postgres_fdw extension

This page documents the preview version (v2.21). Preview includes features under active development and is for development and testing only. For production, use the stable version (v2024.1). To learn more, see Versioning.

The postgres_fdw module provides the foreign-data wrapper postgres_fdw, which can be used to access data stored in external PostgreSQL servers.

First, enable the extension:

CREATE EXTENSION postgres_fdw;

To connect to a remote YSQL or PostgreSQL database, create a foreign server object. Specify the connection information (except the username and password) using the OPTIONS clause:

CREATE SERVER my_server FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER postgres_fdw OPTIONS (host 'host_ip', dbname 'external_db', port 'port_number');

Specify the username and password using CREATE USER MAPPING:

CREATE USER MAPPING FOR mylocaluser SERVER my_server OPTIONS (user 'remote_user', password 'password');

You can now create foreign tables using CREATE FOREIGN TABLE and IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA:

CREATE FOREIGN TABLE table_name (colname1 int, colname2 int) SERVER my_server OPTIONS (schema_name 'schema', table_name 'table');
IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA foreign_schema_name FROM SERVER my_server INTO local_schema_name;

You can execute SELECT statements on the foreign tables to access the data in the corresponding remote tables.