What is PolarDB for PostgreSQL Enterprise Edition?

Ease of use

PolarDB for PostgreSQL Enterprise Edition is fully compatible with native PostgreSQL. Applications and code designed for native PostgreSQL can run on PolarDB for PostgreSQL Enterprise Edition with zero to minimal modifications.

Cost reduction

• Separation of compute and storage: The compute nodes share storage resources. When you add a read-only compute node, you are charged only compute node fees, which significantly reduces scaling costs.

• Serverless storage: You do not need to manually configure the storage capacity. Storage space is automatically scaled based on the amount of stored data. You need to pay only for the actual storage space that you use.

Optimal performance

• An extensively optimized database kernel, combined with the physical replication, RDMA data transmission, and shared distributed storage strategies, significantly improves cluster performance.

• The cluster architecture contains one primary node and up to 15 read-only nodes, which can meet the performance requirements in high concurrency scenarios and is suitable for read-heavy and write-light workloads.

• The cluster features one primary node and multiple read-only nodes and uses shared storage for compute nodes. When data is modified or written to the primary node, the update is immediately synchronized and accessible across all nodes.

• The system significantly improves online transaction processing (OLTP) performance and supports over 500,000 read requests per second and over 150,000 write requests per second.

Massive storage capacity to support hundreds of terabytes of data

The distributed storage system and distributed file system enable the storage capacity to smoothly and dynamically scale without being constrained by the storage limits of individual nodes. A single cluster can support up to 500 TB of storage space.

High availability, reliability, and security

• The shared distributed storage design resolves the data inconsistency issues associated with asynchronous replication from the primary node to read-only nodes and ensures zero data loss when a single-point failure occurs.

• The multi-zone architecture maintains data replicas across multiple zones and provides disaster recovery and backup capabilities for the cluster.

• The system uses log sequence numbers (LSNs) to ensure global consistency for read operations that use the cluster endpoint and prevent inconsistencies caused by replication latency between the primary and read-only nodes.

• Redo-based physical replication replaces binlog-based logical replication to improve replication efficiency and stability between the primary node and read-only nodes. This ensures that heavy DDL operations, such as adding indexes or fields to large tables, do not cause database delays.

• Comprehensive security measures, including IP whitelists, virtual private clouds (VPCs), and multiple data replicas, safeguard data access, storage, and management at all stages.

Rapid elastic scaling

• Scale-up or scale-down within 5 minutes

  CPU and memory resources can be scaled up or scaled down in 5 minutes because of the advanced container virtualization and shared distributed block storage technologies.

• Scale-out or scale-in within 5 minutes

  Nodes can be dynamically added or removed, which improves performance and reduces costs. Applications use the cluster endpoint to interact with the cluster, which hides the details and changes of the underlying infrastructure, such as node additions or removals. This ensures that applications function smoothly without the need to manage node adjustments.

Lock-free backup

The snapshot technology based on the underlying distributed storage solution can back up a database with terabytes of data in a few minutes. No lock is required during the entire backup process, which minimizes disruptions and ensures higher system performance