timescaledb

An open-source time-series SQL database optimized for fast ingest and complex queries. Packaged as a PostgreSQL extension.

timescale

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TimescaleDB

TimescaleDB is an open-source database designed to make SQL scalable for
time-series data. It is engineered up from PostgreSQL and packaged as a
PostgreSQL extension, providing automatic partitioning across time and space
(partitioning key), as well as full SQL support.

If you prefer not to install or administer your instance of TimescaleDB, try the
30 day free trial of Timescale Cloud, our fully managed cloud offering.
Timescale is pay-as-you-go. We don’t charge for storage you dont use, backups, snapshots, ingress or egress.

To determine which option is best for you, see Timescale Products
for more information about our Apache-2 version, TimescaleDB Community (self-hosted), and Timescale
Cloud (hosted), including: feature comparisons, FAQ, documentation, and support.

Below is an introduction to TimescaleDB. For more information, please check out
these other resources:

For reference and clarity, all code files in this repository reference
licensing in their header (either the Apache-2-open-source license
or Timescale License (TSL)
). Apache-2 licensed binaries can be built by passing -DAPACHE_ONLY=1 to bootstrap.

Contributors welcome.

(To build TimescaleDB from source, see instructions in Building from source.)

Using TimescaleDB

TimescaleDB scales PostgreSQL for time-series data via automatic
partitioning across time and space (partitioning key), yet retains
the standard PostgreSQL interface.

In other words, TimescaleDB exposes what look like regular tables, but
are actually only an
abstraction (or a virtual view) of many individual tables comprising the
actual data. This single-table view, which we call a
hypertable,
is comprised of many chunks, which are created by partitioning
the hypertable’s data in either one or two dimensions: by a time
interval, and by an (optional) “partition key” such as
device id, location, user id, etc.

Virtually all user interactions with TimescaleDB are with
hypertables. Creating tables and indexes, altering tables, inserting
data, selecting data, etc., can (and should) all be executed on the
hypertable.

From the perspective of both use and management, TimescaleDB just
looks and feels like PostgreSQL, and can be managed and queried as
such.

Before you start

PostgreSQL’s out-of-the-box settings are typically too conservative for modern
servers and TimescaleDB. You should make sure your postgresql.conf
settings are tuned, either by using timescaledb-tune
or doing it manually.

Creating a hypertable

-- Do not forget to create timescaledb extension
CREATE EXTENSION timescaledb;

-- We start by creating a regular SQL table
CREATE TABLE conditions (
  time        TIMESTAMPTZ       NOT NULL,
  location    TEXT              NOT NULL,
  temperature DOUBLE PRECISION  NULL,
  humidity    DOUBLE PRECISION  NULL
);

-- Then we convert it into a hypertable that is partitioned by time
SELECT create_hypertable('conditions', 'time');

Inserting and querying data

Inserting data into the hypertable is done via normal SQL commands:

INSERT INTO conditions(time, location, temperature, humidity)
  VALUES (NOW(), 'office', 70.0, 50.0);

SELECT * FROM conditions ORDER BY time DESC LIMIT 100;

SELECT time_bucket('15 minutes', time) AS fifteen_min,
    location, COUNT(*),
    MAX(temperature) AS max_temp,
    MAX(humidity) AS max_hum
  FROM conditions
  WHERE time > NOW() - interval '3 hours'
  GROUP BY fifteen_min, location
  ORDER BY fifteen_min DESC, max_temp DESC;

In addition, TimescaleDB includes additional functions for time-series
analysis that are not present in vanilla PostgreSQL. (For example, the time_bucket function above.)

Installation

Installation options are:

Timescale Cloud: A fully-managed TimescaleDB in the cloud, is
available via a free trial. Create a PostgreSQL database in the cloud with TimescaleDB pre-installed
so you can power your application with TimescaleDB without the management overhead.
Platform packages: TimescaleDB is also available pre-packaged for several platforms such as
Linux, Windows, MacOS, Docker, and Kubernetes. For more information, see Install TimescaleDB.
Build from source: See Building from source.

We recommend not using TimescaleDB with PostgreSQL 17.1, 16.5, 15.9, 14.14, 13.17, 12.21.
These minor versions introduced a breaking binary interface change that,
once identified, was reverted in subsequent minor PostgreSQL versions 17.2, 16.6, 15.10, 14.15, 13.18, and 12.22.
When you build from source, best practice is to build with PostgreSQL 17.2, 16.6, etc and higher.
Users of Timescale Cloud and Platform packages built and
distributed by Timescale are unaffected.

Resources

Architecture documents

Useful tools

timescaledb-tune: Helps
set your PostgreSQL configuration settings based on your system’s resources.
timescaledb-parallel-copy:
Parallelize your initial bulk loading by using PostgreSQL’s COPY across
multiple workers.

Additional documentation

Community & help

Slack Channel
Github Issues
Timescale Support: see support options (community & subscription)

Releases & updates

Timescale Release Notes: see detailed information about current and past
versions and subscribe to get
notified about new releases, fixes, and early access/beta programs.