Introducing PGD quick starts v5
Quick start
EDB Postgres Distributed (PGD) is a multi-master replicating implementation of Postgres designed for high performance and availability. You can create database clusters made up of many bidirectionally synchronizing database nodes. The clusters can have a number of proxy servers that direct your query traffic to the most available nodes, adding further resilience to your cluster configuration.
Other deployment options
If you prefer to have a fully managed EDB Postgres Distributed experience, PGD is now available as an option on BigAnimal, EDB's cloud platform for Postgres. See BigAnimal distributed high-availability clusters.
If you prefer to deploy PGD on Kubernetes, you can use the EDB PGD Operator for Kubernetes. See EDB PGD Operator for Kubernetes.
What's in this quick start
PGD is very configurable. To quickly evaluate and deploy PGD, use this quick start. It'll get you up and running with a fully configured PGD cluster using the same tools that you'll use to deploy to production. This quick start includes:
- A short introduction to Trusted Postgres Architect (TPA) and how it helps you configure, deploy, and manage EDB Postgres Distributed
- A guide to selecting Docker, Linux hosts, or AWS quick starts
- The Docker quick start
- The Linux host quick start
- The AWS quick start
- Connecting applications to your cluster
- Further explorations with your cluster including
- Replication
- Conflicts
- Failover
Introducing PGD and TPA
PGD is a multi-master replicating implementation of Postgres designed for high performance and availability. The installation of PGD is orchestrated by TPA.
We created TPA to make installing and managing various Postgres configurations easily repeatable. TPA orchestrates creating and deploying Postgres.
These quick starts are designed to let you quickly get a single region cluster.
In these quick starts, you install TPA first. If you already have TPA installed, you can skip those steps. TPA is more of a tool than a simple installer. You can use the same installation of TPA to deploy many different configurations of Postgres clusters.
You'll use TPA to generate a configuration file for a PGD demonstration cluster. This cluster will have three replicating database nodes, cohosting three high-availability proxies and one backup node.
You will then use TPA to provision and deploy the required configuration and software to each node.
Selecting Docker, Linux hosts, or AWS quick starts
Three quick starts are currently available:
- Docker — Provisions, deploys, and hosts the cluster on Docker containers on a single machine.
- Linux hosts — Deploys and hosts the cluster on Linux servers that you already provisioned with an operating system and SSH connectivity. These can be actual physical servers or virtual machines, deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
- AWS — Provisions, deploys, and hosts the cluster on AWS.
Docker quick start
The Docker quick start is ideal for those looking to initially explore PGD and its capabilities. This configuration of PGD isn't suitable for production use but can be valuable for testing the functionality and behavior of PGD clusters. You might also find it useful when familiarizing yourself with PGD commands and APIs to prepare for deploying on cloud, VM, or Linux hosts.
Linux host quick start
The Linux hosts quick start is suited if you intend to install PGD on your own hosts, where you have complete control of the hardware and software, or in a private cloud. The overall configuration is similar to the Docker configuration but is more persistent over system restarts and closer to a single-region production deployment of PGD.
AWS quick start
The AWS quick start is more extensive and deploys the PGD cluster onto EC2 nodes on Amazon's cloud. The cluster's overall configuration is similar to the Docker quick start. However, instead of using Docker containers, it uses t3.micro instances of Amazon EC2 to provide the compute power. The AWS deployment is more persistent and not subject to the limitations of the Docker quick start deployment. However, it requires more initial setup to configure the AWS CLI.