Cluster Scaling

This section guides you through scaling your PostgreSQL cluster by adding nodes.

tip

You can easily start with a single-node PostgreSQL cluster and scale it out by adding replicas as your workload or high-availability requirements grow.

Console (UI)

To add replicas in the Console UI, open Clusters, select the cluster, click Actions, and choose Add replica.

Your Own Machines

Specify one or more servers as PostgreSQL replicas. The servers must be reachable over SSH.

For each server, provide the Hostname and IP Address. The SSH port and Location fields are optional.

Select Add replicas to start the scaling operation.

Clouds

info

The same scaling method applies to all supported cloud providers: AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, and Hetzner Cloud.

Specify the desired number of target nodes

Select I understand and want to continue, and click Add replica.

Wait for the cluster scaling to complete. You can monitor its progress and view the logs on the Operations page.

Command line

Your Own Machines

To scale your cluster by adding a new node, follow these steps:

1. Modify the inventory file: Add the new node’s IP and set new_node=true variable.

Example:

[master]
10.128.64.141 hostname=pgnode01

[replica]
10.128.64.142 hostname=pgnode02
10.128.64.143 hostname=pgnode03
10.128.64.144 hostname=pgnode04 new_node=true

info

In this example, we add a node with the IP address 10.128.64.144

2. Run the playbook: Execute the add_node.yml playbook to add the new node to your cluster.

docker run --rm -it \
  -e ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS="-F none" \
  -e ANSIBLE_INVENTORY=/project/inventory \
  -v $PWD:/project \
  -v $HOME/.ssh:/root/.ssh \
  autobase/automation:2.11.0 \
    ansible-playbook add_node.yml

tip

You can scale PostgreSQL nodes, and DCS cluster (etcd or Consul), as well as HAProxy load balancers (when with_haproxy_load_balancing is set to true).

AWS

To scale your cluster by adding a new node, just increase server_count variable (e.g., from 3 to 5).

note

Specify the path to the private SSH key (its public pair must already be on cluster nodes) using either ansible_ssh_private_key_file or --private-key option.

Execute the add_node.yml playbook to add the new node to your cluster, example:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<value>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<value>

docker run --rm -it \
  -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID} \
  -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY} \
  -v $HOME/.ssh:/root/.ssh \
  autobase/automation:2.11.0 \
    ansible-playbook add_node.yml --extra-vars \
      "ansible_user=ubuntu \
       ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/root/.ssh/id_rsa \
       cloud_provider='aws' \
       server_count=5 \
       server_type='m7i.xlarge' \
       server_image='ami-034568121cfdea9c3' \
       server_location='us-east-1' \
       volume_size=100 \
       postgresql_version=18 \
       patroni_cluster_name='postgres-cluster-01' \
       ssh_public_keys='ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA******whzcMINzKKCc7AVGbk='"

info

Autobase will create and configure a new EC2 instances in your AWS account and add it to the cluster.

GCP

To scale your cluster by adding a new node, just increase server_count variable (e.g., from 3 to 5).

note

Specify the path to the private SSH key (its public pair must already be on cluster nodes) using either ansible_ssh_private_key_file or --private-key option.

Execute the add_node.yml playbook to add the new node to your cluster, example:

export GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CONTENTS='{
  <value>
}'

docker run --rm -it \
  -e GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CONTENTS=${GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CONTENTS} \
  -v $HOME/.ssh:/root/.ssh \
  autobase/automation:2.11.0 \
    ansible-playbook add_node.yml --extra-vars \
      "ansible_user=root \
       ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/root/.ssh/id_rsa \
       cloud_provider='gcp' \
       server_count=5 \
       server_type='n2-standard-4' \
       server_image='projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/images/family/ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64' \
       server_location='us-east1' \
       volume_size=100 \
       postgresql_version=18 \
       patroni_cluster_name='postgres-cluster-01' \
       ssh_public_keys='ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA******whzcMINzKKCc7AVGbk='"

info

Autobase will create and configure a new VM instances in your Google Cloud account and add it to the cluster.

