Test Connectivity and Proceed.
If the source or destination database is an Alibaba Cloud database instance, such as an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL or ApsaraDB for MongoDB instance, DTS automatically adds the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the whitelist of the instance. If the source or destination database is a self-managed database hosted on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, DTS automatically adds the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the security group rules of the ECS instance, and you must make sure that the ECS instance can access the database. If the database is deployed on multiple ECS instances, you must manually add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the security group rules of each ECS instance. If the source or destination database is a self-managed database that is deployed in a data center or provided by a third-party cloud service provider, you must manually add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the whitelist of the database to allow DTS to access the database. For more information, see Add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers.
Warning
If the CIDR blocks of DTS servers are automatically or manually added to the whitelist of the database or instance, or to the ECS security group rules, security risks may arise. Therefore, before you use DTS to synchronize data, you must understand and acknowledge the potential risks and take preventive measures, including but not limited to the following measures: enhancing the security of your username and password, limiting the ports that are exposed, authenticating API calls, regularly checking the whitelist or ECS security group rules and forbidding unauthorized CIDR blocks, or connecting the database to DTS by using Express Connect, VPN Gateway, or Smart Access Gateway.

Configure the objects to be synchronized and advanced settings. The following table describes the parameters.

Parameter	Description
Synchronization Types	The synchronization types. By default, Incremental Data Synchronization is selected. You must also select Schema Synchronization and Full Data Synchronization. After the precheck is complete, DTS synchronizes the historical data of the selected objects from the source database to the destination cluster. The historical data is the basis for subsequent incremental synchronization.
Processing Mode of Conflicting Tables	Precheck and Report Errors: checks whether the destination database contains tables that have the same names as tables in the source database. If the source and destination databases do not contain tables that have identical table names, the precheck is passed. Otherwise, an error is returned during the precheck, and the data synchronization task cannot be started. Note If the source and destination databases contain tables with identical names and the tables in the destination database cannot be deleted or renamed, you can use the object name mapping feature to rename the tables that are synchronized to the destination database. For more information, see Map object names. Ignore Errors and Proceed: skips the precheck for identical table names in the source and destination databases. Warning If you select Ignore Errors and Proceed, data inconsistency may occur and your business may be exposed to potential risks. If the source and destination databases have the same schema and a data record in the destination database has the same primary key value or unique key value as a data record in the source database: During full data migration, DTS does not migrate the data record to the destination database. The existing data record in the destination database is retained. During incremental data synchronization, DTS synchronizes the data record to the destination database. The existing data record in the destination database is overwritten. If the source and destination databases have different schemas, data may fail to be initialized. In this case, only some columns are synchronized, or the data synchronization task fails. Proceed with caution.
Source Objects	Select one or more objects from the Source Objects section and click the icon to add the objects to the Selected Objects section.
Selected Objects	To rename an object that you want to synchronize to the destination instance, right-click the object in the Selected Objects section. For more information, see the Map the name of a single object section of the Map object names topic. To rename multiple objects at a time, click Batch Edit in the upper-right corner of the Selected Objects section. For more information, see the Map multiple object names at a time section of the Map object names topic. Note To select SQL operations performed on a specific database or table, right-click an object in the Selected Objects section. In the dialog box that appears, select the SQL operations that you want to synchronize. For more information about supported SQL operations, see the SQL operations that can be synchronized section of this topic. To specify WHERE conditions to filter data, right-click a table in the Selected Objects section. In the dialog box that appears, specify the conditions. For more information, see Specify filter conditions.

Click Next: Advanced Settings to configure advanced settings. The following table describes the parameters.

