# Deploying PostgreSQL for high availability with Patroni on Debian or Ubuntu This guide provides instructions on how to set up a highly available PostgreSQL cluster with Patroni on Debian or Ubuntu. ## Considerations 1. This is the example deployment suitable to be used for testing purposes in non-production environments. 2. In this setup ETCD resides on the same hosts as Patroni. In production, consider deploying ETCD cluster on dedicated hosts or at least have separate disks for ETCD and PostgreSQL. This is because ETCD writes every request from the cluster to disk which can be CPU intensive and affects disk performance. See [hardware recommendations](https://etcd.io/docs/v3.6/op-guide/hardware/) for details. 3. For this setup, we will use the nodes running on Ubuntu 22.04 as the base operating system: | Node name | Application | IP address |---------------|-------------------|-------------------- | node1 | Patroni, PostgreSQL, ETCD | 10.104.0.1 | node2 | Patroni, PostgreSQL, ETCD | 10.104.0.2 | node3 | Patroni, PostgreSQL, ETCD | 10.104.0.3 | HAProxy-demo | HAProxy | 10.104.0.6 !!! note Ideally, in a production (or even non-production) setup, the PostgreSQL nodes will be within a private subnet without any public connectivity to the Internet, and the HAProxy will be in a different subnet that allows client traffic coming only from a selected IP range. To keep things simple, we have implemented this architecture in a private environment, and each node can access the other by its internal, private IP. ## Initial setup ### Set up hostnames in the `/etc/hosts` file It's not necessary to have name resolution, but it makes the whole setup more readable and less error prone. Here, instead of configuring a DNS, we use a local name resolution by updating the file `/etc/hosts`. By resolving their hostnames to their IP addresses, we make the nodes aware of each other's names and allow their seamless communication. 1. Run the following command on each node. Change the node name to `node1`, `node2` and `node3` respectively: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname node1 ``` 2. Modify the `/etc/hosts` file of each PostgreSQL node to include the hostnames and IP addresses of the remaining nodes. Add the following at the end of the `/etc/hosts` file on all nodes: === "node1" ```text hl_lines="3 4" # Cluster IP and names 10.104.0.1 node1 10.104.0.2 node2 10.104.0.3 node3 ``` === "node2" ```text hl_lines="2 4" # Cluster IP and names 10.104.0.1 node1 10.104.0.2 node2 10.104.0.3 node3 ``` === "node3" ```text hl_lines="2 3" # Cluster IP and names 10.104.0.1 node1 10.104.0.2 node2 10.104.0.3 node3 ``` === "HAproxy-demo" The HAProxy instance should have the name resolution for all the three nodes in its `/etc/hosts` file. Add the following lines at the end of the file: ```text hl_lines="4 5 6" # Cluster IP and names 10.104.0.6 HAProxy-demo 10.104.0.1 node1 10.104.0.2 node2 10.104.0.3 node3 ``` ### Install the software Run the following commands on node1`, `node2` and `node3`: 1. Install Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL * [Install `percona-release`](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-repo-config/installing.html). * Enable the repository: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo percona-release setup ppg11 ``` * [Install Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL packages](../apt.md). 2. Install some Python and auxiliary packages to help with Patroni and ETCD ``` {.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev binutils ``` 3. Install ETCD, Patroni, pgBackRest packages: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo apt install percona-patroni \ etcd etcd-server etcd-client \ percona-pgbackrest ``` 4. Stop and disable all installed services: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl stop {etcd,patroni,postgresql} $ systemctl disable {etcd,patroni,postgresql} ``` 5. Even though Patroni can use an existing Postgres installation, remove the data directory to force it to initialize a new Postgres cluster instance. ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/postgresql/11/main ``` ## Configure ETCD distributed store The distributed configuration store provides a reliable way to store data that needs to be accessed by large scale distributed systems. The most popular implementation of the distributed configuration store is ETCD. ETCD is deployed as a cluster for fault-tolerance and requires an odd number of members (n/2+1) to agree on updates to the cluster state. An ETCD cluster helps establish a consensus among nodes during a failover and manages the configuration for the three PostgreSQL instances. The `etcd` cluster is first started in one node and then the subsequent nodes are added to the first node using the `add `command. The configuration is stored in the `/etc/default/etcd` file. ### Configure `node1` 1. Back up the configuration file ```{.bash data-promp="$"} $ sudo mv /etc/default/etcd /etc/default/etcd.orig ``` 2. Export environment variables to simplify the config file creation * Node name: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ export NODE_NAME=`hostname -f` ``` * Node IP: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ export NODE_IP=`hostname -i | awk '{print $1}'` ``` * Initial cluster token for the ETCD cluster during bootstrap: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ export ETCD_TOKEN='PostgreSQL_HA_Cluster_1' ``` * ETCD data directory: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ export ETCD_DATA_DIR='/var/lib/etcd/postgresql' ``` 3. Modify the `/etc/default/etcd` configuration file as follows:. ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ echo " ETCD_NAME=${NODE_NAME} ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER="${NODE_NAME}=http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_STATE="new" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_TOKEN="${ETCD_TOKEN}" ETCD_INITIAL_ADVERTISE_PEER_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_DATA_DIR="${ETCD_DATA_DIR}" ETCD_LISTEN_PEER_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_LISTEN_CLIENT_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2379,http://localhost:2379" ETCD_ADVERTISE_CLIENT_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2379" " | sudo tee -a /etc/default/etcd ``` 3. Start the `etcd` service to apply the changes on `node1`. ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl enable --now etcd $ sudo systemctl start etcd $ sudo systemctl status etcd ``` 4. Check the etcd cluster members on `node1`: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo etcdctl member list ``` Sample output: ```{.text .no-copy} 21d50d7f768f153a: name=default peerURLs=http://10.104.0.1:2380 clientURLs=http://10.104.0.1:2379 isLeader=true ``` 5. Add the `node2` to the cluster. Run the following command on `node1`: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo etcdctl member add node2 http://10.104.0.2:2380 ``` The output resembles the following one: ```{.text .no-copy} Added member named node2 with ID 10042578c504d052 to cluster ETCD_NAME="node2" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER="node2=http://10.104.0.2:2380,node1=http://10.104.0.1:2380" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_STATE="existing" ``` ### Configure `node2` 1. Back up the configuration file and export environment variables as described in steps 1-2 of the [`node1` configuration](#configure-node1) 2. Edit the `/etc/default/etcd` configuration file on `node2`. Use the result of the `add` command on `node1` to change the configuration file as follows: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ echo " ETCD_NAME="node2" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER="node1=http://10.0.100.1:2380,node2=http://10.0.100.2:2380" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_STATE="existing" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_TOKEN="${ETCD_TOKEN}" ETCD_INITIAL_ADVERTISE_PEER_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_DATA_DIR="${ETCD_DATA_DIR}" ETCD_LISTEN_PEER_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_LISTEN_CLIENT_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2379,http://localhost:2379" ETCD_ADVERTISE_CLIENT_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2379" " | sudo tee -a /etc/default/etcd ``` 3. Start the `etcd` service to apply the changes on `node2`: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl enable --now etcd $ sudo systemctl start etcd $ sudo systemctl status etcd ``` ### Configure `node3` 1. Add `node3` to the cluster. **Run the following command on `node1`** ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo etcdctl member add node3 http://10.104.0.3:2380 ``` 2. On `node3`, back up the configuration file and export environment variables as described in steps 1-2 of the [`node1` configuration](#configure-node1) 3. Modify the `/etc/default/etcd` configuration file and add the output of the `add` command: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ echo " ETCD_NAME=node3 ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER="node1=http://10.104.0.1:2380,node2=http://10.104.0.2:2380,node3=http://10.104.0.3:2380" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_STATE="existing" ETCD_INITIAL_CLUSTER_TOKEN="${ETCD_TOKEN}" ETCD_INITIAL_ADVERTISE_PEER_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_DATA_DIR="${ETCD_DATA_DIR}" ETCD_LISTEN_PEER_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2380" ETCD_LISTEN_CLIENT_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2379,http://localhost:2379" ETCD_ADVERTISE_CLIENT_URLS="http://${NODE_IP}:2379" " | sudo tee -a /etc/default/etcd ``` 4. Start the `etcd` service on `node3`: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl enable --now etcd $ sudo systemctl start etcd $ sudo systemctl status etcd ``` 5. Check the etcd cluster members. ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo etcdctl member list ``` The output resembles the following: ``` 2d346bd3ae7f07c4: name=node2 peerURLs=http://10.104.0.2:2380 clientURLs=http://10.104.0.2:2379 isLeader=false 8bacb519ebdee8db: name=node3 peerURLs=http://10.104.0.3:2380 clientURLs=http://10.104.0.3:2379 isLeader=false c5f52ea2ade25e1b: name=node1 peerURLs=http://10.104.0.1:2380 clientURLs=http://10.104.0.1:2379 isLeader=true ``` ## Configure Patroni Run the following commands on all nodes. You can do this in parallel: 1. Export and create environment variables to simplify the config file creation: * Node name: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ export NODE_NAME=`hostname -f` ``` * Node IP: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ export NODE_IP=`hostname -i | awk '{print $1}'` ``` * Create variables to store the PATH: ```bash DATA_DIR="/var/lib/postgresql/11/main" PG_BIN_DIR="/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin" ``` **NOTE**: Check the path to the data and bin folders on your operating system and change it for the variables accordingly. * Patroni information: ```bash NAMESPACE="percona_lab" SCOPE="cluster_1" ``` 2. Create the `/etc/patroni/patroni.yml` configuration file. Add the following configuration for `node1`: ```bash echo " namespace: ${NAMESPACE} scope: ${SCOPE} name: ${NODE_NAME} restapi: listen: 0.0.0.0:8008 connect_address: ${NODE_IP}:8008 etcd: host: ${NODE_IP}:2379 bootstrap: # this section will be written into Etcd:///config after initializing new cluster dcs: ttl: 30 loop_wait: 10 retry_timeout: 10 maximum_lag_on_failover: 1048576 slots: percona_cluster_1: type: physical postgresql: use_pg_rewind: true use_slots: true parameters: wal_level: replica hot_standby: "on" wal_keep_segments: 10 max_wal_senders: 5 max_replication_slots: 10 wal_log_hints: "on" logging_collector: 'on' # some desired options for 'initdb' initdb: # Note: It needs to be a list (some options need values, others are switches) - encoding: UTF8 - data-checksums pg_hba: # Add following lines to pg_hba.conf after running 'initdb' - host replication replicator 127.0.0.1/32 trust - host replication replicator 0.0.0.0/0 md5 - host all all 0.0.0.0/0 md5 - host all all ::0/0 md5 # Some additional users which needs to be created after initializing new cluster users: admin: password: qaz123 options: - createrole - createdb percona: password: qaz123 options: - createrole - createdb postgresql: cluster_name: cluster_1 listen: 0.0.0.0:5432 connect_address: ${NODE_IP}:5432 data_dir: ${DATADIR} bin_dir: ${PG_BIN_DIR} pgpass: /tmp/pgpass authentication: replication: username: replicator password: replPasswd superuser: username: postgres password: qaz123 parameters: unix_socket_directories: "/var/run/postgresql/" create_replica_methods: - basebackup basebackup: checkpoint: 'fast' tags: nofailover: false noloadbalance: false clonefrom: false nosync: false " | sudo tee -a /etc/patroni/patroni.yml ``` ??? admonition "Patroni configuration file" Let’s take a moment to understand the contents of the `patroni.yml` file. The first section provides the details of the node and its connection ports. After that, we have the `etcd` service and its port details. Following these, there is a `bootstrap` section that contains the PostgreSQL configurations and the steps to run once the database is initialized. The `pg_hba.conf` entries specify all the other nodes that can connect to this node and their authentication mechanism. 3. Check that the systemd unit file `patroni.service` is created in `/etc/systemd/system`. If it is created, skip this step. If it's **not** created, create it manually and specify the following contents within: ```ini title="/etc/systemd/system/patroni.service" [Unit] Description=Runners to orchestrate a high-availability PostgreSQL After=syslog.target network.target [Service] Type=simple User=postgres Group=postgres # Start the patroni process ExecStart=/bin/patroni /etc/patroni/patroni.yml # Send HUP to reload from patroni.yml ExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPID # only kill the patroni process, not its children, so it will gracefully stop postgres KillMode=process # Give a reasonable amount of time for the server to start up/shut down TimeoutSec=30 # Do not restart the service if it crashes, we want to manually inspect database on failure Restart=no [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target ``` 4. Make systemd aware of the new service: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload ``` 5. Now it's time to start Patroni. You need the following commands on all nodes but not in