Wondering how to setup Amazon Redshift? We can help you.

We have a lot of customers using Amazon Redshift since it is a fully managed data warehouse service in the cloud.

To create a data warehouse we have to launch a set of computing resources called nodes, which then organize into clusters.

Each cluster runs an Amazon Redshift engine and contains one or more databases.

At Bobcares we assist our customers with several AWS queries as part of our AWS Support Services for AWS users, and online service providers.

Today, let us discuss how to setup Amazon Redshift.

Features of Amazon Redshift

Before we set up the data warehouse let us look into its features.

• Supports VPC − We can launch Redshift within VPC and control access to the cluster through the virtual networking environment.
• Encryption − We can encrypt and configure data in Redshift while creating tables in Redshift.
• SSL − To encrypt connections between clients and Redshift.
• Scalable − With a few simple clicks, the number of nodes can easily scale in the Redshift data warehouse as per requirement.
• Cost-effective − It is a cost-effective alternative to traditional data warehousing practices.

How to Set Up Amazon Redshift

Moving ahead, let us see the steps to set up Amazon Redshift.

Step 1: Sign in and launch a Redshift Cluster

• Sign in to AWS Management Console and open Amazon Redshift console – https://console.aws.amazon.com/redshift/
• Select the region where we need to create the cluster using the Region menu.
• Then click the Launch Cluster button.
• Here, provide the required details and click the Continue button till the review page.
• On the confirmation page, click the Close button to finish so that cluster is visible in the Clusters list.
• Then select the cluster in the list and review the Cluster Status information.

Step 2: Configure the security group to authorize client connections to the cluster.

Follow these steps to the security group on the EC2-VPC platform.

• Open Amazon Redshift Console and click Clusters on the navigation pane.
• When we select the desired Cluster, its Configuration tab opens.
• Then click the Security group.
• Here, click the Inbound tab.
• Click the Edit button. Set the fields as below and click the Save button.

  Type − Custom TCP Rule
  Protocol − TCP
  Port Range − Type the same port number used while launching the cluster. By default, the port for Amazon Redshift is 5439.
  Source − Select Custom IP, then type 0.0.0.0/0.

Step 3: Connect to Redshift Cluster

Given below are the steps to connect directly to Redshift Cluster.

1. Connect the cluster by using a SQL client tool. It supports SQL client tools that are compatible with PostgreSQL JDBC or ODBC drivers.

   JDBC: https://jdbc.postgresql.org/download/postgresql-8.4-703.jdbc4.jar
   ODBC: https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/odbc/versions/msi/psqlodbc_08_04_0200.zip or
   http://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/odbc/versions/msi/psqlodbc_09_00_0101x64.zip for 64-bit machines

2. Use the following steps to get the Connection String.

   a) Open Amazon Redshift Console and select Cluster in the Navigation pane.
   b) Select the cluster of choice and click the Configuration tab.
   c) A page opens with JDBC URL under Cluster Database Properties. Copy the URL.

3. Use the following steps to connect the Cluster with SQL Workbench/J.

   a) Open SQL Workbench/J.
   b) Select the File and click the Connect window.
   c) Select Create a new connection profile and fill in the required details like name, etc.
   d) Click Manage Drivers and Manage Drivers dialog box opens.
   e) Click the Create a new entry button and fill in the required details.

4. Then click the folder icon and navigate to the driver location. Finally, click the Open button
5. Leave the Classname box and Sample URL box blank. Then click OK.
6. Choose the Driver from the list.
7. In the URL field, paste the JDBC URL.
8. Eventually, enter the username and password to their respective fields.
9. Finally, select the Autocommit box and click Save profile list.

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Conclusion

In short, our Support Techs introduced an effective method to set up Amazon Redshift.