---
title: Read scaling | Tiger Data Docs
description: Scale reads horizontally with read replica sets and automated load balancing
---

When read-intensive workloads compete with high ingest rates, your primary data instance can become a bottleneck. Spiky query traffic, analytical dashboards, and business intelligence tools risk slowing down ingest performance and disrupting critical write operations.

With read replica sets in Tiger Cloud, you can scale reads horizontally and keep your applications responsive. By offloading queries to replicas, your service maintains high ingest throughput while serving large or unpredictable read traffic with ease. This approach not only protects write performance but also gives you confidence that your read-heavy apps and BI workloads will run smoothly, even under pressure.

![Horizontal read scaling in Tiger Cloud: writes go to a primary, while reads are distributed across read replicas through a single load-balanced endpoint](/docs/_astro/horizontal-read-scaling-in-tiger-cloud-light.FKvfNjnh_1Ew1eU.webp) ![Horizontal read scaling in Tiger Cloud: writes go to a primary, while reads are distributed across read replicas through a single load-balanced endpoint](/docs/_astro/horizontal-read-scaling-in-tiger-cloud-dark.CujqDL0m_ZAil5b.webp)

This page shows you how to create and manage read replica sets in Tiger Console.

## What is read replication?

A read replica is a read-only copy of your primary database instance. Queries on read replicas have minimal impact on the performance of the primary instance. This enables you to interact with up-to-date production data for analysis, or to scale out reads beyond the limits of your primary instance. Read replicas can be short-lived and deleted when a session of data analysis is complete, or long-running to power an application or a business intelligence tool.

A read replica set in Tiger Cloud is a group of one or more read replica nodes that are accessed through the same endpoint. You query each set as a single replica. Tiger Cloud balances the load between the nodes in the set for you.

You can create as many read replica sets as you need. For security and resource isolation, each read replica set has unique connection details.

You use read replica sets for horizontal **read** scaling. To limit data loss for your Tiger Cloud services, use [HA replicas](/docs/deploy/tiger-cloud/tiger-cloud-aws/high-availability/high-availability/index.md).

## Prerequisites

To follow this procedure:

- Create a target Tiger Cloud service.

- Create a [read-only user](/docs/deploy/tiger-cloud/tiger-cloud-aws/security/read-only-role#create-a-read-only-user/index.md) on the primary data instance.

  A user with read-only permissions cannot make changes in the primary database. This user is propagated to the read replica set when you create it.

## Create a read replica set

To create a secure read replica set for your read-intensive apps:

1. **In Tiger Console, select your target service**

2. **Click `Operations` > `Read scaling` > `Add a read replica set`**

3. **Configure your replica set**

   Configure the number of nodes, compute size, connection pooling, and the name for your replica, then click `Create read replica set`.

   ![Create a set in](/docs/_astro/create-read-replica-set-tiger-console.BOwX6j3I_1MzWxL.webp)

4. **Save the connection information**

   The username and password of a read replica set are the same as the primary service. They cannot be changed independently.

   The connection information for each read replica set is unique. You can add or remove nodes from an existing set and the connection information of that set will remain the same. To find the connection information for an existing read replica set:

   1. Select the primary service in Tiger Console.
   2. Click `Operations` > `Read scaling`.
   3. Click the link icon next to the replica set in the list.

## Edit a read replica set

You can edit an existing read replica set to better handle your reads. This includes changing the number of nodes, compute size, storage, and IOPS, as well as configuring VPC and other features.

To change the compute and storage configuration of your read replica set:

1. **In Tiger Console, expand and click the read replica set under your primary service**

   ![s in](/docs/_astro/read-replica-sets-tiger-console.DRE2fSvD_1NIiPt.webp)
2. **Click `Operations` > `Compute and storage`**

   ![compute and storage in](/docs/_astro/read-replica-set-config-tiger-console.BZJHSkD0_Z25HFhW.webp)
3. **Change the replica configuration and click `Apply`**

## Manage data lag for your read replica sets

Read replica sets use asynchronous replication. This can cause a slight lag in data to the primary database instance. The lag is measured in bytes, against the current state of the primary instance. To check the status and lag for your read replica set:

1. **In Tiger Console, select your primary service**

2. **Click `Operations` > `Read scaling`**

   You see a list of configured read replica sets for this service, including their status and lag:

   ![sets](/docs/_astro/configured-replica-set-tiger-console.3fi7MRoJ_1013A9.webp)

3. **Configure the allowable lag**

   1. Select the replica set in the list.
   2. Click `Operations` > `Database parameters`.
   3. Adjust `max_standby_streaming_delay` and `max_standby_archive_delay`. This is not recommended for cases where changes must be immediately represented, for example, for user credentials.

## Delete a read replica set

To delete a replica set:

1. **In Tiger Console, select your primary service**

2. **Click `Operations` > `Read scaling`**

3. **Click the trash icon next to a replica set**

   Confirm the deletion when prompted.