Load PostgreSQL data into BigQuery

You can load data from PostgreSQL to BigQuery using the BigQuery Data Transfer Service for PostgreSQL connector. The connector supports PostgreSQL instances hosted in your on-premises environment, Cloud SQL, as well as other public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. With the BigQuery Data Transfer Service, you can schedule recurring transfer jobs that add your latest data from PostgreSQL to BigQuery.

Limitations

PostgreSQL data transfers are subject to following limitations:

  • The maximum number of simultaneous transfer runs to a single PostgreSQL database is determined by the maximum number of concurrent connections supported by the PostgreSQL database. The number of concurrent transfer jobs should be limited to a value less than the maximum number of concurrent connections supported by the PostgreSQL database.
  • A single transfer configuration can only support one data transfer run at a given time. In the case where a second data transfer is scheduled to run before the first transfer is completed, then only the first data transfer completes while any other data transfers that overlap with the first transfer is skipped.
    • To avoid skipped transfers within a single transfer configuration, we recommend that you increase the duration of time between large data transfers by configuring the Repeat frequency.

Data ingestion options

The following sections provide information about the data ingestion options when you set up a PostgreSQL data transfer.

TLS configuration

The PostgreSQL connector supports the configuration for transport level security (TLS) to encrypt your data transfers into BigQuery. The PostgreSQL connector supports the following TLS configurations:

  • Encrypt data, and verify CA and hostname: This mode performs a full validation of the server using TLS over the TCPS protocol. It encrypts all data in transit and verifies that the database server's certificate is signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). This mode also checks that the hostname you're connecting to exactly matches the Common Name (CN) or a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) on the server's certificate. This mode prevents attackers from using a valid certificate for a different domain to impersonate your database server.
    • If your hostname does not match the certificate CN or SAN, the connection fails. You must configure a DNS resolution to match the certificate or use a different security mode.
    • Use this mode for the most secure option to prevent person-in-the-middle (PITM) attacks.
  • Encrypt data, and verify CA only: This mode encrypts all data using TLS over the TCPS protocol and verifies that the server's certificate is signed by a CA that the client trusts. However, this mode does not verify the server's hostname. This mode successfully connects as long as the certificate is valid and issued by a trusted VA, regardless of whether the hostname in the certificate matches the hostname you are connecting to.
    • Use this mode if you want to ensure that you are connecting to a server whose certificate is signed by a trusted CA, but the hostname is not verifiable or you don't have control over the hostname configuration.
  • Encryption only: This mode encrypts all data transferred between the client and the server. It does not perform any certificate or hostname validation.
    • This mode provides some level of security by protecting data in transit, but it can be vulnerable to PITM attacks.
    • Use this mode if you need to ensure all data is encrypted but can't or don't want to verify the server's identity. We recommend using this mode when working with private VPCs.
  • No encryption or verification: This mode does not encrypt any data and does not perform any certificate or hostname verification. All data is sent as plain text.
    • We don't recommend using this mode in an environment where sensitive data is handled.
    • We only recommend using this mode for testing purposes on an isolated network where security is not a concern.

Trusted Server Certificate (PEM)

If you are using either the Encrypt data, and verify CA and hostname mode or the Encrypt data, and verify CA mode, then you can also provide one or more PEM-encoded certificates. These certificates are required in some scenarios where the BigQuery Data Transfer Service needs to verify the identity of your database server during the TLS connection:

  • If you are using a certificate signed by a private CA within your organization or a self-signed certificate, you must provide the full certificate chain or the single self-signed certificate. This is required for certificates issued by internal CAs of managed cloud provider services, such as the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).
  • If your database server certificate is signed by a public CA (for example, Let's Encrypt, DigiCert, or GlobalSign), you don't need to provide a certificate. The root certificates for these public CAs are pre-installed and trusted by the BigQuery Data Transfer Service.

You can provide PEM-encoded certificates in the Trusted PEM Certificate field when you create a PostgreSQL transfer configuration, with the following requirements:

  • The certificate must be a valid PEM-encoded certificate chain.
  • The certificate must be entirely correct. Any missing certificates in the chain or incorrect content causes the TLS connection to fail.
  • For a single certificate, you can provide single, self-signed certificate from the database server.
  • For a full certificate chain issued by a private CA, you must provide the full chain of trust. This includes the certificate from the database server and any intermediate and root CA certificates.

Before you begin

Required roles

If you intend to set up transfer run notifications for Pub/Sub, ensure that you have the pubsub.topics.setIamPolicy Identity and Access Management (IAM) permission. Pub/Sub permissions are not required if you only set up email notifications. For more information, see BigQuery Data Transfer Service run notifications.

To get the permissions that you need to create a BigQuery Data Transfer Service data transfer, ask your administrator to grant you the BigQuery Admin (roles/bigquery.admin) IAM role on your project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to create a BigQuery Data Transfer Service data transfer. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to create a BigQuery Data Transfer Service data transfer:

  • BigQuery Data Transfer Service permissions:
    • bigquery.transfers.update
    • bigquery.transfers.get
  • BigQuery permissions:
    • bigquery.datasets.get
    • bigquery.datasets.getIamPolicy
    • bigquery.datasets.update
    • bigquery.datasets.setIamPolicy
    • bigquery.jobs.create

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

For more information, see Grant bigquery.admin access.

Network connections

If a public IP address is not available for the PostgreSQL database connection, you must set up a network attachment.

For detailed instructions on the required network setup, refer to the following documents:

Set up a PostgreSQL data transfer

Add PostgreSQL data into BigQuery by setting up a transfer configuration using one of the following options:

Console

  1. Go to the Data transfers page.

    Go to Data transfers

  2. Click Create transfer.

  3. In the Source type section, for Source, select PostgreSQL.

  4. In the Transfer config name section, for Display name, enter a name for the transfer. The transfer name can be any value that lets you identify the transfer if you need to modify it later.

  5. In the Schedule options section, do the following:

    • Select a repeat frequency. If you select the Hours, Days (default), Weeks, or Months option, you must also specify a frequency. You can also select the Custom option to create a more specific repeat frequency. If you select the On-demand option, this data transfer only runs when you manually trigger the transfer.
    • If applicable, select either the Start now or Start at a set time option and provide a start date and run time.

  6. In the Destination settings section, for Dataset, select the dataset that you created to store your data, or click Create new dataset and create one to use as the destination dataset.

  7. In the Data source details section, do the following:

    • For Network attachment, select an existing network attachment or click Create Network Attachment. For more information, see the Network connections section of this document.
    • For Host, enter the hostname or IP address of the PostgreSQL database server.
    • For Port number, enter the port number for the PostgreSQL database server.
    • For Database name, enter the name of the PostgreSQL database.
    • For Username, enter the username of the PostgreSQL user initiating the PostgreSQL database connection.
    • For Password, enter the password of the PostgreSQL user initiating the PostgreSQL database connection.
    • For TLS Mode, select an option from the menu. For more information about TLS modes, see TLS configuration.
    • For Trusted PEM Certificate, enter the public certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that issued the TLS certificate of the database server. For more information, see Trusted Server Certificate (PEM).

    • For PostgreSQL objects to transfer, do one of the following:

      • Click Browse to select the PostgreSQL tables that are required for the transfer, and then click Select.
      • Manually enter the names of the tables in the PostgreSQL objects to transfer.

  8. Optional: In the Notification options section, do the following:

    • To enable email notifications, click the Email notifications toggle to the on position. When you enable this option, the transfer administrator receives an email notification when a transfer run fails.
    • To configure Pub/Sub run notifications for your transfer, click the Pub/Sub notifications toggle to the on position. You can select your topic name or click Create a topic to create one.

