---
name: cloud-databases-cdb-provision
title: Provision an instance
description: Complete the steps for provisioning a Cloud Databases instance of your preferred service. Provision through the catalog, the Cloud Databases CLI plug-in, the Cloud Databases API, through Terraform, or through pre-built, open-source, and enterprise-ready Terraform IBM Modules (TIM).
last-updated: 2026-03-10
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-databases?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Provision an instance
{: #getting-started-cdb-provision-instance}

Complete the steps for provisioning a Cloud Databases instance of your preferred service. Provision through the [catalog](https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog){: external}, the [Cloud Databases CLI plug-in](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-databases?topic=cloud-databases-cdb-reference&format=markdown){: external}, the [Cloud Databases API](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/cloud-databases-api/cloud-databases-api-v5#introduction){: external}, through [Terraform](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/IBM-Cloud/ibm/latest/docs/resources/database){: external}, or through pre-built, open-source, and enterprise-ready [Terraform IBM Modules (TIM)](https://registry.terraform.io/search/modules?q=terraform-ibm-modules%2Ficd){: external}.

Cloud Databases offers two hosting models: Shared Compute and Isolated Compute. Shared Compute is a flexible multi-tenant offering for dynamic, fine-tuned, and decoupled capacity selections. Isolated Compute is a secure single-tenant offering for complex, highly-performant enterprise workloads. For more information, see the [Hosting models overview](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-databases?topic=cloud-databases-hosting-models&format=markdown).

- [Databases for PostgreSQL](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/databases-for-postgresql?topic=databases-for-postgresql-provisioning&format=markdown){: external}

- [Databases for MongoDB](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/databases-for-mongodb?topic=databases-for-mongodb-provisioning&format=markdown){: external} offers two plans: Standard and Enterprise.
{: note}

- [Databases for Redis](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/databases-for-redis?topic=databases-for-redis-provisioning&format=markdown){: external}

- [Databases for Elasticsearch](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/databases-for-elasticsearch?topic=databases-for-elasticsearch-provisioning&format=markdown){: external} offers two plans: Enterprise and Platinum.
{: note}

- [Databases for MySQL](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/databases-for-mysql?topic=databases-for-mysql-provisioning&format=markdown){: external}

- [Messages for RabbitMQ](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/messages-for-rabbitmq?topic=messages-for-rabbitmq-provisioning&format=markdown){: external}

## Next steps
{: #getting-started-cdb-provision-instance-next-steps}

After provisioning a Cloud Databases service intance, [set up notifications](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-databases?topic=cloud-databases-getting-started-cdb-setup-notifs&format=markdown).