Managed Postgres, explained

Managed Postgres means someone else runs the database while your app uses it. You get a connection string and a console. The host handles provisioning, patching, storage and backups. This page lists what good managed means so you can judge any host, including us, against it.

What the host handles #

• Provisioning: a running Postgres at a pinned major version, reachable over TLS.
• Patching: minor versions applied without changing your data or your connection string.
• Storage: disk sized to the plan, with room for write ahead log during heavy writes.
• Backups: scheduled base backups plus write ahead log, tested by restoring. See Backups.
• Access: usernames, passwords and connection strings issued per target, revocable separately.

Connection strings #

postgres://app:[email protected]:5432/appdb

The string holds host, port, database, user and password in one value. Your app reads it from an env key such as DATABASE_URL. On Kraftify the agent records that the key is set without ever sending the value to us, so there is no copy to leak. See A database for your app and What we store.

Questions to ask any host #

• Who can read my data: does the host store connection values, or only hashes like Kraftify does.
• Point in time recovery: can you restore to last Tuesday 14:00, or only to the last nightly snapshot.
• Version pinning: does a restart ever change the major version under you.
• Egress: is traffic to your app metered, and at what rate. Ours is published in Billing.
• Region: where the data physically sits, and whether you can pick it.

Sources #

• PostgreSQL documentation. The official manuals for every supported version.
• A database for your app. Kraftify docs. The two step setup from an agent or a terminal.
• What we store. Kraftify docs. Exactly what an account holds, including env hashes.