Replicate across regions

Clusters replicated across regions include a minimum of 3 nodes spread across 3 regions with a replication factor (RF) of 3. You can add or remove nodes in increments of 3 (each region has the same number of nodes).

Features

Multi-region replicated clusters include the following features:

• Replicated synchronously across 3 regions with a replication factor (RF) of 3.
• No limit on cluster size - choose any cluster size based on your use case.
• Horizontal and vertical scaling - add or remove nodes and vCPUs, and add storage to suit your production loads.
• VPC networking required.
• Automated and on-demand backups.
• Available in all regions.
• Enterprise support.

Preferred region

You can optionally designate one region in the cluster as preferred. The preferred region handles all read and write requests from clients.

Designating one region as preferred can reduce the number of network hops needed to process requests. For lower latencies and best performance, set the region closest to your application as preferred. If your application uses a smart driver, set the topology keys to target the preferred region.

When no region is preferred, YugabyteDB Managed distributes requests equally across regions. You can set or change the preferred region after cluster creation.

Regardless of the preferred region setting, data is replicated across all the regions in the cluster to ensure region-level fault tolerance.

You can enable follower reads to serve reads from non-preferred regions.

In cases where the cluster has read replicas and a client connects to a read replica, reads are served from the replica; writes continue to be handled by the preferred region.

Prerequisites

• Multi-region clusters must be deployed in VPCs. Create a VPC for each region where you want to deploy the nodes in the cluster. YugabyteDB Managed supports AWC and GCP for peering. Refer to Peer VPCs.
• By default, clusters deployed in VPCs do not expose any publicly-accessible IP addresses. Unless you enable Public Access, you can only connect to multi-region clusters from applications that reside on a peered network, and the peering connection must be Active. Refer to Peering connections.
• Create a billing profile and add a payment method before you can create a Dedicated cluster. Refer to Manage your billing profile and payment method.

Create a multi-region replicated cluster

To create a multi-region replicated cluster, on the Clusters page, click Add Cluster, and choose Dedicated to start the Create Cluster wizard.

The Create Cluster wizard has the following pages:

1. General Settings
2. Cluster Setup
3. Network Access
4. Security
5. DB Credentials

General Settings

Set the following options:

• Cluster Name: Enter a name for the cluster.
• Provider: Choose a cloud provider - AWS or GCP.
• Database Version: By default, dedicated clusters are deployed using a stable release. Before deploying a production cluster using a preview release, contact Support. If you have arranged a custom build with Yugabyte, it is also be listed here.

Cluster Setup

Select Multi-Region Deployment and set the following options.

Select data distribution mode

Set Data Distribution to Replicate across regions.

Select regions and node size

Regions: For each region, choose the following:

• the region where the nodes will be located.
• the VPC in which to deploy the nodes. Only VPCs using the selected cloud provider and available in the selected region are listed. For AWS clusters, choose a separate VPC for each region. For GCP clusters, the same VPC is used for all regions. VPCs must be created before deploying the cluster. Refer to VPC networking.
• The number of nodes to deploy in the regions. Each region has the same number of nodes.

Preferred region: Optionally, assign one region as preferred to handle all reads and writes.

Node size: Enter the number of virtual CPUs per node and the disk size per node (in GB). You must choose the regions before you can set the node size.

Clusters replicated across regions support both horizontal and vertical scaling; you can change the cluster configuration and preferred region after the cluster is created using the Edit Configuration settings. Refer to Scale and configure clusters.

Monthly total costs for the cluster are based on the number of vCPUs and estimated automatically. + Usage refers to any potential overages from exceeding the free allowances for disk storage, backup storage, and data transfer. For information on how clusters are costed, refer to Cluster costs.

Network Access

YugabyteDB Managed only allows access to clusters from trusted IP addresses. For applications in peered VPCs to be able to connect, you need to add the CIDR of the peered VPC to the cluster IP allow list. You can also assign IP allow lists to your cluster any time after the cluster is created.

You can add IP addresses using any combination of the following options.

Enable Public Access for this Cluster - To connect to a cluster deployed in a VPC from a public IP address (including your current address), you must enable Public Access for the cluster. When enabled, a public IP address is added to each region of the cluster. You can view the private and public host addresses under Connection Parameters on the cluster Settings tab.

Security

In addition to the volume encryption that YugabyteDB Managed uses to encrypt your data, you can enable YugabyteDB encryption at rest (EAR) for clusters. When enabled, your YugabyteDB cluster (including backups) is encrypted using a customer managed key (CMK) residing in a cloud provider Key Management Service (KMS). (Currently, only AWS KMS is supported.)

You must be signed in as an Admin user to enable EAR.

To use a CMK to encrypt your cluster, make sure you have configured the CMK in AWS KMS, and created an access key for an IAM identity that has been granted permission to encrypt and decrypt using the CMK. For more information on AWS KMS, refer to AWS Key Management Service in the AWS documentation.

Set the following options:

• Customer managed key (CMK): Enter the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the CMK to use to encrypt the cluster.
• Access key: Provide an access key of an IAM identity with permissions for the CMK. An access key consists of an access key ID and the secret access key.

Database Credentials

The database admin credentials are required to connect to the YugabyteDB database that is installed on the cluster.

You can use the default credentials generated by YugabyteDB Managed, or add your own.

For security reasons, the admin user does not have YSQL superuser privileges, but does have sufficient privileges for most tasks. For more information on database roles and privileges in YugabyteDB Managed, refer to Database authorization in YugabyteDB Managed clusters.

After the cluster is provisioned, you can add more users and change your password.

Download the credentials, and click Create Cluster.

After you complete the wizard, the Clusters page appears, showing the provisioning of your new cluster in progress.

When the cluster is ready, the cluster Overview tab is displayed.

You now have a fully configured YugabyteDB cluster provisioned in YugabyteDB Managed with the database admin credentials you specified.

Next steps

• Connect to your cluster
• Add database users
• Build an application
• Scale clusters