Create a High-Availability PostgreSQL Cluster with Patroni, Vultr Load Balancer, and Object Storage

Published on June 28, 2023•Updated on November 21, 2023

Introduction

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open-source relational database system. Patroni is a tool to create, manage, and monitor a high-availability PostgreSQL cluster using streaming replication and automated failover. etcd is a distributed key-value store that Patroni uses to store all the configurations.

This article uses Patroni and etcd to automate and simplify the deployment and management of PostgreSQL clusters. In a few minutes, you can have a production-grade Postgres cluster with high availability and disaster recovery.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you:

Deploy a Vultr Object Storage instance.
Deploy a Vultr Load Balancer.

Server Configuration

This section describes how you can set up a cluster of two Patroni instances, and three etcd instances to store the configuration. The Patroni setup contains one PostgreSQL primary and one replica. The etcd cluster contains three instances to enable high availability, which can cover at most one instance failure.

In this article, deploy five servers with 1GB of memory each. But production deployments require higher memory servers. These servers should be independent of each other. For example, they can be in different locations, or in a single Vultr Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Create the Vultr Server Instances

Log in to your Vultr account.
Deploy 5 Vultr Server Instances in any location.
Label the server instances as etcd-1, etcd-2, etcd-3, patroni-1 and patroni-2.
Use SSH to access each of the servers as a non-root sudo user.

This article uses the following example names and addresses:

etcd-1: etcd-server-1-ip
etcd-2: etcd-server-2-ip
etcd-3: etcd-server-3-ip
patroni-1: patroni-server-1-ip
patroni-2: patroni-server-2-ip

Configure the `etcd` Cluster

This section describes how to set up an etcd cluster on the etcd-1, etcd-2, and etcd-3 servers.

Install `etcd`

Run the following command to download and install the etcd binary. Visit the etcd GitHub Repository for the latest version.

 $ ETCD_VER=v3.5.7
 $ DOWNLOAD_URL=https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/download

 $ curl -L ${DOWNLOAD_URL}/${ETCD_VER}/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
 $ tar xzvf /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /tmp

 $ sudo mv /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64/etcd /usr/bin  
 $ sudo mv /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64/etcdctl /usr/bin  
 $ sudo mv /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64/etcdutl /usr/bin  

 $ sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/etcd
 $ sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/etcdctl
 sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/etcdutl

 $ rm -rf /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64*

Verify the installed version.
```
 $ etcd --version
```

Set Up the `etcd` Service

Perform the following steps to set up the etcd service on each etcd server.

Create a new service user and prepare folder permissions as below.

 $ sudo useradd --system --no-create-home etcd
 $ sudo mkdir -p /etc/etcd /var/lib/etcd
 $ sudo chown etcd:etcd /etc/etcd
 $ sudo chown etcd:etcd /var/lib/etcd

Create the configuration file /etc/etcd/etcd.conf.yml with the following configurations.

 name: YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME
 data-dir: /var/lib/etcd
 initial-cluster-state: 'new'
 initial-cluster-token: 'etcd-cluster'
 initial-cluster: YOUR_INITIAL_CLUSTER
 initial-advertise-peer-urls: http://YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:2380
 advertise-client-urls: http://YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:2379
 listen-peer-urls: 'http://YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:2380,http://127.0.0.1:2380'
 listen-client-urls: 'http://YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:2379,http://127.0.0.1:2379'
 enable-v2: true

Using a text editor such as Vim. Open the file /etc/etcd/etcd.conf.yml.
```
 $ sudo vim /etc/etcd/etcd.conf.yml
```
Replace YOUR_INITIAL_CLUSTER with the following line. Replace etcd-server-1-ip, etcd-server-2-ip and etcd-server-3-ip with the corresponding IP addresses of your etcd servers.
```
 etcd1=http://etcd-server-1-ip:2380,etcd2=http://etcd-server-2-ip:2380,etcd3=http://etcd-server-3-ip:2380
```
Replace YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME and YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS with your etcd server name and IP Address.

