Create an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance

Prerequisites

• If you use a Resource Access Management (RAM) user to create an RDS instance, the RAM user must have the `AliyunRDSFullAccess` and `AliyunBSSOrderAccess` permissions. For more information about how to grant permissions, see Grant permissions to a RAM user.

• When you create a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, your Alibaba Cloud account balance, which includes cash and coupons, must be at least CNY 100.00. For more information about how to top up your account, see Top-up guide.

Before you begin, ensure that you have:

• (RAM users only) The AliyunRDSFullAccess and AliyunBSSOrderAccess permissions. See Grant permissions to a RAM user

Create an instance

1. Go to the RDS buy page.

2. Select a Billing method. The following table describes the available billing methods.

   For Serverless instances, see Create an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL Serverless instance. The final price is shown in the lower-right corner of the buy page after you complete all configuration steps.

   Billing method	Best for	Key benefit
   Subscription	Stable, long-running workloads	Significant discounts for longer terms; specify a Subscription duration at purchase
   Pay-as-you-go	Short-term use, testing, or unpredictable workloads	Billed hourly; release the instance at any time to stop charges
   Serverless	Scheduled tasks, bursty, or fully managed workloads	Resources scale dynamically with your workload

3. Select a Region.

   • To access the RDS instance from an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance over the internal network, create the RDS instance in the same region as your ECS instance. If they are in different regions, the ECS instance can only reach the RDS instance over the public internet, which increases latency.

   • To connect from a local server or a device other than an ECS instance, select the region closest to that device, then connect using the public endpoint.

   Important

   The region cannot be changed after the instance is created. Select carefully.

4. Configure the database engine and instance edition.

   1. Set Database engine to PostgreSQL and select the version.

   2. Complete SLR Authorization. Click Authorize to grant the AliyunServiceRoleForRdsPgsqlOnEcs service-linked role (SLR). This one-time, free authorization lets RDS manage Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) for network connectivity.

   3. Select an Edition.

      Edition	Architecture	Best for
      Basic Edition	Single node	Personal learning, microsites, and dev/test or non-critical workloads. Longer recovery time during failures.
      High-availability Edition	One primary + one secondary	Production workloads for medium and large enterprises; internet, IoT, retail e-commerce, logistics, and gaming
      Cluster Edition (Recommended)	One primary + multiple secondary nodes (secondary nodes support read operations)	Workloads requiring high availability and read scaling; new retailing, automotive manufacturing, and large enterprise ERP

      Note: Available editions depend on the region and engine version you select. For a full comparison, see Overview of editions.

   4. Select a Product type (Standard or Yitian). > Note: This setting does not apply to Basic Edition. Both High-availability Edition and Cluster Edition support Standard and Yitian. See Introduction to product types.

   5. Select a Storage type.

      Feature	Premium ESSD (Recommended)	ESSD
      Capacity	Up to 64,000 GB	Up to 64,000 GB
      Scalability	No connection transients during scale-out; online upgrade completes in seconds; supports automatic storage expansion	Same
      Performance	Integrates IO performance burst, Buffer Pool Extension (BPE), and data archiving	PL1 < PL2 < PL3; PL2 delivers up to 2x the IOPS and throughput of PL1; PL3 delivers up to 20x the IOPS and 11x the throughput of PL1
      Backup	Minute-level or second-level; max frequency once every 15 minutes	Same

      Note: Available storage types depend on the product type and edition you select. Both ESSD and Premium ESSD support Cloud Disk Encryption. See Disk encryption and Introduction to storage types. For Premium ESSD, you can also enable IO performance burst, Buffer Pool Extension (BPE), and data archiving. For more information, see Premium ESSD.

5. Configure the network. The Network type is set to VPC.

   1. Select a VPC. For internal network access from ECS, the ECS and RDS instances must be in the same region and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). > Note: ECS and RDS instances can communicate over the internal network even if they use different vSwitches within the same VPC.

   2. Choose whether to Add to whitelist. Selecting this option allows ECS instances in the same VPC to reach the RDS instance immediately after creation. > Note: If you select No, configure the whitelist after the instance is created. See Configure a whitelist.

