Deploying QuestDB on Azure

Quick reference

Component	Recommended	Notes
Instance	D4s_v5 or E8s_v5	4-8 vCPUs, 16-64 GiB RAM
Storage	Premium SSD v2, 200+ GiB	16000 IOPS / 1000 MBps
File system	zfs with lz4	Or ext4 if compression not needed
Ports	9000, 8812, 9009, 9003	Restrict to known IPs only

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Infrastructure

Plan your infrastructure before launching. This section covers instance types, storage, and networking requirements.

Instance sizing

Workload	Instance	vCPUs	RAM	Use case
Development	D2s_v5	2	8 GiB	Testing, small datasets
Production (starter)	D4s_v5	4	16 GiB	Light ingestion, moderate queries
Production (standard)	E8s_v5	8	64 GiB	High ingestion, complex queries
Production (heavy)	E16s_v5	16	128 GiB	Heavy workloads, large datasets

Understanding Azure instance names:

Letter	Meaning	Recommendation
D	General purpose	Good starting point
E	Memory optimized	Better for large datasets
s	Premium storage capable	Required for QuestDB
a	AMD EPYC processor	Similar performance, often cheaper
p	ARM architecture	Avoid - limited optimization support

Always choose instances with s in the name for Premium SSD support.

ARM instances:

Azure ARM instances (Cobalt, Ampere) are not recommended. QuestDB's JIT compilation and SIMD optimizations are limited on ARM. Use x86_64 instances.

Storage

Premium SSD v2 (recommended):

Workload	Size	IOPS	Throughput
Development	50 GiB	3000	125 MBps
Production	200+ GiB	16000	1000 MBps
High I/O	500+ GiB	16000+	1000+ MBps

Premium SSD v2 lets you provision IOPS and throughput independently of size. Separate your OS disk (30 GiB) from your data disk.

note

Premium SSD v2 throughput is limited by VM size. Check your instance's maximum disk throughput in the Azure documentation before provisioning.

Premium SSD (alternative):

If Premium SSD v2 is unavailable, use Premium SSD with these minimum sizes:

Tier	Size	IOPS	Throughput	Use case
P20	512 GiB	2300	150 MBps	Development
P30	1 TiB	5000	200 MBps	Light production
P40	2 TiB	7500	250 MBps	Production

Premium SSD ties performance to disk size - you may need to over-provision capacity to get required IOPS.

Redundancy considerations:

• Premium SSD v2 only supports locally-redundant storage (LRS)
• Premium SSD supports zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
• For LRS disks, take regular ZRS snapshots or use QuestDB Enterprise replication

File system:

Use zfs with lz4 compression to reduce storage costs. If you don't need compression, ext4 or xfs offer slightly better performance.

Unsupported storage:

• Azure NetApp Files - Not supported as primary storage (NFS latency too high)
• blobfuse2 - Not supported for database workloads
• Blob Storage - Supported for Enterprise replication only, not primary storage

Networking

Network Security Group (NSG) rules:

Port	Protocol	Source	Purpose
22	TCP	Your IP	SSH access
9000	TCP	Your IP / VNet	Web Console & REST API
8812	TCP	Your IP / VNet	PostgreSQL wire protocol
9009	TCP	Application servers	InfluxDB line protocol
9003	TCP	Monitoring servers	Health check & Prometheus

warning

Never set source to * or Any for ports 9000, 8812, or 9009. Restrict access to known IP ranges or use Azure Bastion for secure access.

VNet recommendations:

• Deploy QuestDB in a private subnet
• Use Azure Bastion or a jump box for SSH access
• Use Private Endpoints for Blob Storage (Enterprise replication)
• Consider proximity placement groups for low-latency application access

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Deployment

Deploy QuestDB on an Azure Virtual Machine.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Azure account with billing enabled
• SSH key pair for secure access

Create the VM

1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to Virtual Machines
2. Click Create → Azure virtual machine
3. Configure basics:
   • Select or create a Resource group
   • Enter a Virtual machine name
   • Select your Region and Availability zone
   • Choose Ubuntu 24.04 LTS for the image

Azure VM creation dialog

4. Select your instance size (see Instance sizing)
5. Configure SSH authentication:
   • Select SSH public key
   • Create a new key pair or use existing

SSH key setup

6. Click Review + create, then Create
7. Download the private key when prompted

Deployment complete

Configure networking

1. Go to your VM's Networking settings
2. Click Add inbound port rule
3. Add rules for QuestDB ports (see Networking):
   • Set Destination port ranges to 9000,8812,9003
   • Set Source to your IP range (not Any)
   • Set Protocol to TCP
   • Name the rule questdb

NSG rules configured

warning

Only add port 9009 if you need ILP ingestion, and restrict the source to your application servers.

Install QuestDB

1. Connect via SSH:

chmod 400 ~/Downloads/your_key.pem
ssh -i ~/Downloads/your_key.pem azureuser@<your-vm-ip>

2. Download and start QuestDB:

wget https://github.com/questdb/questdb/releases/download/9.3.1/questdb-9.3.1-rt-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
tar xzf questdb-9.3.1-rt-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
cd questdb-9.3.1-rt-linux-x86-64/bin
./questdb.sh start

3. Access the Web Console at http://<your-vm-ip>:9000

Web Console ready

For production deployments, use systemd to manage the QuestDB service.

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Security

Change default credentials

Update credentials immediately after deployment.

Web Console and REST API - edit conf/server.conf:

http.user=your_username
http.password=your_secure_password

PostgreSQL - edit conf/server.conf:

pg.user=your_username
pg.password=your_secure_password

InfluxDB line protocol - edit conf/auth.json. See ILP authentication.

Restart after changes:

./questdb.sh stop
./questdb.sh start

Disable unused interfaces

Reduce attack surface by disabling protocols you don't use:

conf/server.conf

pg.enabled=false           # Disable PostgreSQL
line.tcp.enabled=false     # Disable ILP
http.enabled=false         # Disable Web Console & REST API
http.security.readonly=true  # Or make HTTP read-only

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Operations

Upgrading

1. Stop QuestDB:

   ./questdb.sh stop

2. Back up your data directory

3. Download and extract the new version:

wget https://github.com/questdb/questdb/releases/download/9.3.1/questdb-9.3.1-rt-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
tar xzf questdb-9.3.1-rt-linux-x86-64.tar.gz

4. Start the new version:

   cd questdb-*/bin
   ./questdb.sh start

Monitoring

Health check:

curl http://localhost:9003/status

Prometheus metrics:

curl http://localhost:9003/metrics

Azure Monitor integration:

Use the Azure Monitor agent to collect:

• VM metrics (CPU, memory, disk I/O)
• QuestDB logs from the log/ directory
• Custom metrics from the Prometheus endpoint

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Enterprise on Azure

QuestDB Enterprise adds production features for Azure:

• Blob Storage replication - Continuous backup for durability
• Cold storage - Move old partitions to Blob Storage, query on-demand
• High availability - Automatic failover across instances
• EntraID SSO - Single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID

For EntraID integration, see the Microsoft EntraID OIDC guide.

See Enterprise Quick Start for setup.