Overview of Read Replicas

RDS for PostgreSQL supports read replicas.

In read-intensive scenarios, a single DB instance may be unable to handle the read pressure and service performance may be affected. To offload read pressure on the primary DB instance, you can create one or more read replicas in the same region as the primary instance. These read replicas can process a large number of read requests and increase application throughput. You need to separately configure connection addresses of the primary DB instance and each read replica on your applications so that all read requests can be sent to read replicas and write requests to the primary DB instance.

A read replica uses a single-node architecture (with no standby node). RDS synchronizes changes from the primary instance to all read replicas using the native PostgreSQL replication. If network latency on the primary instance is high, data synchronization between the primary instance and the read replicas will be affected. Read replicas and the primary DB instance must be in the same region but can be in different AZs.

• The specifications of a read replica must be at least equal to those of the primary DB instance to prevent long delay and high load.
• You do not need to maintain separate database accounts or databases. They are synchronized from the primary DB instance.
• Read replicas support system performance monitoring. RDS provides up to 20 monitoring metrics, including storage space, IOPS, the number of database connections, CPU usage, and network traffic. You can view these metrics to learn about the load on DB instances.
• Read replicas do not support automated backups or manual backups.
• Read replicas do not support restoration from backups to new, existing, or original read replicas.
• Data cannot be migrated to read replicas.
• Read replicas do not support database creation and deletion.
• Read replicas do not support database account creation.
• The specifications of read replicas must be greater than or equal to the specifications of the current primary DB instance.

• You can buy read replicas only for your created primary DB instance.
• Up to 10 read replicas can be created for a DB instance.

• Creating a Read Replica
• Managing a Read Replica