Data Warehousing Essentials: Introduction to Amazon Redshift

by Pronay Ghosh and Hiren Rupchandani

• In the previous article, we learned about we covered a high-level overview of the system design and features of Amazon Lex.
• In this series, we will understand the high-level overview of Amazon Redshift.
• We will know how to load data from Amazon S3.
• After that, we will know how to query nested data with Amazon Redshift Spectrum.
• Then, we will know about configuring Manual Workload Management (MWM) queues.

What is Amazon Redshift?

• Amazon Redshift is a completely managed cloud-based data warehousing solution.
• Its datasets range in size from a few hundred megabytes to a petabyte.
• The first step in building a data warehouse is to launch a collection of computational resources known as nodes.
• These nodes are arranged into clusters. You can then proceed to process your requests.

Features of Amazon Redshift

Amazon Redshift supports a wide range of features and they are as follows:

• VPC support: The VPC support feature allows users to run Redshift within a VPC and control cluster access using the virtual networking environment.
• Encryption Redshift: Data may be encrypted and customized when tables are being created.
• SSL: SSL encryption is used to encrypt client-to-Redshift communications.
• Scalable: The number of nodes in your Redshift data warehouse may be quickly scaled as needed with a few easy clicks.
• It also enables the expansion of storage capacity without sacrificing performance.
• Amazon Redshift is a less expensive alternative to standard data warehousing techniques.
• There are no upfront expenses, no long-term obligations, and a pricing system that is based on demand.

Amazon Redshift-Setup:

Step 1: Setting up the AWS Redshift Cluster

• As the first step Log in to your AWS account and create a Redshift Cluster using the methods below.
• Sign in to the AWS Management Console and go here to access the Amazon Redshift console.

• Using the Region option in the upper right corner of the screen, choose the region where the cluster will be built.
• To start the cluster, press the Launch Cluster button.
• The Cluster Information page appears.
• Fill in the relevant information and go to the review page by clicking the Continue button.

• A page of confirmation appears.
• To conclude, click the Close button to make the cluster visible in the Clusters list.
• Review the Cluster Status information by selecting the cluster from the list.

• The status of the cluster will be displayed on the website.

Step 2: Configuring The Security Groups

• On the navigation pane of the Amazon Redshift Console, click Clusters.
• Choose the Cluster you want. Make sure that the Configuration Tab is activated.
• Select the Security tab.
• Click the Inbound tab after the Security group page has loaded.
• Select the Edit option.
• Click the Save button after filling in the fields as indicated below.
• Select Custom TCP Rule from the drop-down menu.
• TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol.
• Type the same port number that was used to launch the cluster in the Port Range field.

• Amazon Redshift’s default port is 5439.
• Select Custom IP, then put 0.0.0.0/0 in the Source field.

Step 3: Connection to the Redshift Cluster

• An SQL client tool is used to connect the cluster.
• It works with SQL client tools that are PostgreSQL JDBC or ODBC compatible drivers.
• Download JDBC from this URL.
• For 64-bit ODBC computers, use this link
• To obtain the Connection String, follow the procedures below.
• In the Navigation panel of the Amazon Redshift Console, choose Cluster.
• Select the cluster you want to work with and go to the Configuration page.

• A page containing JDBC URL appears under Cluster Database Properties, as illustrated. Make a note of the URL.
• To connect the Cluster to SQL Workbench, follow the instructions below.
• SQL Workbench should now be open.

• Select the file and then click the Connect button in the Connect box.
• Select Create a new connection profile and fill up the needed information, such as name and email address.
• The Manage Drivers dialogue box appears when you click Manage Drivers.
• Fill in the relevant information by clicking the Create a new entry button.

• Leave the Classname and Sample URL fields empty.
• Click the OK button.
• Select a driver from the drop-down menu.
• Paste the JDBC URL you copied into the URL area.
• Fill up the username and password blanks with the appropriate information.
• Click Save profile list after checking the Autocommit option.

Conclusion:

• So far in this article, we covered a high-level overview of the system design and features of Amazon Redshift.
• In the next article, we will learn about how to load data from Amazon S3.

Final Thoughts and Closing Comments

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