parallel. Start with the `node1` first, wait for the service to come to live, and then proceed with the other nodes one-by-one, always waiting for them to sync with the primary node: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl enable --now patroni $ sudo systemctl restart patroni ``` When Patroni starts, it initializes PostgreSQL (because the service is not currently running and the data directory is empty) following the directives in the bootstrap section of the configuration file. 6. Check the service to see if there are errors: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo journalctl -fu patroni ``` A common error is Patroni complaining about the lack of proper entries in the pg_hba.conf file. If you see such errors, you must manually add or fix the entries in that file and then restart the service. Changing the patroni.yml file and restarting the service will not have any effect here because the bootstrap section specifies the configuration to apply when PostgreSQL is first started in the node. It will not repeat the process even if the Patroni configuration file is modified and the service is restarted. 7. Check the cluster: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ patronictl -c /etc/patroni/patroni.yml list $SCOPE ``` The output on `node1` resembles the following: ```{.text .no-copy} + Cluster: cluster_1 --+---------+---------+----+-----------+ | Member | Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +--------+-------------+---------+---------+----+-----------+ | node-1 | 10.0.100.1 | Leader | running | 1 | | +--------+-------------+---------+---------+----+-----------+ ``` On the remaining nodes: ```{.text .no-copy} + Cluster: cluster_1 --+---------+---------+----+-----------+ | Member | Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +--------+-------------+---------+---------+----+-----------+ | node-1 | 10.0.100.1 | Leader | running | 1 | | | node-2 | 10.0.100.2 | Replica | running | 1 | 0 | +--------+-------------+---------+---------+----+-----------+ ``` If Patroni has started properly, you should be able to locally connect to a PostgreSQL node using the following command: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo psql -U postgres ``` The command output is the following: ``` psql (11.19) Type "help" for help. postgres=# ``` ## Configure HAProxy HAproxy is the load balancer and the single point of entry to your PostgreSQL cluster for client applications. A client application accesses the HAPpoxy URL and sends its read/write requests there. Behind-the-scene, HAProxy routes write requests to the primary node and read requests - to the secondaries in a round-robin fashion so that no secondary instance is unnecessarily loaded. To make this happen, provide different ports in the HAProxy configuration file. In this deployment, writes are routed to port 5000 and reads - to port 5001 This way, a client application doesn’t know what node in the underlying cluster is the current primary. HAProxy sends connections to a healthy node (as long as there is at least one healthy node available) and ensures that client application requests are never rejected. 1. Install HAProxy on the `HAProxy-demo` node: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo apt install percona-haproxy ``` 2. The HAProxy configuration file path is: `/etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg`. Specify the following configuration in this file. ``` global maxconn 100 defaults log global mode tcp retries 2 timeout client 30m timeout connect 4s timeout server 30m timeout check 5s listen stats mode http bind *:7000 stats enable stats uri / listen primary bind *:5000 option httpchk /primary http-check expect status 200 default-server inter 3s fall 3 rise 2 on-marked-down shutdown-sessions server node1 node1:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008 server node2 node2:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008 server node3 node3:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008 listen standbys balance roundrobin bind *:5001 option httpchk /replica http-check expect status 200 default-server inter 3s fall 3 rise 2 on-marked-down shutdown-sessions server node1 node1:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008 server node2 node2:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008 server node3 node3:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008 ``` HAProxy will use the REST APIs hosted by Patroni to check the health status of each PostgreSQL node and route the requests appropriately. 3. Restart HAProxy: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo systemctl restart haproxy ``` 4. Check the HAProxy logs to see if there are any errors: ```{.bash data-prompt="$"} $ sudo journalctl -u haproxy.service -n 100 -f ``` ## Next steps [Configure pgBackRest](pgbackrest.md){.md-button}