Welcome to the TimescaleDB AWS Deployment Guide. Seamlessly integrate TimescaleDB with AWS for scalable, secure, and automated operations. Gain the expertise to install and configure these tools using our step-by-step AWS deployment guide:

  • TimescaleDB - A powerful PostgreSQL-based time-series database, optimized for handling high ingestion and analytics workloads.
  • Prometheus - A leading open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit for collecting real-time metrics.
  • Grafana - A visualization and analytics platform for creating dynamic dashboards and insightful reports.
  • Node Exporter - A lightweight exporter that provides detailed Linux host metrics to Prometheus.

This in-depth resource covers everything from provisioning your AWS environment to securely deploying and optimizing your stack for scalability, high availability, and performance. Whether you're building a DevOps observability hub, a performance analytics system, or a secure team collaboration dashboard, our guide ensures you can deploy this monitoring and analytics stack efficiently and effectively within your AWS infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Before you get started with the TimescaleDB AMI, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

  • Basic knowledge of AWS services, including EC2 instances and CloudFormation.
  • An active AWS account with appropriate permissions.
  • Enough vCPU limit to create instance
    (Follow this guide blog to ensure this)

Launching the AMI

Step 1: Find and Select 'TimescaleDB' AMI

  1. Log in to your AWS Management Console.
  2. Navigate to the 'TimescaleDB' in AWS Marketplace.

Step 2: Initial Setup & Configuration

  1. Click the "Continue to Subscribe" button.
  2. After subscribing, you will need to accept the terms and conditions. Click on "Accept Terms" to proceed.
  3. Please wait for a few minutes while the processing takes place. Once it's completed, click on "Continue to Configuration".

Step 3: Launching the Instance

  1. Select the "CloudFormation script to deploy TimescaleDB" as the fulfilment option and choose your preferred region on the "Configure this software" page. Afterward, click the "Continue to Launch" button.
  2. From the "Choose Action" dropdown menu in "Launch this software" page, select "Launch CloudFormation" and click "Launch" button.

Create CloudFormation Stack

Step1: Create stack

  1. Ensure the "Template is ready" radio button is selected under "Prepare template".
  2. Click "Next".

Step2: Specify stack options

  1. Provide a unique "Stack name".
  2. Provide the "Admin Email" for SSL generation.
  3. For "DeploymentName", enter a name of your choice.
  4. Provide a public domain name for "DomainName" (SSL will not be set up automatically. After deployment, you must manually log in to the server and run the SSL setup command.
  5. Choose an instance type, "InstanceType" (Recommended: t3.small).
  6. Select your preferred "keyName".
  7. Set "SSHLocation" as "0.0.0.0/0".
  8. Keep "SubnetCidrBlock" as "10.0.0.0/24".
  9. Keep "VpcCidrBlock" as "10.0.0.0/16".
  10. Click "Next".

Step3: Configure stack options

  1. Choose "Roll back all stack resources" and "Delete all newly created resources" under the "Stack failure options" section.
  2. Click "Next".

Step4: Review

  1. Review and verify the details you've entered.
    2. AWS CloudFormation Parameters review for the TimescaleDB stack showing GrafanaDomainName, PrometheusDomainName and an m6a.large instance type
  2. Tick the box that says, "I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names".
    3. AWS CloudFormation IAM capabilities acknowledgment checkbox ticked before creating the TimescaleDB stack
  3. Click "Submit".

Afterward, you'll be directed to the CloudFormation stacks page.

Please wait for 5-10 minutes until the stack has been successfully created.

TimescaleDB CloudFormation stack at CREATE_COMPLETE with Outputs listing GrafanaDashboardUrl, PrometheusDashboardUrl and PublicIp

Update DNS

Step1: Copy IP Address

Copy the public Ip labeled "PublicIp" in the "Outputs" tab.

Copying the PublicIp value from the TimescaleDB CloudFormation stack Outputs tab

Step2: Update DNS

  1. Go to AWS Route 53 and navigate to "Hosted Zones".
  2. From there click on Create record.
    3. Route 53 Quick create record adding a grafana A record pointing to the TimescaleDB instance IP address Route 53 Quick create record adding a prometheus A record pointing to the TimescaleDB instance IP address
  3. Add record name and then paste the copied "PublicIp" into the "value" textbox.
  4. Click "Save".