6. Select the zone, vSwitch, and Deployment method.

   • Zone: Performance differences between zones in the same region are negligible. Colocating ECS and RDS instances in the same zone minimizes latency, though cross-zone latency is acceptable for most workloads.

   • vSwitch: Select an existing vSwitch, or click Create vSwitch to create one. See Create and manage a vSwitch.

   • Deployment method:

     • Multi-zone deployment (Recommended): Primary and secondary nodes are in different zones within the same region, providing cross-zone disaster recovery. Select the Zone and network of primary node and the Zone and network of secondary node.

     • Single-zone deployment: Both nodes are in the same zone. Basic Edition supports single-zone deployment only.

   If Sold out appears in the upper-right corner of a zone, select a different zone.

7. Select an Instance type.

   1. Select a Category.

      Category	Dedicated resources	Shared resources	Best for
      General-purpose	Memory and I/O	CPU and storage	Cost-efficient balanced workloads
      Dedicated	CPU, memory, storage, and I/O (exclusively reserved)	Nothing (all resources reserved exclusively)	Production workloads requiring consistent, predictable performance. Not available for Basic Edition.

   2. Select a specific instance type based on CPU cores, memory, maximum connections, and maximum IOPS. For a full list, see ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance types.

      • Test environment: 2 CPU cores or more

      • Production environment: 4 CPU cores or more

8. Set the Storage capacity. Capacity must be provisioned in 5 GB increments. The range depends on your instance type and storage type.

9. (Subscription only) Set the Subscription duration. Hover over View details next to the cost for a pricing breakdown.

10. Configure optional parameters. If you have no special requirements, leave the defaults.

    Parameter	Description
    Port	Port for the instance. Range: 1000–5999. Default: 5432.
    Parameter template	Applies a parameter template at creation. If not selected, the default system template is used. To create a custom template, see Use a parameter template.
    Release protection	(Pay-as-you-go only) Prevents the instance from being accidentally released. See Enable or disable instance release protection.
    Minor engine version update policy	Default: Automatic upgrade. The system sends proactive O&M tasks to upgrade the minor engine version within the text message, maintenance window you specify; you will be notified by email and internal message. After the instance is created, you can go to the Basic Information page of the instance to modify the minor version upgrade policy. See Modify the automatic upgrade settings. To pin a specific minor version at creation, select it from the list; if left unset, the latest AliPG minor version is used. Example version string: rds_postgres_1400_20220830_14.4. See AliPG minor engine version release notes.
    Resource group	Assigns the instance to a resource group for management.
    Time zone	Named time zones are supported; UTC offsets are not. If not set, the default is determined by the region. Read-only instances inherit the time zone of their primary instance. See List of common named time zones.
    Instance name	A custom name to help identify the instance.
    Tags	Tags for classification and management across many instances. See Filter instances by tag.
    Privileged account	Creates a privileged account at instance creation. Select Configure later to set it up after creation. See Create a database and an account.

11. In the upper-right corner of the page, set the number of instances to purchase (1–20).

12. Review the order, then click Confirm order and complete the payment. A confirmation message appears in the console.

    For subscription instances, enable Auto-renewal to prevent service interruptions when the subscription expires. Auto-renewal aligns with your subscription term (monthly or yearly) and can be disabled at any time. See Auto-renewal.

13. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region where you created the instance. Find the instance by its Creation time.

    Instance creation takes 1–10 minutes. Refresh the page if the instance is not visible yet.

What's next

Create a database and an account

FAQ

How do I view the total number of RDS instances in my account?

Log on to the RDS Overview page. It shows the total number of instances across all database engines, the regions where they are located, and the number of running instances per region.

Why doesn't my new instance appear in the instance list?

How do I fix the "SLR does not exist" error?

This error occurs the first time you create an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. Click Authorize next to SLR Authorization to grant the AliyunServiceRoleForRdsPgsqlOnEcs service-linked role. This one-time, free step lets RDS manage ENIs for network connectivity. See Service-linked roles.

References

• Create an instance using the API: CreateDBInstance

• Video tutorial: Create an RDS instance

• Create instances for other database engines:

  • Create an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance

  • Create an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance

  • Create an ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance