# Replication overview

Learn how QuestDB Enterprise replication works, its benefits, and architecture.

<EnterpriseNote>
  Replication provides high availability and disaster recovery for your QuestDB cluster.
</EnterpriseNote>

QuestDB Enterprise provides **primary-replica replication** for high availability
and disaster recovery. Your data is automatically synced to replica instances
via an object store, with no direct network connections required between nodes.

## Why use replication?

- **High availability** - Replicas can take over if the primary fails
- **Read scaling** - Distribute query load across multiple replicas
- **Disaster recovery** - Restore from any point in time using stored WAL files
- **Geographic distribution** - Place replicas closer to users in different regions
- **Zero performance impact** - Replicas don't affect primary performance

## How it works

The **primary** instance writes data to a
[Write Ahead Log (WAL)](/docs/concepts/write-ahead-log/) and uploads these files
to an object store (AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, GCS, or NFS). **Replica**
instances download and apply these files to stay in sync.

```mermaid
graph TD
    primary[Primary]
    objectStore[Object Store]
    replica1[Replica 1]
    replica2[Replica 2]
    replicaN[Replica ..N]

    primary --> objectStore
    objectStore --> replica1
    objectStore --> replica2
    objectStore --> replicaN
```

This decoupled architecture means:
- Add or remove replicas without touching the primary
- Replicas can be in different regions or availability zones
- Object store provides durability and point-in-time recovery

## Availability strategies

**Hot availability** - Run replicas continuously alongside the primary for
instant failover. Faster recovery, higher cost.

**Cold availability** - Reconstruct a new primary from the latest snapshot and
WAL files when needed. Slower recovery, lower cost.

## Supported object stores

| Store | Status |
|-------|--------|
| AWS S3 | Supported |
| Azure Blob Storage | Supported |
| Google Cloud Storage | Supported |
| NFS filesystem | Supported |
| HDFS | Planned |

Need something else? [Contact us](/enterprise/contact).

## Requirements

Replication works with **WAL-enabled tables** - tables that have a
[designated timestamp](/docs/concepts/designated-timestamp/) and are
[partitioned](/docs/concepts/partitions/). This covers most time-series use
cases.

Tables without timestamps (typically used for reference/lookup data) are not
replicated automatically and should be populated separately on each instance.

## Storage policies in a replicated cluster

[Storage policy](/docs/concepts/storage-policy/) definitions are stored in
WAL-backed system tables, so the policy itself — the `TO PARQUET`,
`DROP NATIVE`, and `DROP LOCAL` TTLs and the active/disabled status — is
replicated to every instance through the same WAL pipeline as user data.

Enforcement, however, runs **independently on each instance**. Parquet files
are produced locally and are not replicated; each node's storage policy job
schedules its own `PARQUET_CONVERSION`, `PARQUET_COMMIT`, and `DROP_LOCAL`
work against its local data. As a result:

- At any given moment a partition may be in different states across the
  primary and its replicas (e.g. already converted on the primary but still
  native on a replica that hasn't yet hit its check interval).
- These differences are temporary. Once each instance's check job runs and
  processes the partition, the cluster converges to the same logical state.
- Tuning the [check interval](/docs/concepts/storage-policy/#configuration)
  (`storage.policy.check.interval`) or worker count
  (`storage.policy.worker.count`) per instance lets you trade conversion
  latency against background load on that node.

## Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC)

QuestDB Enterprise can be self-managed or operated by QuestDB's team under the
[BYOC model](https://questdb.com/byoc/).

With BYOC, QuestDB handles operations of all primary and replica instances on
your infrastructure. Managed infrastructure uses standard cloud provider tools
(CloudFormation for AWS, Lighthouse for Azure) and is fully owned and auditable
by you.

## Next steps

Ready to set up replication? Continue to the [Setup Guide](/docs/high-availability/setup/).