Cross-Cloud PostgreSQL Disaster Recovery Setup
I recently completed a PostgreSQL disaster recovery (DR) setup involving a primary cluster hosted on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and a synchronized standby on AWS.
This project involved the use of Patroni for high availability and pgBackRest for PITR (Point-in-Time Recovery) backups. One of the main challenges was ensuring secure, efficient, and automated replication across cloud providers while maintaining minimal downtime in case of failure.
Project Overview
The goal was to provide a robust multi-cloud DR solution for mission-critical applications. The implementation included:
- Primary PostgreSQL cluster on GCP with Patroni for high availability
- Standby cluster on AWS with continuous replication
- Secure cross-cloud networking with VPC peering and encryption
- Automated failover mechanisms with minimal RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
- Comprehensive monitoring and alerting system
Technical Implementation
Architecture
The solution architecture leveraged several key technologies:
- Patroni for cluster management and automatic failover
- pgBackRest for efficient backup and replication
- HAProxy for intelligent request routing
- Consul for distributed configuration management
- Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring
Cross-Cloud Challenges
Working across cloud providers presented unique challenges:
- Network Latency: Optimizing replication performance across geographic regions
- Security: Implementing end-to-end encryption for data in transit
- Cost Optimization: Balancing performance requirements with infrastructure costs
- Automation: Creating reliable failover processes that work across different cloud APIs
Performance Results
The final implementation achieved:
- RPO (Recovery Point Objective) of less than 1 minute
- RTO (Recovery Time Objective) of under 5 minutes
- Minimal impact on primary database performance
- Automated testing and validation procedures
Business Impact
This multi-cloud disaster recovery solution provided the client with:
- Enhanced business continuity capabilities
- Protection against cloud provider outages
- Compliance with regulatory requirements for data resilience
- Increased confidence in their ability to recover from catastrophic failures
If you’re facing similar challenges in your architecture or looking to design multi-cloud resilient systems, feel free to connect on LinkedIn or contact me to discuss your specific needs.