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Database Lab

Database Lab Engine is an open-source platform developed by Postgres.ai to create instant, full-size clones of production databases.
Use cases of the clones are to test database migrations, optimize SQL, or deploy full-size staging apps.

The website https://Postgres.ai/ hosts the SaaS version of the Database Lab Engine.

  1. Clones
  2. Further readings
    1. Sources

Clones

Database clones comes in two flavours:

  • Thick cloning: the regular way to copy data.
    It is also how data is copied to Database Lab the first time a source is added.

    Thick clones can be:

    • Logical: do a regular dump and restore using pg_dump and pg_restore.
    • Physical: done using pg_basebackup or restoring data from physical archives created by backup tools such as WAL-E/WAL-G, Barman, pgBackRest, or pg_probackup.

    Managed PostgreSQL databases in cloud environments (e.g.: AWS RDS) support only the logical clone type.

    The Engine supports continuous synchronization with the source databases.
    Achieved by repeating the thick cloning method one initially used for the source.

  • Thin cloning: local containerized database clones based on CoW (Copy-on-Write) spin up in few seconds.
    They share most of the data blocks, but logically they look fully independent.
    The speed of thin cloning does not depend on the database size.

    As of 2024-06, Database Lab Engine supports ZFS and LVM for thin cloning.
    With ZFS, the Engine periodically creates a new snapshot of the data directory and maintains a set of snapshots. When requesting a new clone, users choose which snapshot to use as base.

Further readings

Sources