PostgreSQL: Economy (Beta)

Beta Warning

Please note that breaking changes may still occur during the beta period. We recommend that you do not rely on the service until it is generally available. During this period, resource management through Cockpit or our command-line tool nctl may be limited or unavailable.

Databases in the Economy tier run in a logically separated tenant on a shared, multi-tenant environment managed by Nine. This makes them a perfect fit for non-production or low-traffic sites. Due to their fast startup time, they are also ideal for automated testing pipelines.

The Economy tier provides a single database, whereas the Business tier offers a dedicated database instance where you can create and manage multiple databases.

Please refer to the tier table to get an overview of the differences between them:

Tier	Economy (Beta) Single Databases	Business Dedicated Instances	First Custom Managed Service
Manageable in Cockpit / nctl	☑️	☑️	✖️
Dedicated Resources	✖️	☑️	☑️
Backups	✖️	☑️	☑️
Custom Configuration	✖️	Limited settings	☑️
Cluster Deployments	✖️	✖️	☑️
Starts at			Please reach out to:

Economy and Business databases can be managed via Cockpit, our command-line tool nctl or by directly using the API. Billing is automated based on the resources used. Nine's automated management ensures the smooth operation of the service.

Getting Started

You can use nctl or Cockpit, our web interface to get started:

Cockpit

1. Create a New Service directly in Cockpit to get started.
2. Retrieve the credentials from the overview page. Note the FQDN, username and password.
   The database will have the same name as the user.
3. Connect to the newly created database:

   psql --host ${FQDN} --dbname ${USER} --username ${USER} # database has the same name as the user

nctl

1. Ensure you are logged in with nctl:

   nctl auth login

2. Create a postgresdatabase:

   nctl create postgresdatabase my-test-database

3. Connect to the newly created database:

   nctl get postgresdatabase my-test-database # note the FQDN
   nctl get postgresdatabase my-test-database --print-database-user # note the user
   nctl get postgresdatabase my-test-database --print-password # note the password
   psql --host ${FQDN} --dbname ${USER} --username ${USER} # database has the same name as the user

On-Demand databases can be managed via Cockpit, our command-line tool nctl or by directly using the API.

Billing is automated based on the resources used. Nine's automated management ensures the smooth operation of the service.

On-Demand databases offer limited configuration options. If more extensive settings are required, use our Managed Service.

Updates and Maintenance Windows

Security and software updates are generally performed during the maintenance window.

Therefore, short service interruptions may occur during this maintenance window without prior notice.

Monitoring

Nine monitors your database with a monitoring system 24x7. In the event of a malfunction, an (on-call) technician from Nine is automatically alerted and restores proper operation as quickly as possible.

Full utilization of resources is not assessed as a malfunction, as the size of the instance can be increased or decreased at any time.

Configuration Options

On-Demand Services come with a sensible base configuration that is suitable for most setups. They also provide the ability to change certain configuration options. Adjusting these configuration options can result in a restart of the instance.

The instance can be customized with the following configuration options:

Name

The name of the instance can be freely chosen, but must be unique. Once created, the name cannot be changed.

Location

Depending on available resources, instances can be created in two locations within the "ColoZüri" data center or the "NTT" data center in Rümlang. The location cannot be changed later.

Pricing

Databases are split into different packages:

	S	M	L
Storage space max.	1 GB	5 GB	10 GB
Max. Connections	20	20	20
Monthly fees

The price in the Economy tier is automatically selected based on the size of the database. The database size cannot exceed the 10 GB of the L package.

Connection

User

A user and password are generated, when the instance is created. Check the Getting Started section for details on how to retrieve the credentials.

TLS

The on-demand services only accept connections secured by TLS. Depending on the client or library used, it may be necessary to explicitly enable TLS.

The TLS certificate is self-signed. In addition to enabling TLS transport encryption, you may need to provide the certificate authority used for validation.

You can retrieve the CA either through Cockpit or nctl:

Cockpit

1. Open the On-Demand Services overview and select the respective service.
2. The CA is available under the resource's Certificate tab.

nctl

1. Ensure you are logged in with nctl:

   nctl auth login

2. Retrieve the certificate:

   nctl get postgresdatabase my-test-postgresdatabase --print-ca-cert

Importing an existing database

To quickly get up and running, you can import an existing database, for example from your local development environment. It is recommended to use the following options:

# create a dump of the database, ensure it does not contain the create database statement
pg_dump --no-owner --no-privileges my_postgresdatabase > my_postgresdatabase.sql
# import the dump into the newly created database
psql --host ${FQDN} --dbname ${USER} --username ${USER} < my_postgresdatabase.sql

Backups

We currently don't offer backups for the Economy tier. Please refer to the tier table to get an overview of the differences between the offerings.