Azure

To scale your cluster by adding a new node, just increase server_count variable (e.g., from 3 to 5).

note

Specify the path to the private SSH key (its public pair must already be on cluster nodes) using either ansible_ssh_private_key_file or --private-key option.

Execute the add_node.yml playbook to add the new node to your cluster, example:

export AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=<value>
export AZURE_CLIENT_ID=<value>
export AZURE_SECRET=<value>
export AZURE_TENANT=<value>

docker run --rm -it \
  -e AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=${AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID} \
  -e AZURE_CLIENT_ID=${AZURE_CLIENT_ID} \
  -e AZURE_SECRET=${AZURE_SECRET} \
  -e AZURE_TENANT=${AZURE_TENANT} \
  -v $HOME/.ssh:/root/.ssh \
  autobase/automation:2.11.0 \
    ansible-playbook add_node.yml --extra-vars \
      "ansible_user=azureadmin \
       ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/root/.ssh/id_rsa \
       cloud_provider='azure' \
       server_count=5 \
       server_type='Standard_D4s_v5' \
       server_location='eastus' \
       volume_size=100 \
       postgresql_version=18 \
       patroni_cluster_name='postgres-cluster-01' \
       ssh_public_keys='ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA******whzcMINzKKCc7AVGbk='"

info

Autobase will create and configure a new virtual machines in your Azure account and add it to the cluster.

DigitalOcean

To scale your cluster by adding a new node, just increase server_count variable (e.g., from 3 to 5).

note

Specify the path to the private SSH key (its public pair must already be on cluster nodes) using either ansible_ssh_private_key_file or --private-key option.

Execute the add_node.yml playbook to add the new node to your cluster, example:

export DO_API_TOKEN=<value>

docker run --rm -it \
  -e DO_API_TOKEN=${DO_API_TOKEN} \
  -v $HOME/.ssh:/root/.ssh \
  autobase/automation:2.11.0 \
    ansible-playbook add_node.yml --extra-vars \
      "ansible_user=root \
       ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/root/.ssh/id_rsa \
       cloud_provider='digitalocean' \
       server_count=5 \
       server_type='g-4vcpu-16gb' \
       server_image='ubuntu-24-04-x64' \
       server_location='nyc1' \
       volume_size=100 \
       AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID='YOUR_ACCESS_KEY' \
       AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY='YOUR_SECRET_KEY' \
       digital_ocean_spaces_region='nyc3' \
       pgbackrest_install=true \
       postgresql_version=18 \
       patroni_cluster_name='postgres-cluster-01' \
       ssh_public_keys='ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA******whzcMINzKKCc7AVGbk='"

info

Autobase will create and configure a new droplets in your DigitalOcean account and add it to the cluster.

Hetzner

To scale your cluster by adding a new node, just increase server_count variable (e.g., from 3 to 5).

note

Specify the path to the private SSH key (its public pair must already be on cluster nodes) using either ansible_ssh_private_key_file or --private-key option.

Execute the add_node.yml playbook to add the new node to your cluster, example:

export HCLOUD_API_TOKEN=<value>

docker run --rm -it \
  -e HCLOUD_API_TOKEN=${HCLOUD_API_TOKEN} \
  -v $HOME/.ssh:/root/.ssh \
  autobase/automation:2.11.0 \
    ansible-playbook add_node.yml --extra-vars \
      "ansible_user=root \
       ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/root/.ssh/id_rsa \
       cloud_provider='hetzner' \
       server_count=5 \
       server_type='CCX23' \
       server_image='ubuntu-24.04' \
       server_location='fsn1' \
       volume_size=100 \
       hetzner_object_storage_access_key='YOUR_ACCESS_KEY' \
       hetzner_object_storage_secret_key='YOUR_SECRET_KEY' \
       hetzner_object_storage_region='nbg1' \
       pgbackrest_install=true \
       postgresql_version=18 \
       patroni_cluster_name='postgres-cluster-01' \
       ssh_public_keys='ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA******whzcMINzKKCc7AVGbk='"

info

Autobase will create and configure a new servers in your Hetzner Cloud account and add it to the cluster.