The Postgres source supports both Full Refresh and Incremental syncs. You can choose if this connector will copy only the new or updated data, or all rows in the tables and columns you set up for replication, every time a sync is run.
This Postgres source is based on the Singer Postgres Tap.
The Postgres source does not alter the schema present in your database. Depending on the destination connected to this source, however, the schema may be altered. See the destination's documentation for more details.
Postgres data types are mapped to the following data types when synchronizing data:
| Postgres Type | Resulting Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
bigint |
integer | |
bit |
boolean | |
boolean |
boolean | |
character |
string | |
character varying |
string | |
cidr |
string | |
citext |
string | |
date |
string | |
double precision |
string | |
enum |
number | |
hstore |
object | may be de-nested depending on the destination you are syncing into |
inet |
string | |
int |
integer | |
json |
string | |
jsonb |
string | |
macaddr |
string | |
money |
string | |
numeric |
number | |
real |
number | |
smallint |
integer | |
text |
string | |
time with timezone |
string | may be written as a native date type depending on the destination |
time without timezone |
string | may be written as a native date type depending on the destination |
timestamp with timezone |
string | may be written as a native date type depending on the destination |
timestamp without timezone |
string | may be written as a native date type depending on the destination |
uuid |
string |
Note: arrays for all the above types as well as custom types are supported, although they may be de-nested depending on the destination. Byte arrays are currently unsupported.
| Feature | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full Refresh Sync | Yes | |
| Incremental - Append Sync | Yes | |
| Replicate Incremental Deletes | Yes | |
| Logical Replication (WAL) | Yes | |
| SSL Support | Yes | |
| SSH Tunnel Connection | Coming soon | |
| Namespaces | Yes | Enabled by default |
- Postgres
v9.3.xor above - Allow connections from Airbyte to your Postgres database (if they exist in separate VPCs)
- Create a dedicated read-only Airbyte user with access to all tables needed for replication
This is dependent on your networking setup. The easiest way to verify if Airbyte is able to connect to your Postgres instance is via the check connection tool in the UI.
This step is optional but highly recommended to allow for better permission control and auditing. Alternatively, you can use Airbyte with an existing user in your database.
To create a dedicated database user, run the following commands against your database:
CREATE USER airbyte PASSWORD 'your_password_here';Then give it access to the relevant schema:
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <schema_name> TO airbyteNote that to replicate data from multiple Postgres schemas, you can re-run the command above to grant access to all the relevant schemas, but you'll need to set up multiple sources connecting to the same db on multiple schemas.
Next, grant the user read-only access to the relevant tables. The simplest way is to grant read access to all tables in the schema as follows:
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA <schema_name> TO airbyte;
# Allow airbyte user to see tables created in the future
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA <schema_name> GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO airbyte;Please read the section on CDC below for more information.
Your database user should now be ready for use with Airbyte.
We use logical replication of the Postgres write-ahead log (WAL) to incrementally capture deletes using the pgoutput plugin.
We do not require installing custom plugins like wal2json or test_decoding. We use pgoutput, which is included in Postgres 10+ by default.
Please read the CDC docs for an overview of how Airbyte approaches CDC.
- If you need a record of deletions and can accept the limitations posted below, you should to use CDC for Postgres.
- If your data set is small and you just want snapshot of your table in the destination, consider using Full Refresh replication for your table instead of CDC.
- If the limitations prevent you from using CDC and your goal is to maintain a snapshot of your table in the destination, consider using non-CDC incremental and occasionally reset the data and re-sync.
- If your table has a primary key but doesn't have a reasonable cursor field for incremental syncing (i.e.
updated_at), CDC allows you to sync your table incrementally.
- Make sure to read our CDC docs to see limitations that impact all databases using CDC replication.
- CDC is only available for Postgres 10+.
- Airbyte requires a replication slot configured only for its use. Only one source should be configured that uses this replication slot. Instructions on how to set up a replication slot can be found below.
- Log-based replication only works for master instances of Postgres.
