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Use the PostgreSQL® dblink extension

dblink is a PostgreSQL® extension that allows you to connect to other PostgreSQL databases and to run arbitrary queries.

With Foreign Data Wrappers (FDW) you can uniquely define a remote foreign server in order to access its data. The database connection details like hostnames are kept in a single place, and you only need to create once a user mapping storing remote connections credentials.

Prerequisites​

To create a dblink foreign data wrapper you need the following information about the PostgreSQL remote server:

  • TARGET_PG_HOST: The remote database hostname
  • TARGET_PG_PORT: The remote database port
  • TARGET_PG_USER: The remote database user to connect
  • TARGET_PG_PASSWORD: The remote database password for the TARGET_PG_USER
  • TARGET_PG_DATABASE_NAME: The remote database name
note

If you're using Aiven for PostgreSQL as remote server, the above details are available in the Aiven console > the service's Overview page or via the avn service get command with the Aiven CLI.

To enable the dblink extension on an Aiven for PostgreSQL service:

  1. Connect to the database with the avnadmin user. The following shows how to do it with psql, the service URI can be found in the Aiven console the service's Overview page:

    psql "postgres://avnadmin:[AVNADMIN_PWD]@[PG_HOST]:[PG_PORT]/[PG_DB_NAME]?sslmode=require"
    tip

    If you're using Aiven for PostgreSQL as remote server, you can connect to a service with the avnadmin user with the avn service cli command with the Aiven CLI.

  2. Create the dblink extension:

    CREATE EXTENSION dblink;

To create a foreign data wrapper using the dblink_fwd:

  1. Connect to the database with the avnadmin user. The following shows how to do it with psql, the service URI can be found in the Aiven console the service's Overview page:

    psql "postgres://avnadmin:[AVNADMIN_PWD]@[PG_HOST]:[PG_PORT]/[PG_DB_NAME]?sslmode=require"

  2. Create a user user1 that will access the dblink:

    CREATE USER user1 PASSWORD 'secret1'

  3. Create a remote server definition, named pg_remote, using dblink_fdw and the target PostgreSQL connection details:

    CREATE SERVER pg_remote
        FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER dblink_fdw
        OPTIONS (
                 host 'TARGET_PG_HOST',
                 dbname 'TARGET_PG_DATABASE_NAME',
                 port 'TARGET_PG_PORT'
                 );

  4. Create a user mapping for the user1 to automatically authenticate as the TARGET_PG_USER when using the dblink:

    CREATE USER MAPPING FOR user1
        SERVER pg_remote
        OPTIONS (
            user 'TARGET_PG_USER',
            password 'TARGET_PG_PASSWORD'
            );

  5. Enable user1 to use the remote PostgreSQL connection pg_remote:

    GRANT USAGE ON FOREIGN SERVER pg_remote TO user1;

Query data using a foreign data wrapper​

To query a foreign data wrapper you must be a database user having the necessary grants to the remote server definition. We can use user1 from the previous example. To query the remote table inventory defined in the target PostgreSQL database pointed by the pg_remote server definition:

  1. Connect with the Aiven for PostgreSQL service with the database user (user1) having the necessary grants to the remote server definition.

  2. Establish the dblink connection to the remote target:

    SELECT dblink_connect('my_new_conn', 'pg_remote');

  3. Execute the query passing the foreign server definition as parameter:

    SELECT * FROM dblink('pg_remote','SELECT item_id FROM inventory')
        AS target_inventory(target_item_id int);

  4. Check the results:

    target_item_id
    ----------------
                1
                2
                3
    (3 rows)