Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL now supports Read Replicas, PostgreSQL 9.3.5, Data Migration enhancements, and Three New Extensions

Posted on: Nov 10, 2014

Read Replicas
This replication feature makes it easy to elastically scale out beyond the capacity constraints of a single DB Instance for read-heavy database workloads. You can create multiple replicas of a PostgreSQL database instance within an AWS Region and distribute high-volume application read traffic across them, thereby increasing aggregate read throughput. To add a Read Replica to a PostgreSQL instance, use the "Add Read Replica" option in the AWS Management Console.

Data Migration using trigger based replication
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL now supports the session replication role. You can now import data into your Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB Instance with minimal downtime by leveraging this role and using open-source trigger-based replication tools such as Londiste. You can also take advantage of the session replication role to export data to a remote target on-premises or on Amazon EC2 using open-source trigger-based replication tools such as Bucardo.

PostgreSQL Extensions
When you upgrade to PostgreSQL 9.3.5, you can also take advantage of three new extensions: pg_stat_statements, to gain more visibility into your query performance; postgres_fdw, to access data on remote PostgreSQL servers within your RDS PostgreSQL instance; and PL/V8, to write JavaScript functions that can be called from SQL.

You can now use all the above features by upgrading your existing Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB Instances to 9.3.5 or by launching a new DB Instance with version 9.3.5, with just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console. Please refer to the steps in the Amazon RDS User Guide to create or upgrade your instances. Before you upgrade a production database instance, we recommend that you test the upgrade process with a test instance to verify the duration of the upgrade process and to check your application for compatibility with the new DB engine version.

For more information about Read Replicas and the session replication role, see the Amazon RDS User's Guide. For more information about the changes in the PostgreSQL DB Engine version 9.3.5, see the Amazon RDS release notes.