  9. Click Save.

bq

Enter the bq mk command and supply the transfer creation flag --transfer_config:

bq mk
    --transfer_config
    --project_id=PROJECT_ID
    --data_source=DATA_SOURCE
    --display_name=DISPLAY_NAME
    --target_dataset=DATASET
    --params='PARAMETERS'

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID (optional): your Google Cloud project ID. If the --project_id flag isn't supplied to specify a particular project, the default project is used.
  • DATA_SOURCE: the data source, which is postgresql.
  • DISPLAY_NAME: the display name for the data transfer configuration. The transfer name can be any value that lets you identify the transfer if you need to modify it later.
  • DATASET: the target dataset for the data transfer configuration.

  • PARAMETERS: the parameters for the created transfer configuration in JSON format. For example: --params='{"param":"param_value"}'. The following are the parameters for a PostgreSQL transfer:

    • networkAttachment (optional): the name of the network attachment to connect to the PostgreSQL database.
    • connector.database: the name of the PostgreSQL database.
    • connector.endpoint.host: the hostname or IP address of the database.
    • connector.endpoint.port: the port number of the database.
    • connector.authentication.username: the username of the database user.
    • connector.authentication.password: the password of the database user.
    • connector.tls.mode: specify a TLS configuration to use with this transfer:
      • ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA_AND_HOST to encrypt data, and verify CA and hostname
      • ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA to encrypt data, and verify CA only
      • ENCRYPT_VERIFY_NONE for data encryption only
      • DISABLE for no encryption or verification
    • connector.tls.trustedServerCertificate: (optional) provide one or more PEM-encoded certificates. Required only if connector.tls.mode is ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA_AND_HOST or ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA.
    • assets: a list of the names of the PostgreSQL tables to be transferred from the PostgreSQL database as part of the transfer.

For example, the following command creates a PostgreSQL transfer called My Transfer:

bq mk
    --transfer_config
    --target_dataset=mydataset
    --data_source=postgresql
    --display_name='My Transfer'
    --params='{"assets":["DB1/PUBLIC/DEPARTMENT","DB1/PUBLIC/EMPLOYEES"],
        "connector.authentication.username": "User1",
        "connector.authentication.password":"ABC12345",
        "connector.database":"DB1",
        "connector.endpoint.host":"192.168.0.1",
        "connector.endpoint.port":5432,
        "connector.tls.mode": "ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA_AND_HOST",
        "connector.tls.trustedServerCertificate": "PEM-encoded certificate"}'

API

Use the projects.locations.transferConfigs.create method and supply an instance of the TransferConfig resource.

When you save the transfer configuration, the PostgreSQL connector automatically triggers a transfer run according to your schedule option. With every transfer run, the PostgreSQL connector transfers all available data from PostgreSQL into BigQuery.

To manually run a data transfer outside of your regular schedule, you can start a backfill run.

Data type mapping

The following table maps PostgreSQL data types to the corresponding BigQuery data types.

PostgreSQL data type BigQuery data type
bigint INTEGER
bigserial INTEGER
bit(n) STRING
bit varying(n) STRING
boolean BOOLEAN
bytea BYTES
character STRING
character varying STRING
double precision FLOAT
integer INTEGER
numeric(precision, scale)/decimal(precision, scale) NUMERIC
real FLOAT
smallint INTEGER
smallserial INTEGER
serial INTEGER
text STRING
date DATE
time [ (p) ] [ without timezone ] TIMESTAMP
time [ (p) ] with time zone TIMESTAMP
timestamp [ (p) ] [ without timezone ] TIMESTAMP
timestamp [ (p) ] with time zone TIMESTAMP
xml STRING
tsquery STRING
tsvector STRING
uuid STRING
box STRING
cidr STRING
circle STRING
inet STRING
interval STRING
json STRING
jsonb STRING
line STRING
lseg STRING
macaddr STRING
macaddr8 STRING
money STRING
path STRING
point STRING
polygon STRING

Troubleshoot

If you are having issues setting up your data transfer, see PostgreSQL transfer issues.

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