This article uses the following example YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME and YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS for each server:
- etcd-1: instance name is etcd-1 and instance address is etcd-server-1-ip
- etcd-2: instance name is etcd-2 and instance address is etcd-server-2-ip
- etcd-3: instance name is etcd-3 and instance address is etcd-server-3-ip

Create the /usr/lib/systemd/system/etcd.service file with the following content.

 [Unit]
 Description="etcd service"
 After=network.target

 [Service]
 LimitNOFILE=65536
 Restart=always
 Type=notify
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/etcd --config-file /etc/etcd/etcd.conf.yml
 User=etcd
 Group=etcd

 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target

Allow the ports 2379 and 2380 through the firewall.
```
 $ sudo ufw allow 2379 && sudo ufw allow 2380
```

Enable & start the etcd service.

 $ systemctl enable etcd.service
 $ systemctl start etcd.service

Check the `etcd` Service

Check etcd service logs to make sure there are no errors.
```
 $ journalctl -u etcd.service -f
```
Get the list of members in the etcd cluster.
```
 $ etcdctl member list -w table
```
Save a test key-value pair to the etcd cluster.
```
 $ etcdctl put greeting "Hello World!"
```
Get the test key value from any etcd node.
```
 $ etcdctl get greeting
```

Configure the Patroni Cluster

This section shows how to set up a Patroni cluster on the patroni-1 and patroni-2 servers.

Install PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL on both Patroni servers.

 $ sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

Stop the PostgreSQL service.
```
 $ systemctl stop postgresql
```
Disable the PostgreSQL service.
```
 $ systemctl disable postgresql
```

Install Patroni

Install Patroni and other dependencies on both Patroni servers.

 $ sudo apt install -y python3-pip python3-dev libpq-dev
 $ pip3 install --upgrade pip
 $ pip install patroni python-etcd psycopg2

Create the configuration file /etc/patroni.yml with the following configurations.

 scope: patroni_cluster
 name: YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME
 namespace: /service

 restapi:
  listen: 'YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:8008'
  connect_address: 'YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:8008'

 etcd:
  hosts: YOUR_ETCD_HOSTS

 bootstrap:
  dcs:
    ttl: 30
    loop_wait: 10
    retry_timeout: 10
    maximum_lag_on_failover: 1048576
    postgresql:
      use_pg_rewind: true
      use_slots: true
      parameters:
        hot_standby: 'on'
        wal_keep_segments: 20
        max_wal_senders: 8
        max_replication_slots: 8
    slots:
      patroni_standby_leader:
        type: physical
  initdb:
    - encoding: UTF8
    - data-checksums
  pg_hba:
    - host replication replicator 0.0.0.0/0 md5
    - host all all 0.0.0.0/0 md5
  users:
    admin:
      password: admin%
      options:
        - createrole
        - createdb
 postgresql:
  listen: 'YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:5432'
  connect_address: 'YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS:5432'
  data_dir: /var/lib/postgresql/data
  pgpass: /tmp/pgpass0
  authentication:
    replication:
      username: replicator
      password: replicate%
    superuser:
      username: postgres
      password: postgres%
    rewind:
      username: rewind_user
      password: rewind_password%
 tags:
  nofailover: false
  noloadbalance: false
  clonefrom: false
  nosync: false

Open the file /etc/patroni.yml.
```
 $ sudo vim /etc/patroni.yml
```
Replace YOUR_ETCD_HOSTS with the following line. Replace etcd-server-1-ip, etcd-server-2-ip and etcd-server-3-ip with the corresponding IP addresses of your etcd servers.
```
 etcd-server-1-ip:2379,etcd-server-2-ip:2379,etcd-server-3-ip:2379
```
Replace YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME and YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS with your patroni server name and IP address.

This article uses the following example YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME and YOUR_INSTANCE_ADDRESS for each server:
- patroni-1: instance name is patroni-1 and instance address is patroni-server-1-ip
- patroni-2: instance name is patroni-2 and instance address is patroni-server-2-ip

Create the /usr/lib/systemd/system/patroni.service file with the following contents.

 [Unit]
 Description="patroni service"
 After=syslog.target network.target

 [Service]
 Restart=no
 Type=simple
 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/patroni /etc/patroni.yml
 ExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPID
 KillMode=process
 TimeoutSec=30
 User=postgres
 Group=postgres

 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target

Allow the ports 5432 and 8008 through the firewall.
```
 $ sudo ufw allow 5432
 $ sudo ufw allow 8008
```

Enable & start the Patroni service.

 $ sudo systemctl enable patroni.service
 $ sudo systemctl start patroni.service

Check the Patroni Service

Check Patroni service logs to make sure there are no errors.
```
 $ sudo journalctl -u patroni.service -f
```

Get the list of members in the Patroni cluster.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list

On the Patroni primary node, connect to the PostgreSQL with psql command.
```
 $ psql -U postgres;
```

Create a table to test the data replication.

 create table mydata(key text, value text);
 insert into mydata values('foo', 'bar');

On the Patroni replica node, query the data from the new table.
```
 $ psql -U postgres -c "select * from mydata;"
```

Deploy Vultr Load Balancer

This section shows how to deploy a Vultr Load Balancer to forward traffic to the PostgreSQL primary. The Load balancer performs health checks on the Patroni REST API in each Patroni instance to know which instance is the PostgreSQL primary.

Create Vultr Load Balancer

Log in to your Customer Portal and deploy a new Vultr Load Balancer.
Label the Load Balancer Configuration as patroni-primary.
In Forwarding Rules, set the following configuration:
- Load Balancer: Protocol to TCP and Port to 5432
- Instance: Protocol to TCP and Port to 5432
In Health Checks, set the following configuration:
- Protocol: HTTP
- Port: 8008
- Interval: 3
- HTTP Path: /
In Firewall Rules, click Add firewall rule and set the following configuration:
- Port: 5432
- IP type: IPv4
- Source: 0.0.0.0/0
Go to your Customer Portal and open your Load Balancer.
Click Add instance and select your Patroni instances.

Connect to the PostgreSQL Cluster using the Load Balancer

Connect to PostgreSQL using psql. Replace <LOAD_BALANCER_IP> with your Load Balancer IP. Enter the password from the /etc/patroni.yml file in the previous step.

$ psql -h <LOAD_BALANCER_IP> -U postgres

Prepare a Vultr Object Storage

This section describes how to deploy a Vultr Object Storage to store the Write-AHead-Logging files and daily backups of your Postgres cluster.

Create a Vultr Object Storage.
Create a bucket patroni-demo-bucket inside the Object Storage.
Get your Vultr Object Storage Hostname, Access Key and Secret Key.

Backup with pgBackRest

This section describes how to set up a backup strategy with pgBackRest in the Patroni cluster on the patroni-1, and patroni-2 servers.

Install pgBackRest

Install pgBackRest on both Patroni servers.
```
 $ sudo apt install -y pgbackrest
```

Prepare a directory for pgBackRest.

 $ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/pgbackrest
 $ sudo chmod 0750 /var/lib/pgbackrest
 $ sudo chown -R postgres:postgres /var/lib/pgbackrest
 $ sudo chown -R postgres:postgres /var/log/pgbackrest

Create a new file /etc/pgbackrest.conf with the following contents.

