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Concepts

Service description

Last updated: August 2026

Summary

Database as a Service (DBaaS) is a scalable self-service database product on the Cloud. It simplifies provisioning and operation of databases and enables customers to run PostgreSQL workloads without managing the underlying infrastructure or platform layers.

Scope & Goals

  • Provisioning of database systems for development, test, and production
  • Operations & lifecycle: platform operations, monitoring, backup/restore, and self-service database lifecycle management
  • Scaling: vertical (CPU/RAM) and horizontal (instance count/cluster) as needed
  • Security: encryption, audit logs, role-based access
  • Self-service: Web UI, API, and Terraform provider

Supported Database Engines

DBaaS supports the following database engine:

  • PostgreSQL

Regions and Availability Zones

DBaaS is available in the regions DUS2 and HAM1.

Service Features

Automatic backups

  • Configurable backup windows and retention. Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) for PostgreSQL.

Data protection and security

  • Secure and certified data centers. TLS encryption in transit.

Flexibility and scalability

  • Adjustable resources (CPU, RAM, storage). Clusters with up to five instances for PostgreSQL.

High availability (HA)

  • Instances with automatic failover.

  • Single-instance deployments are possible but not recommended for production. Single-instances have limited availability; incidents may lead to longer outages because no automatic failover exists and the platform must create a new VM first. See Service Levels.

PostgreSQL Extensions

  • Supported PostgreSQL extensions can be enabled for DBaaS instances.

  • Extensions are available from a curated and validated catalog supported by SysEleven.

  • Once enabled, supported extensions can be activated within the database using standard PostgreSQL mechanisms.

  • Feature configuration is available via Web UI, API, and Terraform.

Infrastructure as Code with Terraform

  • Supported via Terraform provider.

Fast provisioning

  • On-demand provisioning.

Transparent billing

Architecture & Provisioning

  • Topologies: single-instance or HA cluster (1 primary + n replicas)

  • Provisioning: Web UI, API, or Terraform; status events/webhooks for progress and completion

  • "READY" definition: endpoint reachable, primary writable, replication active (stable lag), monitoring & backups configured

Network & Access

  • Access paths: private networking and internet-based connections

  • Security: TLS enforced (for example, TLS ≥ 1.2), optional IP allowlists/firewall rules

  • Identity & rights: IAM-protected API access; database access via users/roles and passwords/secrets

Security & Compliance

  • Operation in secure and certified German data centers. Data sovereignty remains with the customer.

  • Encryption: data in transit (TLS) and at rest. The new NCS regions encrypt block and Object Storage.

  • Audit & traceability: platform-level event and access logging for traceability and operational purposes.

Service Level (SLA/SLO)

Availability

  • HA setups (multiple instances): 99.9% availability

  • Single-instance: best-effort operation; not recommended for production. Limited availability and potentially longer outages due to missing automatic failover and possible VM rebuilds.

Backup & restore

  • PITR supported

  • Default retention: 7 days; configurable within policy and storage budget

Billing & Price Units

  • DBaaS bills instances based on the reserved RAM of the selected flavor. The invoice shows the corresponding usage data.

  • The platform also bills volume storage for application and database data, as well as geo-redundant Object Storage for automatic backups, separately.

Monitoring & Observability

  • Platform monitoring: for example, availability, replication status, system health
  • Customer monitoring: capacity and performance metrics (CPU/RAM/IO, disk usage). Query tuning and capacity planning are customer responsibilities.

Operations & Maintenance

  • Maintenance windows: customer-selectable; the platform announces maintenance

  • Security/emergency maintenance: the platform may run maintenance at short notice and without prior announcement for security or stability reasons

  • Maintenance exclusions: planned and emergency maintenance do not count as downtime for availability calculations

Responsibilities (RACI – excerpt)

  • Our: platform operations, platform security, upgrades, HA mechanisms & failover, base monitoring, backup infrastructure

  • Customer: database updates and upgrades, schema & data, users/roles, application tuning, capacity/performance monitoring, backup policy adjustments, triggering/validating restores

Backups & Restore

  • Backups: self-service per configuration; defined windows and retention

  • Restore: self-service restore (for example, to a new point-in-time or instance)

Limits & Exclusions (excerpt)

  • PostgreSQL Extensions: only extensions explicitly supported and validated by SysEleven are available. Arbitrary or customer-provided PostgreSQL extensions are not supported. For an overview of currently supported extensions, please refer to the PostgreSQL Extensions documentation.

  • Provisioned Observability: available metrics and logs are limited to the datasets provided by SysEleven. Provisioned Logs currently require explicit activation via the corresponding DBaaS feature flag. For details on feature activation, please refer to the Feature Flags documentation.

  • Single-instances: not recommended for production; no HA commitment

  • Size dependency: restore times scale with data volume and selected storage profile

  • Third-party tools: usage is possible; our support covers the platform only, not third-party tools (for example, pgAdmin)

Roadmap & Changes

DBaaS is continuously improved with a focus on security, performance, and reliability.

The current roadmap is available at:

DBaaS Roadmap

Support & Availability

  • Support plan: "Self-Service" (product and platform support per plan)

  • Service availability: 24/7

  • Incident handling: best-effort; escalation paths per support plan

The terms published in the current T&Cs, SLA, and price list are binding. This service description outlines the product-level scope and may change. Regional availability and feature scope may vary.

Disclaimer

This service runs on open-source software. The nature and scope of the service follow the capabilities of the underlying software and may change as that software evolves.

We continuously improves its products and services. Implementation changes may occur when driven by technical advancements, provided they do not materially change the function of the product/service. Errors and omissions excepted.

Feedback about services or documentation is welcome: produktfeedback@syseleven.de.

Footnotes

  1. Unless agreed otherwise, interface availability is generally 99.9%.
  2. Targets and commitments may vary by region, storage/performance profile, and customer setup.