Generic Postgres

Configuring your generic Postgres destination.

Prerequisites

  • If your Postgres database is protected by security groups or other firewall settings, you will need to have the data syncing service's static IP available to complete Step 1.

Step 1: Allow access

Create a rule in a security group or firewall settings to whitelist:

  • incoming connections to your host and port (usually 5432) from the static IP.
  • outgoing connections from ports 1024 to 65535 to the static IP.
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Optional: SSH tunneling

If your database is not accessible from the public internet, SSH tunneling through a bastion host is supported. Allow inbound SSH (port 22) from the static egress IP on the bastion host, create an SSH user with the service's public key in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (contact support for the key), and grant the bastion host's IP access to the database port in place of the static egress IP. Provide the bastion host address, port, and username in the destination configuration.

Step 2: Create writer user

Create a database user to perform the writing of the source data.

  1. Open a connection to your PostgreSQL database.
  2. Create a user for the data transfer by executing the following SQL command.
CREATE USER <username> PASSWORD '<some-password>';
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Credential character limitations

For user credentials containing special characters, please avoid using the following characters: @, [, ], /, ?, #, ", \\, +, space, &, : as these characters can break connection string parsing.

  1. Grant user create and temporary privileges on the database. create allows the service to create new schemas and temporary allows the service to create temporary tables.
GRANT CREATE, TEMPORARY ON DATABASE <database> TO <username>;
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If the schema already exists

By default, the service creates a new schema based on the destination configuration (in the next step). If you prefer to create the schema yourself before connecting the destination, you must ensure that the writer user has the proper permissions on the schema, using GRANT ALL ON schema <schema> TO <username>;

Step 3: Add your destination

Use the following details to complete the connection setup: host name, database name, port, your chosen schema name, username, and password.

Permissions checklist

  • Database user has CREATE and TEMPORARY on the target database.
  • If using a pre-created schema: user has GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA <schema>.
  • Firewall or security group allows the service's egress IP on port 5432. If using SSH tunneling, allow the egress IP on port 22 on the bastion host instead.

FAQ

Q: How is the PostgreSQL connection secured?

A: We connect using the credentials you provide (host, port, username, password) over TCP. If your database is not publicly accessible, SSH tunneling through a bastion host is supported. The service uses public key authentication for bastion access.

Q: What PostgreSQL versions are supported?

A: PostgreSQL 13 and above are fully supported. PostgreSQL 12 is best-effort only.

Q: Do I need to pre-create the schema?

A: No. The schema provided in the destination configuration is created automatically on first sync. If you pre-create it, grant ALL on the schema to the writer user and you may remove the database-level CREATE permission (retain TEMPORARY).