Overview

On-demand databases allow you to manage your database instances via Cockpit. They are a useful alternative for self-operated as well as for managed databases.

As the name suggests, you are able to create, modify, and delete the database yourself directly in the Cockpit. All that is required is to enter some initial configuration information. Billing is automated based on the resources used.

Nine’s automated management ensures smooth operation of your databases.

Installation and configuration

Nine installs the required software / services from reliable software repositories. The associated configuration files are based on a opinionated default configuration combined with the values you provide, some of which can be changed even after installation.

Please note that we cannot accept manual configuration change requests. We are happy to implement configuration requests as part of a managed server solution.

Configuration parameters

You may use the following configuration parameters to customize the database instance to your needs:

Name

You can assign any name to the database instance, but it must be unique. Once created, the name can no longer be customized.

PostgreSQL version

You can select a PostgreSQL version when creating the database instance. This cannot be changed after the instance has been created.

The selection of a PostgreSQL version is also related to a support period:

PostgreSQL Version	End of Support
15	November 11, 2027
14	November 12, 2026
13	November 13, 2025

Backup retention in days

Backup retention can be specified in number of days from 0 to 365. At 0 days, the backup routine is disabled and all existing backups are deleted shortly after the change. For more information, see below as well as the article Database Backup Information.

Machine type

To handle your workload, Nine provides several machine types to choose from. You can change this later if needed. Note, however, that to do this, the service will be restarted, resulting in an interruption of a few minutes.

The available machine types are documented in the article Nine Kubernetes Engine. Please note that for some services, only a subset of all machine types are available.

The storage of the database instance is initially set at 25 GB and is automatically expanded as needed. For more information, see the article Automatic Storage Space Expansion.

Location

The database instance may be created in one of three different locations. These are two different rooms in the ColoZüri data center and the NTT data center in Zurich. The location of the database instance cannot be changed once it has been created.

Allowed IP addresses

Here you can define IPv4 addresses and address ranges from which you want to establish connections to the PostgreSQL database instance. Specifically, the allowed connections to the TCP port 5432 of PostgreSQL are defined here. NKE and GKE clusters of Nine are already enabled.

You can change this configuration at any time. The customization is done shortly after submitting the form and is applied without interruption.

SSH Public-Keys

In this field, you can store SSH public keys to access the database backups via SSH. You can also adjust these at any time. For more information on database backups, see the linked article.

Updates and maintenance windows

Security and software updates are generally performed during the maintenance window.

Therefore, short service interruptions may occur during this maintenance window without prior notice.

Monitoring

Nine monitors the instance with a monitoring system 24x7. In the event of a malfunction, an (on-call) technician from Nine is automatically alerted and restores proper operation as quickly as possible.

Full utilization of resources is not assessed as a malfunction. You can increase or decrease the size of the instance via the configuration in the Cockpit.

Backup

If you have not turned off backup retention, Nine database dumps are created daily at night and transferred to two storage systems, with at least one of these storage systems located at a site remote from the database instance (off-site).

For more information about backup, see the article Database Backup Information

Pricing

During BETA, the price consists of a base fee of CHF 30.00 together with the cost of the resources. Please be aware that this can still change for the official launch of the product.