Tier data to object storage

Tier data from primary storage to object storage to save on storage costs. You can continue to query a hypertable as normal after migration. All queries, including JOINs, work as usual.

warning

This feature is experimental and offered as part of a private beta. Do not use this feature in production.

Request access and start tiering

To request access to the private beta for data tiering:

1. Sign in to your Timescale Cloud account.
2. Click on the service where you want to enable data tiering.
3. Navigate to Operations, then Data tiering.
4. Click on Request access. An email goes to our support team, who can help you get access to the private beta.

Manually tier a chunk

Move a single chunk to tiered S3 storage by calling the tier_chunk function with the chunk name:

SELECT tier_chunk(chunk REGCLASS, if_not_tiered BOOL = false);

For example:

SELECT tier_chunk('_timescaledb_internal._hyper_2_3_chunk');

To get the chunk name, use either the show_chunks command or the chunks informational view. For example:

SELECT * FROM timescaledb_information.chunks WHERE hypertable_name = 'metrics';

Tiering a chunk schedules the chunk for migration to object storage. You can continue to query a chunk during migration.

warning

There is currently no way to move a chunk back from object storage to primary storage. This capability, untier_chunk, is planned for a future beta release.

Automate chunk tiering with a data tiering policy

To automate archival of historical data, create a data tiering policy that automatically moves data to object storage. Any chunks that only contain data older than the move_after threshold are moved. This works similarly to a data retention policy, but chunks are moved rather than deleted.

The data tiering policy schedules a job that runs periodically to migrate eligible chunks. The migration is asynchronous.

To add a tiering policy, use the add_tiering_policy function:

SELECT add_tiering_policy(hypertable REGCLASS, move_after INTERVAL);

For example:

SELECT add_tiering_policy('metrics', INTERVAL '4 weeks');

To remove an existing tiering policy, use the remove_tiering_policy function:

SELECT remove_tiering_policy(hypertable REGCLASS, if_exists BOOL = false);

For example:

SELECT remove_tiering_policy('metrics');

List tiered chunks

To see which chunks are tiered into object storage, use the tiered_chunks informational view:

SELECT * FROM timescaledb_osm.tiered_chunks;