Cluster Scaling

Once your PostgreSQL cluster is successfully deployed, you may find the need to scale it by adding additional nodes or balancers to handle increased load or redundancy.

Console (UI)

Cluster scaling is currently supported only through the command line.

tip

If you’re interested in having this functionality available through the UI, please consider becoming a sponsor.

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:2.4.1 \
    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:2.4.1 \
    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='m6i.xlarge' \
       server_image='ami-063fb82b183efe67d' \
       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:2.4.1 \
    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:2.4.1 \
    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:2.4.1 \
    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:2.4.1 \
    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.