Access Prometheus and Grafana

Once the deployment is complete, you can access your monitoring tools through the URLs provided in the Outputs tab of your AWS stack:

  • Grafana Dashboard – Use this link to log in, create your Admin account, and configure dashboards. All future user accounts can be managed through the Grafana Admin panel.
    • TimescaleDB CloudFormation stack Outputs tab with the GrafanaDashboardUrl link selected
  • Prometheus Dashboard – Access this link to view collected metrics, run queries, and monitor system performance in real time.
TimescaleDB CloudFormation stack Outputs tab with the PrometheusDashboardUrl link selected

(If you encounter a "502 Bad Gateway error", please wait for about 5 minutes before refreshing the page)

Grafana login page served from the TimescaleDB deployment, asking for email or username and password

Please enter the Grafana Dashboard Username and Grafana Dashboard Password that you have provided. Ensure both are stored securely for future reference.

Prometheus query page served from the TimescaleDB deployment, with an empty expression bar and no data queried yet

Generate SSL Manually

You need to configure SSL manually after deployment.

Step1: Copy IP Address

  1. Proceed with the instructions outlined in the above "Update DNS" section, if you have not already done so.
  2. Copy the Public IP address indicated as "PublicIp" in the "Outputs" tab.
AWS CloudFormation stack Outputs tab with the PublicIp value highlighted, ready to copy for SSH access

Step2: Log in to the server

  1. Open the terminal and go to the directory where your private key is located.
  2. Paste the following command into your terminal and press Enter:
  3. Type "yes" and press Enter. This will log you into the server.
ssh -i <your key name> ubuntu@<Public IP address>
Terminal SSH connection to the TimescaleDB server with a PEM key, typing yes at the host authenticity prompt

Step3: Generate SSL

Paste the following command into your terminal and press Enter, and follow the instructions

sudo /root/certificate_generate_standalone.sh

Admin Email is acquiring for generate SSL certificates.

Check Server Logs

Step1: Log in to the server

Open the terminal and go to the directory where your private key is located.
Paste the following command into your terminal and press Enter:

ssh -i <your key name> ubuntu@<Public IP address>
Terminal SSH connection to the TimescaleDB server with a PEM key before checking the server logs

3. Type "yes" and press Enter. This will log you into the server.

Step2: Check the logs

sudo docker ps

Select the correct container and check logs

sudo docker logs 85
Terminal sudo docker ps output listing the running grafana, postgres-exporter, prometheus, timescaledb and node-exporter containers

Shutting Down TimescaleDB

  1. Click the link labeled "Instance" in the "Resources" tab to access the EC2 instance, you will be directed to the TimescaleDB instance in EC2.
    2. TimescaleDB CloudFormation stack Resources tab showing the EC2 instance with CREATE_COMPLETE status
  2. Stop the TimescaleDB instance by marking the checkbox and click "Stop instance" from the "Instance state" dropdown. You can restart the instance at your convenience by selecting "Start instance".
    3. AWS EC2 instance state menu with Stop, Reboot and Terminate options for the running TimescaleDB instance

Remove TimescaleDB

Delete the stack that has been created in the AWS Management Console under 'CloudFormation Stacks' by clicking the 'Delete' button.

Upgrades

When there is an upgrade, we will update the product with a newer version. You can check the product version in AWS Marketplace. If a newer version is available, you can remove the previous version and launch the product again using the newer version. Remember to backup the necessary server data before removing.

Troubleshoot

  1. If you face the following error, please follow this guide blog to increase vCPU quota.
CloudFormation events showing a CREATE_FAILED rollback caused by an EC2 vCPU limit exceeded error
  1. If you face the following error (do not have sufficient <instance_type> capacity...) while creating the stack, try changing the region or try creating the stack at a later time.
CloudFormation events showing a CREATE_FAILED rollback caused by insufficient g4dn.metal instance capacity
  1. If you face the below error, when you try to access the API dashboard, please wait 5-10 minutes and then try.
Nginx 502 Bad Gateway error page shown by the TimescaleDB server
  1. Check whether the instance storage is full.
  • Log into the server and run the below command
df -h
Terminal df -h output showing disk space usage on the TimescaleDB server root filesystem
  • root volume
  • If the root volume is between 90-100%, it is better to resize EBS volume. Please follow AWS documentation to increase the EBS volume.
  • Then reboot the instance and restart the apache server.

Conclusion

The Meetrix TimescaleDB Deployment Guide helps you quickly and securely set up TimescaleDB on AWS. Whether you're a DevOps engineer or system administrator, this guide provides step-by-step instructions to deploy TimescaleDB in a scalable and reliable way. TimescaleDB is a popular open-source time-series database used by developers and companies worldwide. With our deployment guide, you can host TimescaleDB in your own AWS environment and ensure it's ready for secure, high-performance data analysis.

Technical Support

Reach out to Meetrix Support (aws@meetrix.io) for assistance with TimescaleDB issues.