Heroku PostgreSQL

Last updated on Sep 19, 2023
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Heroku PostgreSQL is Heroku’s reliable and powerful database as a service based on PostgreSQL. With the fully-managed Heroku Postgres, you can focus on getting the most out of your data without the admin overhead.

You can ingest data from your Heroku PostgreSQL database using Hevo Pipelines and replicate it to a Destination of your choice.

Heroku is a platform where you can deploy applications directly on the cloud. These applications can have add-ons such as databases and email services. To ingest your data, Hevo needs to access the application and the database within. A database can be shared by multiple apps. However, one app can only have one database.

Prerequisites

Perform the following steps to configure your Heroku PostgreSQL Source:

Obtain PostgreSQL Database Credentials

  1. Log in to your Heroku account.

  2. To access your database, do one of the following:

    • Select your database from the app:

      1. Select the app your database is stored in from the drop-down list.

      2. Click on your database in the Installed add-ons section.

    • Select the database from a list:

      1. Click the menu icon, and select Data.

      2. Click on the PostgreSQL database you want to ingest data from.

  3. Click Settings, and then View Credentials.

  4. Use the credentials displayed in the Database Credentials section while setting up your Heroku PostgreSQL Source in Hevo.

Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings

  1. In the Configure your Heroku PostgreSQL Source page, specify the following:

    Heroku PostgreSQL settings

    • Pipeline Name: A unique name for your Pipeline, not exceeding 255 characters.

    • Database Host: The Heroku PostgreSQL host’s IP address or DNS.

    • Database Port: The port on which your PostgreSQL server is listening for connections. Default value: 5432.

    • Database User: The read-only user who has the permissions to read tables in your database.

    • Database Password: The password for the read-only user.

    • Select an Ingestion Mode: The desired mode by which Hevo must ingest data from the Source. The available Ingestion Modes are Table and Custom SQL. Read Ingestion Modes for more information.

      For ingestion mode as Table, refer to section, Object Settings for the steps to configure the objects to be replicated.

      Note: For Custom SQL ingestion mode, all Events loaded to the Destination are billable.

    • Database Name: The database that you wish to replicate.

    • Connection Settings:

      • Connect through SSH: Enable this option to connect to Hevo using an SSH tunnel, instead of directly connecting your PostgreSQL database host to Hevo. This provides an additional level of security to your database by not exposing your PostgreSQL setup to the public. Read Connecting Through SSH.

        If this option is disabled, you must whitelist Hevo’s IP addresses. Refer to the content for your PostgreSQL variant for steps to do this.

      • Use SSL: Enable it to use SSL encrypted connection. You should also enable this if you are using Heroku PostgreSQL databases. To enable this, specify the following:

        • CA File: The file containing the SSL server certificate authority (CA).

        • Client Certificate: The client public key certificate file.

        • Client Key: The client private key file.

    • Advanced Settings

      • Include New Tables in the Pipeline: Applicable for all Ingestion modes except Custom SQL. If enabled, Hevo automatically ingests data from tables created in the Source after the Pipeline has been built. These may include completely new tables or previously deleted tables that have been re-created in the Source. If disabled, new and re-created tables are not ingested automatically. They are added in SKIPPED state in the objects list, in the Pipeline Overview page. You can update their status to INCLUDED to ingest data. You can change this setting later. You can include these objects post-Pipeline creation to ingest data.

  2. Click TEST CONNECTION. This button is enabled once you specify all the mandatory fields. Hevo’s underlying connectivity checker validates the connection settings you provide.

  3. Click TEST & CONTINUE to proceed for setting up the Destination. This button is enabled once you specify all the mandatory fields.

Object Settings

Object settings must be configured if the Ingestion mode is Table.

To do this:

  • Once your respective Source connection settings are specified in section Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings above, select the objects to be replicated in the SELECT the Objects you want to replicate page, and then click CONTINUE.

    Object Selection

    Note: Each object represents a table in your database.

  • In the CONFIGURE SOURCE OBJECTS page, specify the query mode to be used for each selected object.

Additional Information

Read the detailed Hevo documentation for the following related topics:

Source Considerations

  • If you add a column with a default value to a table in PostgreSQL, entries with it are created in the WAL only for the rows that are added or updated after the column is added. As a result, in the case of log-based Pipelines, Hevo cannot capture the column value for the unchanged rows. To capture those values, you need to:

    • Restart the historical load for the respective object.

    • Run a query in the Destination to add the column and its value to all rows.

Limitations

  • Heroku does not support log-based replications. Hence, all modifications to records, including inserts, updates, and deletes, must be explicitly mentioned to be captured.

  • Hevo supports only Table and Custom SQL Pipeline modes for Heroku PostgreSQL.

  • The data type Array in the Source is automatically mapped to Varchar at the Destination. No other mapping is currently supported.

  • Hevo does not support data replication from foreign tables, temporary tables, and views.

See Also

Revision History

Refer to the following table for the list of key updates made to this page:

Date Release Description of Change
Sep-19-2023 NA Updated section, Limitations to add information about Hevo not supporting data replication from certain tables.
Jun-26-2023 NA Added section, Source Considerations.
Apr-21-2023 NA Updated section, Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings to add a note to inform users that all loaded Events are billable for Custom SQL mode-based Pipelines.
Dec-19-2022 2.04 Updated section, Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings to add information that you must specify all fields to create a Pipeline.
Dec-07-2022 2.03 Updated section, Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings to mention about including skipped objects post-Pipeline creation.
Dec-07-2022 2.03 Updated section, Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings to mention about the connectivity checker.
Sep-05-2022 NA Updated sections, Obtain PostgreSQL Database Credentials and Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings for more clarity and detail.
Jul-04-2022 NA - Added section, Specify Heroku PostgreSQL Connection Settings and Object Settings.
Jan-24-2022 1.80 Removed from Limitations that Hevo does not support UUID datatype as primary key.
Sep-09-2021 1.71 Updated the section, Limitations to include information about columns with the UUID data type not being supported as a primary key.
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