Copy data from Greenplum using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

2025-06-06

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

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This article outlines how to use the Copy Activity in an Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics pipeline to copy data from Greenplum. It builds on the copy activity overview article that presents a general overview of copy activity.

Important

The Greenplum connector version 2.0 provides improved native Greenplum support. If you are using Greenplum connector version 1.0 in your solution, please upgrade the Greenplum connector before August 31, 2025. Refer to this section for details on the difference between version 2.0 and version 1.0.

Supported capabilities

This Greenplum connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities	IR
Copy activity (source/-)	① ②
Lookup activity	① ②

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources/sinks by the copy activity, see the Supported data stores table.

The service provides a built-in driver to enable connectivity, therefore you don't need to manually install any driver using this connector.

Prerequisites

If your data store is located inside an on-premises network, an Azure virtual network, or Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, you need to configure a self-hosted integration runtime to connect to it.

If your data store is a managed cloud data service, you can use the Azure Integration Runtime. If the access is restricted to IPs that are approved in the firewall rules, you can add Azure Integration Runtime IPs to the allow list.

You can also use the managed virtual network integration runtime feature in Azure Data Factory to access the on-premises network without installing and configuring a self-hosted integration runtime.

For more information about the network security mechanisms and options supported by Data Factory, see Data access strategies.

Getting started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

Create a linked service to Greenplum using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to Greenplum in the Azure portal UI.

Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:
- Azure Data Factory
- Azure Synapse
Search for Greenplum and select the Greenplum connector.
Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to Greenplum connector.

Linked service properties

The Greenplum connector now supports version 2.0. Refer to this section to upgrade your Greenplum connector version from version 1.0. For the property details, see the corresponding sections.

Version 2.0
Version 1.0

Version 2.0

The Greenplum linked service supports the following properties when apply version 2.0:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: Greenplum	Yes
version	The version that you specify. The value is `2.0`.	Yes
host	Specifies the host name - and optionally port - on which database is running.	Yes
port	The TCP port of the database server. The default value is `5432`.	No
database	The database to connect to.	Yes
username	The username to connect with. Not required if using IntegratedSecurity.	Yes
password	The password to connect with. Not required if using IntegratedSecurity. Mark this field as SecureString to store it securely. Or, you can reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault.	Yes
sslMode	Controls whether SSL is used, depending on server support. - Disable: SSL is disabled. If the server requires SSL, the connection will fail. - Allow: Prefer non-SSL connections if the server allows them, but allow SSL connections. - Prefer: Prefer SSL connections if the server allows them, but allow connections without SSL. - Require: Fail the connection if the server doesn't support SSL. - Verify-ca: Fail the connection if the server doesn't support SSL. Also verifies server certificate. - Verify-full: Fail the connection if the server doesn't support SSL. Also verifies server certificate with host's name. Options: Disable (0) / Allow (1) / Prefer (2) / Require (3) (Default) / Verify-ca (4) / Verify-full (5)	Yes
authenticationType	Authentication type for connecting to the database. Only supports Basic.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No
Additional connection properties:
connectionTimeout	The time to wait (in seconds) while trying to establish a connection before terminating the attempt and generating an error. The default value is `15`.	No
commandTimeout	The time to wait (in seconds) while trying to execute a command before terminating the attempt and generating an error. Set to zero for infinity. The default value is `30`.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "GreenplumLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Greenplum",
        "version": "2.0",
        "typeProperties": {
            "host": "<host>",
            "port": 5432,
            "database": "<database>",
            "username": "<username>",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<password>"
            },
            "sslMode": <sslmode>,
            "authenticationType": "Basic"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: store password in Azure Key Vault

{
    "name": "GreenplumLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Greenplum",
        "version": "2.0",
        "typeProperties": {
            "host": "<host>",
            "port": 5432,
            "database": "<database>",
            "username": "<username>",
            "password": { 
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret", 
                "store": { 
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>", 
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference" 
                }, 
                "secretName": "<secretName>" 
            },
            "sslMode": <sslmode>,
            "authenticationType": "Basic"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Version 1.0

The Greenplum linked service supports the following properties when apply version 1.0:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: Greenplum	Yes
connectionString	An ODBC connection string to connect to Greenplum. You can also put password in Azure Key Vault and pull the `pwd` configuration out of the connection string. Refer to the following samples and Store credentials in Azure Key Vault article with more details.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "GreenplumLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Greenplum",
        "typeProperties": {
            "connectionString": "HOST=<server>;PORT=<port>;DB=<database>;UID=<user name>;PWD=<password>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: store password in Azure Key Vault

{
    "name": "GreenplumLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Greenplum",
        "typeProperties": {
            "connectionString": "HOST=<server>;PORT=<port>;DB=<database>;UID=<user name>;",
            "pwd": { 
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret", 
                "store": { 
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>", 
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference" 
                }, 
                "secretName": "<secretName>" 
            }
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Greenplum dataset.

