Build a PostgreSQL Interface for Amazon S3 Data using the CData JDBC Driver

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Amazon S3 data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon S3 and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Amazon S3 data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Amazon S3 Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Amazon S3 as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class:

  cdata.jdbc.amazons3.AmazonS3Driver
  

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:amazons3:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  To authorize Amazon S3 requests, provide the credentials for an administrator account or for an IAM user with custom permissions. Set AccessKey to the access key Id. Set SecretKey to the secret access key.

  Note: You can connect as the AWS account administrator, but it is recommended to use IAM user credentials to access AWS services.

  For information on obtaining the credentials and other authentication methods, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

  Built-in Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Amazon S3 JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.amazons3.jar
  

  Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

  👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
  

  A typical JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:amazons3:AccessKey=a123;SecretKey=s123;
  

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:

   ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
   

2. Start the build:

   make install USE_PGXS=1
   

Query Amazon S3 Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Amazon S3 data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for Amazon S3:

   CREATE SERVER AmazonS3 
   FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
   drivername 'cdata.jdbc.amazons3.AmazonS3Driver',
   url 'jdbc:amazons3:AccessKey=a123;SecretKey=s123;',
   querytimeout '15',
   jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.amazons3.jar'); 
   

4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.

   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER AmazonS3 OPTIONS (
   username 'admin', 
   password 'test');
   

5. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE objectsacl (
   objectsacl_id text,
   objectsacl_Name text,
   objectsacl_OwnerId numeric) 
   SERVER AmazonS3 OPTIONS (
   table_name 'objectsacl');
   

You can now execute SELECT commands to Amazon S3:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM objectsacl;