Copy data from PostgreSQL using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

Article
04/19/2024

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

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This article outlines how to use the Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory and Synapse Analytics pipelines to copy data from a PostgreSQL database. It builds on the copy activity overview article that presents a general overview of copy activity.

Important

The new PostgreSQL connector provides improved native PostgreSQL support and better performance. If you are using the legacy PostgreSQL connector in your solution, supported as-is for backward compatibility only, refer to PostgreSQL connector (legacy) article.

Supported capabilities

This PostgreSQL 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.

Specifically, this PostgreSQL connector supports PostgreSQL version 7.4 and above.

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.

The Integration Runtime provides a built-in PostgreSQL driver starting from version 3.7, therefore you don't need to manually install any driver.

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 PostgreSQL using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to PostgreSQL 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 Postgre and select the PostgreSQL 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 PostgreSQL connector.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for PostgreSQL linked service:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: PostgreSqlV2	Yes
server	Specifies the host name - and optionally port - on which PostgreSQL is running.	Yes
port	The TCP port of the PostgreSQL server.	No
database	The PostgreSQL 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.	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) (Default) / Require (3) / Verify-ca (4) / Verify-full (5)	No
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:
schema	Sets the schema search path.	No
pooling	Whether connection pooling should be used.	No
connectionTimeout	The time to wait (in seconds) while trying to establish a connection before terminating the attempt and generating an error.	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.	No
trustServerCertificate	Whether to trust the server certificate without validating it.	No
sslCertificate	Location of a client certificate to be sent to the server.	No
sslKey	Location of a client key for a client certificate to be sent to the server.	No
sslPassword	Password for a key for a client certificate.	No
readBufferSize	Determines the size of the internal buffer Npgsql uses when reading. Increasing may improve performance if transferring large values from the database.	No
logParameters	When enabled, parameter values are logged when commands are executed.	No
timezone	Gets or sets the session timezone.	No
encoding	Gets or sets the .NET encoding that will be used to encode/decode PostgreSQL string data.	No

Note

In order to have full SSL verification via the ODBC connection when using the Self Hosted Integration Runtime you must use an ODBC type connection instead of the PostgreSQL connector explicitly, and complete the following configuration:

Set up the DSN on any SHIR servers.
Put the proper certificate for PostgreSQL in C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\DIAHostService\AppData\Roaming\postgresql\root.crt on the SHIR servers. This is where the ODBC driver looks > for the SSL cert to verify when it connects to the database.
In your data factory connection, use an ODBC type connection, with your connection string pointing to the DSN you created on your SHIR servers.

Example:

{
    "name": "PostgreSqlLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "PostgreSqlV2",
        "typeProperties": {
            "server": "<server>",
            "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": "PostgreSqlLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "PostgreSqlV2",
        "typeProperties": {
            "server": "<server>",
            "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"
        }
    }
}

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 PostgreSQL dataset.

To copy data from PostgreSQL, the following properties are supported:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the dataset must be set to: PostgreSqlV2Table	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)

Example

{
    "name": "PostgreSQLDataset",
    "properties":
    {
        "type": "PostgreSqlV2Table",
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<PostgreSQL linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "annotations": [],
        "schema": [],
        "typeProperties": {
            "schema": "<schema name>",
            "table": "<table name>"
        }
    }
}

If you were using RelationalTable typed dataset, it's still supported as-is, while you are suggested to use the new one going forward.

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 PostgreSQL source.

PostgreSQL as source

To copy data from PostgreSQL, 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: PostgreSqlV2Source	Yes
query	Use the custom SQL query to read data. For example: `"query": "SELECT * FROM \"MySchema\".\"MyTable\""`.	No (if "tableName" in dataset is specified)

Note

Schema and table names are case-sensitive. Enclose them in "" (double quotes) in the query.

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromPostgreSQL",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<PostgreSQL input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "PostgreSqlV2Source",
                "query": "SELECT * FROM \"MySchema\".\"MyTable\""
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

If you were using RelationalSource typed source, it is still supported as-is, while you are suggested to use the new one going forward.

Data type mapping for PostgreSQL

When copying data from PostgreSQL, the following mappings are used from PostgreSQL data types to interim data types used by the service internally. See Schema and data type mappings to learn about how copy activity maps the source schema and data type to the sink.

PostgreSql data type	Interim service data type	Interim service data type for PostgreSQL (legacy)
`SmallInt`	`Int16`	`Int16`
`Integer`	`Int32`	`Int32`
`BigInt`	`Int64`	`Int64`
`Decimal` (Precision <= 28)	`Decimal`	`Decimal`
`Decimal` (Precision > 28)	Unsupport	`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`	`DateTime`	`String`
`Date`	`DateTime`	`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`
`NumbericArray`	`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 PostgreSQL linked service

Here are steps that help you upgrade your PostgreSQL linked service:

Create a new PostgreSQL linked service and configure it by referring to Linked service properties.
The data type mapping for the latest PostgreSQL linked service is different from that for the legacy version. To learn the latest data type mapping, see Data type mapping for PostgreSQL.

Differences between PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL (legacy)

The table below shows the data type mapping differences between PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL (legacy).

PostgreSQL data type	Interim service data type for PostgreSQL	Interim service data type for PostgreSQL (legacy)
Money	Decimal	String
Timestamp with time zone	DateTime	String
Time with time zone	DateTimeOffset	String
Interval	TimeSpan	String
BigDecimal	Not supported. As an alternative, utilize `to_char()` function to convert BigDecimal to String.	String

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

Copy data from PostgreSQL using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Create a linked service to PostgreSQL using UI

Connector configuration details

Linked service properties

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

PostgreSQL as source

Data type mapping for PostgreSQL

Lookup activity properties

Upgrade the PostgreSQL linked service

Differences between PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL (legacy)

Feedback

Additional resources

Copy data from PostgreSQL using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Create a linked service to PostgreSQL using UI

Connector configuration details

Linked service properties

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

PostgreSQL as source

Data type mapping for PostgreSQL

Lookup activity properties

Upgrade the PostgreSQL linked service

Differences between PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL (legacy)

Related content

Feedback

Additional resources