Parameter	Description
Dedicated Cluster for Task Scheduling	By default, DTS schedules tasks to shared clusters. You do not need to configure this parameter. If you want to improve the stability of data migration tasks, purchase a dedicated cluster. For more information, see What is a DTS dedicated cluster.
Retry Time for Failed Connections	The retry time range for failed connections. If the source or destination database fails to be connected after the data synchronization task is started, DTS immediately retries a connection within the time range. Valid values: 10 to 1440. Unit: minutes. Default value: 720. We recommend that you set this parameter to a value greater than 30. If DTS reconnects to the source and destination databases within the specified time range, DTS resumes the data synchronization task. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails. Note If you specify different retry time ranges for multiple data synchronization tasks that have the same source or destination database, the shortest retry time range takes precedence. When DTS retries a connection, you are charged for the DTS instance. We recommend that you specify the retry time range based on your business requirements. You can also release the DTS instance at your earliest opportunity after the source and destination instances are released.
Retry Time for Other Issues	The retry time range for other issues. For example, if the DDL or DML operations fail to be performed after the data synchronization task is started, DTS immediately retries the operations within the time range. Valid values: 1 to 1440. Unit: minutes. Default value: 10. We recommend that you set this parameter to a value greater than 10. If the failed operations are successfully performed within the specified time range, DTS resumes the data synchronization task. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails. Important The value of the Retry Time for Other Issues parameter must be smaller than the value of the Retry Time for Failed Connections parameter.
Enable Throttling for Full Data Migration	During full data synchronization, DTS uses the read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the load on the database servers. You can configure the Queries per second (QPS) to the source database, RPS of Full Data Migration, and Data migration speed for full migration (MB/s) parameters for full data synchronization tasks to reduce the load on the destination database server. Note This parameter is displayed only if Full Data Synchronization is selected for the Synchronization Types parameter.
Enable Throttling for Incremental Data Synchronization	Specifies whether to enable throttling for incremental data synchronization. You can enable throttling for incremental data synchronization based on your business requirements. To configure throttling, you must configure the RPS of Incremental Data Synchronization and Data synchronization speed for incremental synchronization (MB/s) parameters. This reduces the load on the destination database server.
Environment Tag	The environment tag that is used to identify the DTS instance. You can select an environment tag based on your business requirements. In this example, you do not need to configure this parameter.
Configure ETL	Specifies whether to enable the extract, transform, and load (ETL) feature. For more information, see What is ETL? Valid values: Yes: configures the ETL feature. You can enter data processing statements in the code editor. For more information, see Configure ETL in a data migration or data synchronization task. No: does not configure the ETL feature.
Monitoring and Alerting	Specifies whether to configure alerting for the data synchronization task. If the task fails or the synchronization latency exceeds the specified threshold, alert contacts will receive notifications. Valid values: No: does not enable alerting. Yes: configures alerting. In this case, you must also configure the alert threshold and alert contacts. For more information, see Configure monitoring and alerting when you create a DTS task.

Save the task settings and run a precheck.
- To view the parameters to be specified when you call the relevant API operation to configure the DTS task, move the pointer over Next: Save Task Settings and Precheck and click Preview OpenAPI parameters.
- If you do not need to view or have viewed the parameters, click Next: Save Task Settings and Precheck in the lower part of the page.
Note
- Before you can start the data synchronization task, DTS performs a precheck. You can start the data synchronization task only after the task passes the precheck.
- If the data synchronization task fails the precheck, click View Details next to each failed item. After you analyze the causes based on the check results, troubleshoot the issues. Then, rerun the precheck.
- If an alert is triggered for an item during the precheck:
  If an alert item cannot be ignored, click View Details next to the failed item and troubleshoot the issue. Then, run a precheck again.
  If an alert item can be ignored, click Confirm Alert Details. In the View Details dialog box, click Ignore. In the message that appears, click OK. Then, click Precheck Again to run a precheck again. If you ignore the alert item, data inconsistency may occur, and your business may be exposed to potential risks.
Wait until the Success Rate becomes 100%. Then, click Next: Purchase Instance.

On the buy page, configure the Billing Method and Instance Class parameters for the data synchronization instance. The following table describes the parameters.

Section	Parameter	Description
New Instance Class	Billing Method	Subscription: You pay for a subscription when you create a data synchronization instance. The subscription billing method is more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method for long-term use. Pay-as-you-go: A pay-as-you-go instance is billed on an hourly basis. The pay-as-you-go billing method is suitable for short-term use. If you no longer require a pay-as-you-go data synchronization instance, you can release the instance to reduce costs.
	Resource Group Settings	The resource group to which the data synchronization instance belongs. Default value: default resource group. For more information, see What is Resource Management?
	Instance Class	DTS provides instance classes that vary in synchronization speed. You can select an instance class based on your business requirements. For more information, see Instance classes of data synchronization instances.
	Subscription Duration	If you select the subscription billing method, specify the subscription duration and the number of data synchronization instances that you want to create. The subscription duration can be one to nine months, one year, two years, three years, or five years. Note This parameter is available only if you select the Subscription billing method.

Read and select the Data Transmission Service (Pay-as-you-go) Service Terms.
Click Buy and Start. In the dialog box that appears, click OK.
You can view the progress of the task in the task list.