- Using logical replication increases disk space used on the database server. The additional data is stored until it is consumed.
- We recommend setting frequent syncs for CDC in order to ensure that this data doesn't fill up your disk space.
- If you stop syncing a CDC-configured Postgres instance to Airbyte, you should delete the replication slot. Otherwise, it may fill up your disk space.
- Our CDC implementation uses at least once delivery for all change records.
Follow one of these guides to enable logical replication:
We recommend using a user specifically for Airbyte's replication so you can minimize access. This Airbyte user for your instance needs to be granted REPLICATION and LOGIN permissions. You can create a role with CREATE ROLE <name> REPLICATION LOGIN; and grant that role to the user. You still need to make sure the user can connect to the database, use the schema, and to use SELECT on tables (the same are required for non-CDC incremental syncs and all full refreshes).
Next, you will need to create a replication slot. Here is the query used to create a replication slot called airbyte_slot:
SELECT pg_create_logical_replication_slot('airbyte_slot', 'pgoutput');
This slot must use pgoutput.
For each table you want to replicate with CDC, you should add the replication identity (the method of distinguishing between rows) first. We recommend using ALTER TABLE tbl1 REPLICA IDENTITY DEFAULT; to use primary keys to distinguish between rows. After setting the replication identity, you will need to run CREATE PUBLICATION airbyte_publication FOR TABLES <tbl1, tbl2, tbl3>;. This publication name is customizable. You must add the replication identity before creating the publication. Otherwise, ALTER/UPDATE/DELETE statements may fail if Postgres cannot determine how to uniquely identify rows. Please refer to the Postgres docs if you need to add or remove tables from your publication in the future.
The UI currently allows selecting any tables for CDC. If a table is selected that is not part of the publication, it will not replicate even though it is selected. If a table is part of the publication but does not have a replication identity, that replication identity will be created automatically on the first run if the Airbyte user has the necessary permissions.
When configuring the source, select CDC and provide the replication slot and publication you just created. You should be ready to sync data with CDC!
Some settings must be configured in the postgresql.conf file for your database. You can find the location of this file using psql -U postgres -c 'SHOW config_file' withe the correct psql credentials specified. Alternatively, a custom file can be specified when running postgres with the -c flag. For example postgres -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf runs Postgres with the config file at /etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf.
If you are syncing data from a server using the postgres Docker image, you will need to mount a file and change the command to run Postgres with the set config file. If you're just testing CDC behavior, you may want to use a modified version of a sample postgresql.conf.
wal_levelis the type of coding used within the Postgres write-ahead log. This must be set tologicalfor Airbyte CDC.max_wal_sendersis the maximum number of processes used for handling WAL changes. This must be at least one.max_replication_slotsis the maximum number of replication slots that are allowed to stream WAL changes. This must one if Airbyte will be the only service reading subscribing to WAL changes or more if other services are also reading from the WAL.
Here is what these settings would look like in postgresql.conf:
wal_level = logical
max_wal_senders = 1
max_replication_slots = 1
After setting these values you will need to restart your instance.
Finally, follow the rest of steps above.
- Go to the
Configurationtab for your DB cluster. - Find your cluster parameter group. You will either edit the parameters for this group or create a copy of this parameter group to edit. If you create a copy you will need to change your cluster's parameter group before restarting.
- Within the parameter group page, search for
rds.logical_replication. Select this row and click on theEdit parametersbutton. Set this value to1. - Wait for a maintenance window to automatically restart the instance or restart it manually.
- Finally, follow the rest of steps above.
Use either the Azure CLI to:
az postgres server configuration set --resource-group group --server-name server --name azure.replication_support --value logical
az postgres server restart --resource-group group --name server
Finally, follow the rest of steps above.
Unfortunately, logical replication is not configurable for Google CloudSQL. You can indicate your support for this feature on the Google Issue Tracker.
If you encounter one of those not listed below, please consider contributing to our docs and providing setup instructions.