PolarDB for PostgreSQL allows you to create multi-zone clusters. Compared with single-zone clusters, multi-zone
clusters have better disaster recovery capabilities and can withstand breakdowns in
data centers. This topic describes how to deploy a cluster across multiple zones and
change the primary zone.
Prerequisites
- The region must contain at least two zones.
- The zones must have sufficient computing resources.
Multi-zone architecture
When a multi-zone cluster is deployed, data is distributed across zones. Compute nodes
must be deployed in the primary zone. PolarDB reserves sufficient resources in a secondary zone to ensure a successful failover
when the primary zone fails. The following figure shows the multi-zone architecture.
Billing
No additional fee is required for multi-zone deployment.
Note You can upgrade a single-zone cluster to a multi-zone cluster for free.
Establish a multi-zone architecture
When the prerequisites are met, a multi-zone cluster is created when you Create a PolarDB for PostgreSQL cluster.
You can also upgrade existing single-zone clusters to multi-zone clusters. This upgrade
is automatically achieved by online migration, and does not affect your workloads.
View the zones of a cluster
- Log on to the Apsara PolarDB console.
- In the upper-left corner of the console, select the region where the target cluster
is deployed.
- Click the ID of the cluster that you want to manage.
- On the Overview page, view Zones.

Change the primary zone
You can change the primary zone of an
PolarDB cluster. This feature allows you to migrate the compute nodes of a database cluster
to a different zone. This is applicable to scenarios such as disaster recovery or
when an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance is required to access the cluster in
a nearby zone.

- Log on to the ApsaraDB for PolarDB console.
- In the upper-left corner of the console, select the region where the cluster is located.
- Click the ID of the cluster.
- On the Overview page, find the Node Information section and click Migrate Cluster Across Zones.
- In the Migrate Cluster Across Zones dialog box that appears, select Target Zone and Target VSwitch.

Note
- If the destination zone is a secondary zone, data migration is not required. Switching
to a new secondary zone is fast because only compute nodes are switched. The average
time required to migrate a compute node is five minutes. This operation is often performed
during disaster recovery drills.
- If the destination zone is not a secondary zone, data must be migrated. This migration
process may take several hours depending on the data size. Proceed with caution. This
operation is used to adjust the zones of applications and databases to speed up access
from a nearby zone.
- Click OK.
Notice After the primary zone is changed, the primary endpoints and cluster endpoints remain
unchanged, but the VSwitch and IP address may be changed. This operation may disrupt
your database service for less than 60 seconds. Proceed with caution.