Global Active Database

Product introduction

ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL provides disaster recovery capabilities through Global Active Database (GAD) to ensure business continuity and high availability. This solution uses the native physical replication of ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL and Data Transmission Service (DTS) to provide a one-stop, cost-effective geo-disaster recovery solution. It uses a primary-secondary architecture and DTS for real-time data synchronization. This ensures geo-disaster recovery protection for your database and enables nearby access.

Solution architecture

Scenarios

This topic applies to different RDS PostgreSQL instances:

• Geo-disaster recovery

  Your business has strict availability requirements. To prevent region-level failures, your database must have cross-region high availability and meet a very low recovery time objective (RTO).

• Cross-region read-only instances

  Your business needs to perform cross-region queries and requires low-latency read access.

Benefits

• Secure and reliable

  • This solution is based on the native physical replication of ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL, which provides efficient and stable performance without compatibility issues.

  • Both ApsaraDB RDS and DTS have strict Service-Level Agreements (SLAs). This ensures the availability and security of the database and the synchronization link.

• Easy to use

  • The ApsaraDB RDS console provides a configuration interface that lets you quickly establish a GAD disaster recovery relationship.

  • Built-in features are available, such as disaster recovery assessment, one-click switchover, and latency display. These features cover the entire lifecycle of a disaster recovery configuration.

• Cost-effective

  • You can use cost-effective ApsaraDB RDS instance families, such as the Yitian and Basic series, for your disaster recovery instances.

  • DTS manages the network link for GAD. The network link uses a serverless architecture to automatically scale bandwidth. You are charged for the link based on your actual usage.

Limits

Billing

The cost of a Global Active Database includes fees for new ApsaraDB RDS instances and DTS data synchronization fees. If you use an existing instance to create an instance group or add a secondary instance, you are not charged additional instance fees, but you are charged for data synchronization.

• New ApsaraDB RDS instance fees

  When you purchase a new ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance to create an instance group or add a secondary instance, you are charged for the new instance. These charges include instance type fees and storage fees. Both subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods are supported.

• Data synchronization fees (Free trial)

  When you add a secondary instance to an instance group, the system automatically creates a one-way data synchronization link between the primary and secondary instances. You are charged for data synchronization based on the region, link type, number of links, and usage duration. For more information, see the following table.

  Data synchronization fee = Unit price per data synchronization link × Number of links × Usage duration

  The unit price for a one-way synchronization link is: CNY 1.25/hour/link

  Note

  From June 13, 2025 to March 31, 2026, ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL offers a free trial of data synchronization for all new users of disaster recovery instance groups. During this promotional period, new users who create a disaster recovery instance group are not charged for the first DTS data synchronization link for two months. Normal billing resumes after the promotion ends.

How to use

• Method 1: Purchase a new ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance and add it as a GAD secondary instance

  1. Create a GAD instance group.

  2. Create a new ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance and add it as a secondary instance to the GAD instance group. For more information, see Method 1: Create a new instance and add it as a secondary instance.

• Method 2: Add an existing ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance as a GAD secondary instance

  1. Create a GAD instance group.

  2. Add an existing ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance as a secondary instance to the GAD instance group. For more information, see Method 2: Add an existing instance as a secondary instance.

• Method 3: Create a GAD from the Disaster Recovery Instance section on the Basic Information page of the instance

  1. Go to the Basic Information page of the source ApsaraDB RDS instance. In the Disaster Recovery Instance section, create a GAD instance group.

  2. Then, create a new ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance or add an existing one as a secondary instance to the GAD instance group. For more information, see Method 1: Create a new instance and add it as a secondary instance or Method 2: Add an existing instance as a secondary instance.