 [demo-cluster]  
 pg1-path=/var/lib/postgresql/data
 pg1-port=5432
 pg1-user=postgres

 [global]  
 start-fast=y
 process-max=4
 archive-timeout=300

 repo1-type=s3
 repo1-s3-uri-style=path
 repo1-path=/pgbackrest/patroni-demo
 repo1-retention-full=4
 repo1-s3-bucket=<REPO_S3_BUCKET_NAME>
 repo1-s3-endpoint=<REPO_S3_ENDPOINT>
 repo1-s3-key=<REPO_S3_ACCESS_KEY>
 repo1-s3-key-secret=<REPO_S3_KEY_SECRET>
 repo1-s3-region=default  

 [global:archive-push]  
 compress-level=3

Replace <REPO_S3_ENDPOINT> with your Vultr Object Storage hostname, <REPO_S3_BUCKET_NAME> with the bucket name, <REPO_S3_ACCESS_KEY> and <REPO_S3_KEY_SECRET> with your Vultr Object Storage Access Key and Secret Key respectively.

Save and close the file.

Edit the /etc/patroni.yml file and add create_replica_methods, pgbackrest, basebackup under the postgresql section as below:

 postgresql:
   create_replica_methods:
     - pgbackrest
     - basebackup
   pgbackrest:
     command: pgbackrest --stanza=demo-cluster restore --type=none
     keep_data: True
     no_params: True
   basebackup:
     checkpoint: 'fast'

Reload the Patroni service.
```
 $ systemctl reload patroni
```
On the Patroni primary server, run the following command to edit the Patroni configuration.
```
 $ patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml edit-config
```

Add archive_command, archive_mode and recovery_conf under the postgresql section as below.

 postgresql:
   parameters:
     hot_standby: 'on'
     max_replication_slots: 8
     max_wal_senders: 8
     wal_keep_segments: 20
     archive_command: pgbackrest --stanza=demo-cluster archive-push "%p"
     archive_mode: 'on'
   recovery_conf:
     recovery_target_timeline: latest
     restore_command: pgbackrest --stanza=demo-cluster archive-get %f "%p"
   use_pg_rewind: false
   use_slots: true
 retry_timeout: 10
 ttl: 30

Reload the Patroni cluster.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml reload patroni_cluster

Perform a Manual Backup

Get the list of members of the Patroni cluster.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list

Connect to the Patroni Leader server over SSH.
```
 $ ssh user@patroni-server-ip
```

Create pgBackRest Stanza.

 $ sudo -u postgres pgbackrest --stanza=demo-cluster stanza-create

Back up with pgBackRest.

 $ sudo -u postgres pgbackrest --stanza=demo-cluster backup

Check the backup information.
```
 $ sudo -u postgres pgbackrest info
```

Schedule Automatic Backups

Run crontab -e on both Patroni servers and enter the following configurations:

00 01 * * 0 sudo -u pgbackrest --type=full --stanza=demo-cluster backup &> /dev/null
00 01 * * 1-6 sudo -u pgbackrest --type=diff --stanza=demo-cluster backup &> /dev/null
0 */4 * * * sudo -u pgbackrest --type=incr --stanza=demo-cluster backup &> /dev/null

Below are some commands to verify the backup status:

Check the backup information.
```
 $ sudo -u postgres pgbackrest info
```
Check cron service logs to make sure there are pgBackRest jobs.
```
 $ journalctl -u cron.service -f
```
View the list of PostgreSQL Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) files.
```
 $ ls /var/lib/postgresql/data/pg_wal/
```

View the list of WAL archive status files.

 $ ls /var/lib/postgresql/data/pg_wal/archive_status/

Restore a Replica using pgBackRest

This section shows how to restore a replica from the backup. This section simulates a disaster situation by removing the data directory.

Get the list of members of the Patroni cluster.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list

Connect to the Patroni Replica server over SSH.
```
 $ ssh user@patroni-replica-ip
```
Stop the patroni service.
```
 $ sudo systemctl stop patroni
```

Remove its data directory.

 $ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/postgresql/data/*

Start the Patroni service.
```
 $ sudo systemctl start patroni
```
Check Patroni service logs to make sure there are no errors.
```
 $ sudo journalctl -u patroni.service -f
```

Query the test table from previous steps.

 $ psql -U postgres -c "select * from mydata;"

Maintenance

This section describes how to perform maintenance on each of the members of the cluster.

Perform a Manual Switchover

Check the status of the Patroni cluster. A zero value in Lag in MB shows that the replica has the latest data.
```
 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list
```

Perform the manual switchover.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml switchover

Reinitialize a Patroni Node

Check the status of the Patroni cluster. A big value in Lag in MB shows that the replica doesn't work normally. A common reason is the database can't write updates to disk.
```
 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list
```

Reinitialize the affected node.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list patroni_cluster

Upgrade `etcd` Instances

This section describes how to upgrade the plan of each member of the etcd cluster.

Check the etcd cluster status.
```
 $ etcdctl endpoint health
```
Navigate to your Customer Portal and select one etcd instance.
Click the Settings tab on the server information page.
Select the Change Plan menu.
Select the new plan, then click Upgrade.
Check the etcd cluster status and wait until all nodes are healthy.
```
 $ etcdctl endpoint health
```
Repeat the steps for the remaining nodes.

Upgrade Patroni Instances

This section describes how to upgrade the plan of each member of the Patroni cluster.

Get the list of members of the Patroni cluster.

 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list

(Optional) Perform a switchover if you want to upgrade the Patroni leader.
Navigate to your Customer Portal and select one Patroni instance.
Click the Settings tab on the server information page.
Select Change Plan menu.
Select the new plan, then click Upgrade.
Check the Patroni cluster status and wait until all nodes are healthy.
```
 $ sudo -u postgres patronictl -c /etc/patroni.yml list
```
Repeat the steps for the remaining nodes.

Conclusion

In this article cyou have deployed a high-availability PostgreSQL cluster with Patroni and etcd. This setup ensures the high availability of your database and protects you from any pontential data loss by streaming data between multiple servers and keeping backups on Vultr Object Storage.

Create a High-Availability PostgreSQL Cluster with Patroni, Vultr Load Balancer, and Object Storage

Introduction

Prerequisites

Server Configuration

Create the Vultr Server Instances

Configure the `etcd` Cluster

Install `etcd`

Set Up the `etcd` Service

Check the `etcd` Service

Configure the Patroni Cluster

Install PostgreSQL

Install Patroni

Check the Patroni Service

Deploy Vultr Load Balancer

Create Vultr Load Balancer

Connect to the PostgreSQL Cluster using the Load Balancer

Prepare a Vultr Object Storage

Backup with pgBackRest

Install pgBackRest

Perform a Manual Backup

Schedule Automatic Backups

Restore a Replica using pgBackRest

Maintenance

Perform a Manual Switchover

Reinitialize a Patroni Node

Upgrade `etcd` Instances

Upgrade Patroni Instances

Conclusion

Products

Features

Marketplace

Resources

Company

Create a High-Availability PostgreSQL Cluster with Patroni, Vultr Load Balancer, and Object Storage

Introduction

Prerequisites

Server Configuration

Create the Vultr Server Instances

Configure the etcd Cluster

Install etcd

Set Up the etcd Service

Check the etcd Service

Configure the Patroni Cluster

Install PostgreSQL

Install Patroni

Check the Patroni Service

Deploy Vultr Load Balancer

Create Vultr Load Balancer

Connect to the PostgreSQL Cluster using the Load Balancer

Prepare a Vultr Object Storage

Backup with pgBackRest

Install pgBackRest

Perform a Manual Backup

Schedule Automatic Backups

Restore a Replica using pgBackRest

Maintenance

Perform a Manual Switchover

Reinitialize a Patroni Node

Upgrade etcd Instances

Upgrade Patroni Instances

Conclusion

Configure the `etcd` Cluster

Install `etcd`

Set Up the `etcd` Service

Check the `etcd` Service

Upgrade `etcd` Instances