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    ApsaraDB RDS:RDS for PostgreSQL premium performance disks

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    ApsaraDB RDS:RDS for PostgreSQL premium performance disks

    Last Updated:Aug 22, 2025

    ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL offers premium performance disks, a new storage type designed to meet diverse storage needs and overcome performance limitations. This topic describes the features, use cases, and billing methods of premium performance disks to help you get started.

    Features

    Premium performance disks are a new storage type supported by ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL. They are compatible with all features of enterprise SSDs (ESSDs) and also support IO performance burst, Buffer Pool Extension (BPE), and data archiving. These features deliver higher input/output operations per second (IOPS) and queries per second (QPS) to handle high I/O pressure without changing the storage capacity.

    Note

    You cannot download instance backup data from the Data Backup tab of the Basic Backup List page under Backup And Restoration for instances that use premium performance disks.

    • IO performance burst: If your business experiences frequent fluctuations and high peak loads, you can enable the IO performance burst feature for premium performance disks. This feature allows the disk to temporarily exceed its maximum IOPS limit to handle sudden spikes in business traffic.

    • Buffer Pool Extension (BPE): When a database experiences an I/O bottleneck caused by large-scale or frequent data reads and writes, you can use the Buffer Pool Extension (BPE) feature of premium performance disks to significantly improve database I/O performance.

    • Data archiving: The data archiving feature lets you use Object Storage Service (OSS) as the storage medium for archiving cold data, which significantly reduces storage costs.

    Performance metrics of premium performance disks

    • I/O performance: Premium performance disks offer improved baseline I/O performance, outperforming PL1 ESSDs. They also include IO performance burst and Buffer Pool Extension (BPE) capabilities.

      Premium performance disk storage capacity

      Original baseline I/O performance

      (Same as PL1 ESSD)

      Improved baseline I/O performance

      Improvement

      100 GB <= storage capacity < 1000 GB

      I/O bandwidth: 125 to 350 MB/s

      IOPS: 6,800 to 50,000

      I/O bandwidth: 225 to 450 MB/s

      IOPS: 13,200 to 56,400

      I/O bandwidth: 100 MB/s

      IOPS: 6,400

      1000 GB <= storage capacity < 2000 GB

      I/O bandwidth: 350 MB/s

      IOPS: 50,000

      I/O bandwidth: 500 MB/s

      IOPS: 59,600

      I/O bandwidth: 150 MB/s

      IOPS: 9,600

      2000 GB <= storage capacity < 4000 GB

      I/O bandwidth: 350 MB/s

      IOPS: 50,000

      I/O bandwidth: 550 MB/s

      IOPS: 62,800

      I/O bandwidth: 200 MB/s

      IOPS: 12,800

      4000 GB <= storage capacity < 16000 GB

      I/O bandwidth: 350 MB/s

      IOPS: 50,000

      I/O bandwidth: 600 MB/s

      IOPS: 66,000

      I/O bandwidth: 250 MB/s

      IOPS: 16,000

      16000 GB <= storage capacity < 64000 GB

      I/O bandwidth: 350 MB/s

      IOPS: 50,000

      I/O bandwidth: 700 MB/s

      IOPS: 72,400

      I/O bandwidth: 350 MB/s

      IOPS: 22,400

    • Configuration flexibility: A wide range of configurations are available. You can scale out or scale in disk space. Note that only some eligible PostgreSQL instances support scale-in. For more information, see Change configurations.

    • Backup method: Snapshot backup

    • Backup, read-only instance creation, and instance cloning speed: Operations complete in seconds.

    • Scale-out duration: Online upgrades complete in seconds.

    • Scale-out impact: None.

    • Data durability: Data reliability is 99.9999999%. The single-node Basic Edition is supported to reduce costs.

    Limits

    • Premium performance disks support storage capacities from 10 GB to 64,000 GB.

    • You cannot change the storage type from premium performance disk to any other type. However, you can change the storage type from ESSD to premium performance disk. For more information, see Change the storage type from ESSD to premium performance disk.

    • You cannot download instance backup data from the Data Backup tab of the Basic Backup List page under Backup And Restoration for instances that use premium performance disks.

    Billing

    Premium performance disk fee = RDS storage space fee + IO performance burst fee + Buffer Pool Extension (BPE) fee + Data archiving fee

    The Buffer Pool Extension (BPE) feature is currently free. The storage space fee is based on the purchased storage capacity. The IO performance burst fee and data archiving fee are based on actual usage. For more information, see:

    Note

    A price difference exists between PL2/PL3 ESSDs and premium performance disks. The exact price difference is shown on the order page in the console when you make the change. Premium performance disks are generally more cost-effective if the instance experiences high I/O for short durations.

    Purchase premium performance disks

    You can purchase premium performance disks for ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL in the following ways:

    Existing instances

    You can upgrade existing instances that use ESSDs to premium performance disks.

    Prerequisites

    • The billing method of the ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance is pay-as-you-go or subscription.

    • The storage type of the ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance is ESSD, and the ESSD capacity is at least 40 GB.

      Note

      If your instance was created before October 10, 2022 (on the old architecture), you must upgrade its minor engine version to the latest version before you can upgrade from an ESSD to a premium performance disk. For more information, see Upgrade the minor engine version.

    Impact

    When you change the storage type from ESSD to premium performance disk, the change takes effect immediately. The change does not cause transient connections and typically does not affect your services. However, in rare cases, the instance IOPS may fluctuate. We recommend that you perform this operation during off-peak hours.

    Notes

    • Changing the storage type from ESSD to premium performance disk takes effect for the primary and secondary instances (High-availability Edition) or the primary instance (Basic Edition). It does not change the storage type of the read-only instances that are attached to the primary instance. To change the storage type of a read-only instance, you must perform the operation on the product page for that read-only instance.

    • After you change the storage type to premium performance disk, you cannot change it to another type. Please make your selection carefully.

    • Before you change the storage type from ESSD to premium performance disk, make sure that the instance has no pending backup jobs. Otherwise, the disk upgrade or downgrade task may take longer to complete.

    Procedure

    1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance and click the ID of the instance.

    2. In the Basic Information section, click Upgrade Storage Type next to Storage Type.

    3. On the Upgrade/Downgrade page, select the Terms Of Service checkbox, click Pay, and then complete the payment.

      Note

      After you complete the payment, the instance status changes to Upgrading/Downgrading. The upgrade is complete when the instance status changes back to Running.

    New instances

    When you purchase a new instance, you can set the storage type to Premium Performance Disk. For more information, see Create an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.

    Related API operations

    API operation

    Description

    CreateDBInstance

    When you create an instance, set the DBInstanceStorageType parameter to general_essd to use a premium performance disk.