To copy data from Greenplum, set the type property of the dataset to GreenplumTable. The following properties are supported:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the dataset must be set to: GreenplumTable	Yes
schema	Name of the schema.	No (if "query" in activity source is specified)
table	Name of the table.	No (if "query" in activity source is specified)
tableName	Name of the table with schema. This property is supported for backward compatibility. Use `schema` and `table` for new workload.	No (if "query" in activity source is specified)

Example

{
    "name": "GreenplumDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "GreenplumTable",
        "typeProperties": {},
        "schema": [],
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<Greenplum linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Greenplum source.

GreenplumSource as source

To copy data from Greenplum, set the source type in the copy activity to GreenplumSource. The following properties are supported in the copy activity source section:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity source must be set to: GreenplumSource	Yes
query	Use the custom SQL query to read data. For example: `"SELECT * FROM MyTable"`.	No (if "tableName" in dataset is specified)

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromGreenplum",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Greenplum input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "GreenplumSource",
                "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Data type mapping for Greenplum

When you copy data from Greenplum, the following mappings apply from Greenplum's data types to the internal data types used by the service. To learn about how the copy activity maps the source schema and data type to the sink, see Schema and data type mappings.

Greenplum data type	Interim service data type (for version 2.0)	Interim service data type (for version 1.0)
SmallInt	Int16	Int16
Integer	Int32	Int32
BigInt	Int64	Int64
Decimal (Precision <= 28)	Decimal	Decimal
Decimal (Precision > 28)	Decimal	String
Numeric	Decimal	Decimal
Real	Single	Single
Double	Double	Double
SmallSerial	Int16	Int16
Serial	Int32	Int32
BigSerial	Int64	Int64
Money	Decimal	String
Char	String	String
Varchar	String	String
Text	String	String
Bytea	Byte[]	Byte[]
Timestamp	DateTime	DateTime
Timestamp with time zone	DateTimeOffset	String
Date	Date	DateTime
Time	TimeSpan	TimeSpan
Time with time zone	DateTimeOffset	String
Interval	TimeSpan	String
Boolean	Boolean	Boolean
Point	String	String
Line	String	String
Iseg	String	String
Box	String	String
Path	String	String
Polygon	String	String
Circle	String	String
Cidr	String	String
Inet	String	String
Macaddr	String	String
Macaddr8	String	String
Tsvector	String	String
Tsquery	String	String
UUID	Guid	Guid
Json	String	String
Jsonb	String	String
Array	String	String
Bit	Byte[]	Byte[]
Bit varying	Byte[]	Byte[]
XML	String	String
IntArray	String	String
TextArray	String	String
NumericArray	String	String
DateArray	String	String
Range	String	String
Bpchar	String	String

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Upgrade the Greenplum connector

Here are steps that help you upgrade your Greenplum connector:

In Edit linked service page, select version 2.0 and configure the linked service by referring to linked service version 2.0 properties.
The data type mapping for the Greenplum linked service version 2.0 is different from that for the version 1.0. To learn the latest data type mapping, see Data type mapping for Greenplum.

Differences between Greenplum version 2.0 and version 1.0

The Greenplum connector version 2.0 offers new functionalities and is compatible with most features of version 1.0. The table below shows the feature differences between version 2.0 and version 1.0.

Version 2.0	Version 1.0
The following mappings are used from Greenplum data types to interim service data type. Decimal (Precision > 28) -> Decimal Money -> Decimal Timestamp with time zone -> DateTimeOffset Time with time zone -> DateTimeOffset Interval -> TimeSpan	The following mappings are used from Greenplum data types to interim service data type. Decimal (Precision > 28) -> String Money -> String Timestamp with time zone ->String Time with time zone -> String Interval -> String

For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity, see supported data stores.

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Copy data from Greenplum using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Create a linked service to Greenplum using UI

Connector configuration details

Linked service properties

Version 2.0

Version 1.0

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

GreenplumSource as source

Data type mapping for Greenplum

Lookup activity properties

Upgrade the Greenplum connector

Differences between Greenplum version 2.0 and version 1.0

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