Support externalized datastore for Radius persistence #13031

Type

type: both engineering and PM

Part of #13029 (Enterprise-Grade Radius epic)
Related to: #13032 (full multi-cluster support)

Summary

Allow Radius to use an external, managed datastore instead of relying only on embedded/local persistence, so it can meet enterprise deployment, scaling, backup, and compliance requirements.

PM input needed

• Confirm which external datastore(s)/architectures must be supported for enterprise customers (e.g. managed PostgreSQL, etcd, cloud-native options).
• Define target deployment models (single-tenant, multi-tenant) and any compliance constraints (data residency, encryption at rest, etc.).

Engineering scope

• Connector/configuration surface for an external datastore.
• Connection lifecycle management, credential/secret handling, and failover behavior.
• Migration tooling to move existing local/embedded state to the external datastore.
• Backup/recovery guidance and tooling.

Out of scope

• Support for datastore vendors not confirmed by PM in this phase.

Definition of done

• Radius can run against an externally managed datastore with documented configuration steps.
• Startup and runtime behavior is validated for connection failures, retries, and recovery.
• Secrets/credentials are never stored in plaintext config files.
• A documented migration path exists from local storage to the external datastore.
• Operational guidance covers backup, restore, and scaling assumptions.

Source

Derived from spreadsheet item "6. Enterprise-Grade Radius" — Externalization of datastore.