1. TimescaleDB:
Building a scalable
time-series
database on
PostgreSQL
Chanshik Lim
Developer at NexCloud
chanshik@gmail.com

2. Agenda
• Time-series Data?
• TimescaleDB Overview
• Using TimescaleDB
• Q & A

3. Time-series
Data?

4. Time-series Data? (1)
timestamp device_id cpu_1m_avg free_mem temperature location_id dev_type
2017-01-01 01:02:00 abc123 80 500MB 72 335 field
2017-01-01 01:02:23 def456 90 400MB 64 335 roof
2017-01-01 01:02:30 ghi789 120 0MB 56 77 roof
2017-01-01 01:03:12 abc123 80 500MB 72 335 field
2017-01-01 01:03:35 def456 95 350MB 64 335 roof
2017-01-01 01:03:42 ghi789 100 100MB 56 77 roof

5. Time-series Data? (2)
• Time-centric
• Data records always have a timestamp
• Append-only
• Data is almost solely append-only (INSERTs)
• Recent
• New data is typically about recent time intervals

6. Time-series Data? (3)
• Monitoring computer systems
• VM, server, container metrics (CPU, free memory, net/disk IOPS)
• Service and application metrics (request rates, request latency)
• Financial trading systems
• Classic securities, newer cryptocurrencies, payments, transaction events
• Internet of Things
• Data from sensors on industrial machines and equipment
• Eventing applications
• User/customer interaction data like clickstreams, pageviews, logins, singups
• Environmental monitoring
• Temperature, humidity, pressure, pH, pollen count, air flow, …

7. TimescaleDB
Overview

8. Easy to Use
• Full SQL interface for all SQL natively supported by PostgreSQL
• Secondary indexes
• Non time-based aggregates
• Sub-queries
• Window functions
• Connects to any client or tool that speaks PostgresSQL
• Time-oriented features
• Robust support for Data retention policies

9. Scalable
• Transparent time/space partitioning
• Scaling up (single node)
• Scaling out (private beta)
• High data write rates
• Right-sized chunks
• Parallelized operations across chunks and servers

10. Reliable
• Engineered up from PostgreSQL, packaged as an extension
• Proven foundations
• From 20+ years of PostgreSQL research
• Streaming replication
• Backups
• Flexible management options
• Compatible with existing PostgreSQL ecosystem and tooling

11. Architecture
• Hypertables
• Abstraction of a single continuous table across all space and time
intervals
• Chunks
• Each chunk corresponds to a specific time interval and a region of
partition key’s space

12. Using
TimescaleDB

13. Installing
• https://docs.timescale.com/latest/getting-started/installation
• Using Docker Image
• shm-size: set /dev/shm partition size
• Mapping /var/lib/postgresql/data to host directory
$ docker run -d --name timescaledb -p 5432:5432
-e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password
-v /mnt/timescaledb:/var/lib/postgresql/data
--shm-size 1G
timescale/timescaledb:1.5.1-pg11

14. Setting up
$ psql -U postgres -h localhost
postgres=# create database tutorial;
CREATE DATABASE
postgres=# c tutorial
You are now connected to database "tutorial" as user "postgres".
tutorial=# create extension if not exists timescaledb cascade;
NOTICE: extension "timescaledb" already exists, skipping
CREATE EXTENSION

15. Creating a Hypertable
tutorial=# CREATE TABLE conditions (
tutorial(# time TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL,
tutorial(# location TEXT NOT NULL,
tutorial(# temperature DOUBLE PRECISION NULL,
tutorial(# humidity DOUBLE PRECISION NULL
tutorial(# );
CREATE TABLE
tutorial=# SELECT create_hypertable('conditions', 'time’,
chunk_time_interval => interval '1 day');
create_hypertable
-------------------------
(1,public,conditions,t)
(1 row)

16. Inserting
tutorial=# INSERT INTO conditions
tutorial-# VALUES
tutorial-# (NOW(), 'office', 70.0, 50.0),
tutorial-# (NOW(), 'basement', 66.5, 60.0),
tutorial-# (NOW(), 'garage', 77.0, 65.2);
INSERT 0 3
tutorial=# select * from conditions;
time | location | temperature | humidity
-------------------------------+----------+-------------+----------
2019-12-06 20:12:06.987648+00 | office | 70 | 50
2019-12-06 20:12:06.987648+00 | basement | 66.5 | 60
2019-12-06 20:12:06.987648+00 | garage | 77 | 65.2
(3 rows)

17. Querying
tutorial=# SELECT time_bucket('15 minutes', time) AS fifteen_min,
tutorial-# location, COUNT(*),
tutorial-# MAX(temperature) AS max_temp,
tutorial-# MAX(humidity) AS max_hum
tutorial-# FROM conditions
tutorial-# WHERE time > NOW() - interval '3 hours'
tutorial-# GROUP BY fifteen_min, location
tutorial-# ORDER BY fifteen_min DESC, max_temp DESC;
fifteen_min | location | count | max_temp | max_hum
------------------------+----------+-------+----------+---------
2019-12-06 20:00:00+00 | garage | 1 | 77 | 65.2
2019-12-06 20:00:00+00 | office | 1 | 70 | 50
2019-12-06 20:00:00+00 | basement | 1 | 66.5 | 60
(3 rows)

18. Q & A

19. References
• https://docs.timescale.com/latest/introduction
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-UGFSGlzsk
• https://blog.timescale.com/blog/building-columnar-compression-in-a-row-oriented-
database/