Accessing Azure, Google Cloud Storage, Minio, and S3 Object Stores with PXF

PXF is installed with connectors to Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake, Google Cloud Storage, Minio, and S3 object stores.

Prerequisites

Before working with object store data using PXF, ensure that:

• You have configured and initialized PXF on your Greenplum Database segment hosts, and PXF is running on each host. See Configuring PXF for additional information.
• You have configured the PXF Object Store Connectors that you plan to use on each Greenplum Database segment host. Refer to Configuring Connectors to Azure, Google Cloud Storage, Minio, and S3 Object Stores for instructions.

Connectors, Data Formats, and Profiles

The PXF object store connectors provide built-in profiles to support the following data formats:

• Text
• Avro
• JSON
• Parquet
• AvroSequenceFile
• SequenceFile

The PXF connectors to Azure, Google Cloud Storage, Minio, and S3 expose the following profiles to read, and in many cases write, these supported data formats:

You provide the profile name when you specify the pxf protocol on a CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE command to create a Greenplum Database external table that references a file or directory in the specific object store.

Sample CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Commands

The following command creates an external table that references a text file on S3. It specifies the profile named s3:text and the server configuration named s3srvcfg:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE pxf_s3_text(location text, month text, num_orders int, total_sales float8)
  LOCATION ('pxf://S3_BUCKET/pxf_examples/pxf_s3_simple.txt?PROFILE=s3:text&SERVER=s3srvcfg')
FORMAT 'TEXT' (delimiter=E',');

The following command creates an external table that references a text file on Azure Blob Storage. It specifies the profile named wasbs:text and the server configuration named wasbssrvcfg. You would provide the Azure Blob Storage container identifier and your Azure Blob Storage account name.

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE pxf_wasbs_text(location text, month text, num_orders int, total_sales float8)
  LOCATION ('pxf://AZURE_CONTAINER@YOUR_AZURE_BLOB_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME.blob.core.windows.net/path/to/blob/file?PROFILE=wasbs:text&SERVER=wasbssrvcfg')
FORMAT 'TEXT';

The following command creates an external table that references a text file on Azure Data Lake. It specifies the profile named adl:text and the server configuration named adlsrvcfg. You would provide your Azure Data Lake account name.

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE pxf_adl_text(location text, month text, num_orders int, total_sales float8)
  LOCATION ('pxf://YOUR_ADL_ACCOUNT_NAME.azuredatalakestore.net/path/to/file?PROFILE=adl:text&SERVER=adlsrvcfg')
FORMAT 'TEXT';

The following command creates an external table that references a JSON file on Google Cloud Storage. It specifies the profile named gs:json and the server configuration named gcssrvcfg:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE pxf_gsc_json(location text, month text, num_orders int, total_sales float8)
  LOCATION ('pxf://dir/subdir/file.json?PROFILE=gs:json&SERVER=gcssrvcfg')
FORMAT 'CUSTOM' (FORMATTER='pxfwritable_import');

Overriding the S3 Server Configuration

If you are accessing an S3 object store, you can override the S3 server configuration by directly specifying the S3 access ID and secret key via these custom options in the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE LOCATION clause:

For example:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE pxf_ext_tbl(name text, orders int)
  LOCATION ('pxf://S3_BUCKET/dir/file.txt?PROFILE=s3:text&SERVER=s3srvcfg&accesskey=YOURKEY&secretkey=YOURSECRET')
FORMAT 'TEXT' (delimiter=E',');

PXF does not support overriding Azure, Google Cloud Storage, and Minio server credentials in this manner at this time.