Thread

1. Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server vs other Azure offerings

   Alexander Farber <alexander.farber@gmail.com> — 2025-02-22T18:58:07Z

   Good evening,
   
   I am trying to convince my team (a small team at a big company) to move
   from Azure Redis E10 to PostgreSQL, because I am tired of seeing how we
   (poorly) try to re-invent an SQL database using Redis.
   
   My problem is that the team does not want and I am the only one liking SQL
   databases and especially PostgreSQL (using it for hobby projects since
   version 8, always a single instance with a pg_bouncer).
   
   I have spent 3 weeks including my weekends and prepared a PoC currently
   using 2 official PostgreSQL docker hub images in our AKS, but that setup
   looks toyish vs the expensive managed Redis E10.
   
   I would like to switch to the most official and supported Azure offering
   (and the money kind of does not matter), but a bit confused by the 3
   Microsoft offerings I see:
   
   - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/postgresql "Azure Database for
   PostgreSQL" - this one scares me be talking about AI that we do not need.
   Also it looks more like some abstract product or is it a real setup?
   
   - "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server" - I would take that, but it
   is obsolete/deprecated?
   
   - "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server" - Looks like I have to
   take this one, but I do not want all the replication/zones features,
   because I have no experience there and we already have had enough headache
   with Redis Enterprise and some hashes not being saved because they are on
   different shards etc.
   
   Our setup: we need 2 databases with 3 and with 6 tables and few stored
   procedures and at the beginning they do not even to be permanent (it is ok
   to be empty on the pipeline deployment). Max 100 client connections. It
   would be nice to be able to scale up / scale down.
   
   So my question is: who is using what for PostgreSQL on Azure and how
   happy/unhappy are you with your product?
   
   Best regards
   Alex
   

2. Re: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server vs other Azure offerings

   Christoph Moench-Tegeder <cmt@burggraben.net> — 2025-02-22T19:19:50Z

   ## Alexander Farber (alexander.farber@gmail.com):
   
   > - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/postgresql "Azure Database for
   > PostgreSQL" - this one scares me be talking about AI that we do not need.
   > Also it looks more like some abstract product or is it a real setup?
   
   That's the top level overview, and as it's 2025 all the high-level,
   glossy material has to mention AI.
   
   > - "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server" - I would take that, but it
   > is obsolete/deprecated?
   
   "Is being retired in March 2025" - best to be ignored now, it's basically
   gone.
   
   > - "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server" - Looks like I have to
   > take this one, but I do not want all the replication/zones features,
   > because I have no experience there and we already have had enough headache
   > with Redis Enterprise and some hashes not being saved because they are on
   > different shards etc.
   
   HA with PostgreSQL is not that much of an headache (unless you invest
   extra effort and code, the "normal" replication is really just
   replication).
   Anyways, HA is optional with the Flexible Server, as I read the
   quickstart guide:
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/postgresql/flexible-server/quickstart-create-server
   (See table under item 8).
   
   > So my question is: who is using what for PostgreSQL on Azure and how
   > happy/unhappy are you with your product?
   
   "Single Server" sure was a source of unhappiness :)
   
   REegards,
   Christoph
   
   -- 
   Spare Space
   
   
   
   

3. Re: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server vs other Azure offerings

   Alicja Kucharczyk <zaledwie10minut@gmail.com> — 2025-02-22T20:55:34Z

   Hi Alex,
   as Christoph already said go with Flexible Server, Single Server was
   deprecated some time ago.
   
   you don't need to worry about availability zones, AI or replication if you
   don't want to use it. Just create a single instance in the region of choice
   (availability zone will be automatically assigned) and try it out - there
   is a free tier for a year to try it out.
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/postgresql/flexible-server/how-to-deploy-on-azure-free-account
   maybe you can add it to your PoC
   
   there are no 3 options: "Azure Database for PostgreSQL" is just an umbrella
   name, not a product, the product is "Azure Database for PostgreSQL -
   Flexible Server". Basically it's just one for now.
   
   regards,
   Alicja
   

4. Re: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server vs other Azure offerings

   Alexander Farber <alexander.farber@gmail.com> — 2025-02-25T15:40:22Z

   Thank you for your comments.
   
   I have installed "Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server"
   
   Standard_D4ds_v5 (4 vCores, USD 50.30 per vCore)
   128 GiB (USD 0.09 per GiB)
   High availabilty: Not enabled
   
   Resulting in USD 200 / month