Service operations - Maintenance

On Timescale Cloud, minor software updates are handled automatically by us, and you do not need to perform any actions.

Most updates that we perform on your Timescale Cloud services are applied during a maintenance window that you can define to suit your workload. However, if we detect a critical security vulnerability that affects you, we might need to perform maintenance outside of the scheduled maintenance window.

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After a maintenance update, the DNS name remains the same, but the IP address it points to often changes.

In most cases, the updates that occur during your maintenance windows do not require any downtime. This means that there is no outage of your services during the upgrade. However, all connections and transactions in progress during the upgrade are reset. Usually, the database connection is automatically restored after the reset.

Sometimes, updates that occur during your maintenance window require some downtime. In this case, the downtime is usually between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. We endeavor to notify you on email ahead of the upgrade if downtime is required, so that you can plan accordingly. However, in some cases, we might not be able to do so. It is important that you schedule your maintenance window to minimize the disruption that a short downtime might have on your workloads.

To track the status of maintenance events, see the Timescale Cloud status page.

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To apply changes manually instead of waiting for the maintenance window, Pause then Resume your service. Maintenance changes are automatically applied when your service is resumed.

Replicas and maintenance

Services with replicas do not require maintenance downtime. Instead, they have one or two failover events during maintenance, taking less than a few seconds each.

During a maintenance event, services with replicas perform maintenance on each node independently. Maintenance begins on one node, and when it is finished, that node is promoted to primary. The other node then begins maintenance, and when it is complete, it remains the replica. Sometimes, maintenance begins with the primary. This causes the replica node to be promoted at the start. If this happens, the service experiences two promotions, or failovers, during the maintenance event.

For more information about replicas, see the replicas section.

Non-critical maintenance updates

Non-critical upgrades are made available before the upgrade is performed automatically. During this time you can click Apply upgrades to start the upgrade at any time. However, after the time expires, usually around a week, the upgrade is triggered automatically in the next available maintenance window for your service. You can configure the maintenance window so that these upgrades are started only at a particular time, on a set day of the week. If there are no pending upgrades available during a regular maintenance window, no changes are performed.

When you are considering your maintenance window schedule, you might prefer to choose a day and time that usually has very low activity, such as during the early hours of the morning, or over the weekend. This can help minimize the impact of a short service interruption. Alternatively, you might prefer to have your maintenance window occur during office hours, so that you can monitor your system during the upgrade.

Adjusting your maintenance window

1. Log in to your Timescale Cloud account. Click the name of the service that you want to manage the maintenance window for.
2. In the Operations tab, navigate to the Maintenance section, and click Change maintenance window.
3. In the Maintenance dialog, select the day of the week, the time, and the timezone that you want the maintenance window to start. Maintenance windows can run for up to four hours.
4. Check Apply new maintenance window to all services if you want to use the same maintenance window settings for all of your Timescale Cloud services.

5. Click Apply Changes.

   

Critical updates

Critical upgrades and security fixes are installed outside normal maintenance windows when necessary, and sometimes require a short outage. In this case, the downtime is usually between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. We endeavor to notify you on email ahead of the upgrade if downtime is required, so that you can plan accordingly. However, in some cases, we might not be able to do so.

Upgrade to a new PostgreSQL version

Timescale Cloud currently supports PostgreSQL 12, 13, and 14. You can see your PostgreSQL and TimescaleDB versions from the Timescale Cloud service overview page.

You can also manually upgrade to the newest supported PostgreSQL version (PostgreSQL 14) from the service overview page.

Upgrading to a newer version of PostgreSQL allows you to take advantage of new features, enhancements, and security fixes. It also ensures that you are using a version of PostgreSQL that’s compatible with the newest version of TimescaleDB, allowing you to take advantage of everything Timescale has to offer. For more information about feature changes between versions, see the PostgreSQL release notes and TimescaleDB release notes.

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Your Timescale Cloud service is unavailable until the upgrade is complete. This can take several hours. To estimate the length of time, it is usually one second of downtime per 100 MB, but for a better estimate, you can test on a fork first.

Recommended practices for upgrading

For a smooth upgrade experience, make sure you:

• Plan ahead. Upgrades cause downtime, so ideally perform an upgrade during a low traffic time.
• Fork your database, and try out the upgrade on the fork before running it on your production system. This gives you a good idea of what happens during the upgrade, and how long it might take. For more information about forking, see the section on forking.
• Keep a copy of your database with your old version and data, if you’re worried about losing it. You can fork your database without upgrading the fork to keep a duplicate Timescale Cloud service. You can immediately pause this fork to only pay for storage until you are comfortable deleting it.

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Timescale Cloud services with replicas cannot be upgraded. To upgrade a service with a replica, you must first delete the replica and then upgrade the service.

Upgrading to a new PostgreSQL version

1. In the Timescale Cloud console, navigate to Services and click the service you want to upgrade.
2. Navigate to the Operations tab, and go to the Maintenance section.
3. If a new PostgreSQL version is available, click the Upgrade button, and confirm that you are ready to start the upgrade. Your Timescale Cloud service is unavailable for use until the upgrade is complete.
4. When the upgrade is finished, your service automatically resumes normal operations. If the upgrade is unsuccessful, the service returns to the state it was in before you started the upgrade.

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