airbyte/docs/integrations/sources/postgres.md

Postgres

Overview

The Postgres source supports Full Refresh syncs. That is, every time a sync is run, Airbyte will copy all rows in the tables and columns you set up for replication into the destination in a new table.

This Postgres source is based on the Singer Postgres Tap.

Sync overview

Resulting schema

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.

Data type mapping

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.

Features

Feature	Supported
Full Refresh Sync	Yes
Incremental Sync	No
Replicate Incremental Deletes	No
Logical Replication (WAL)	No
SSL Support	Yes
SSH Tunnel Connection	No

Incremental Sync

Incremental sync (copying only the data that has changed) for this source is coming soon.

Getting started

Requirements

1. Postgres v9.3.x or above
2. Allow connections from Airbyte to your Postgres database (if they exist in separate VPCs)
3. Create a dedicated read-only Airbyte user with access to all tables needed for replication

Setup guide

1. Make sure your database is accessible from the machine running Airbyte

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.

2. Create a dedicated read-only user with access to the relevant tables (Recommended but optional)

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 airbyte

Note 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;

Your database user should now be ready for use with Airbyte.