How does SAS Support Amazon Redshift?

[#1]

SAS Support Amazon Redshift via SAS/ACCESS Interface to ODBC.

An ODBC Driver is available from Amazon. Information about it can be found here:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/mgmt/install-odbc-driver-linux.html

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/mgmt/odbc-driver-configure-linux-mac.html

Once this ODBC driver is installed and configured, then the SAS/ACCESS to ODBC interface engine is able to connect to it:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/acreldb/67589/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p1g72kbb0m01y1n1gm...

This SAS Global Forum paper elaborates more details about how these technologies operate together:

http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings15/SAS1789-2015.pdf

[JBailey]

DataDirect also produces an ODBC driver for Redshift. It is much faster at loading data from a non-AWS location into Redshift. This driver is not free. The Amazon Redshift driver is free.

Here is the link: https://www.progress.com/data-sources/amazon-redshift

[gra_in_aus]

Can you utilise SAS/ACCESS to Postgresql for Amazon Redshift as it is based on Postgresql?  

[ChrisHemedinger]

I can't answer this completely, but here's what I learned. While Amazon Redshift is based on PostgresSQL, it is optimized for a certain style of transaction and omits many features that you might be accustomed to. See Amazon's documentation here:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/c_redshift-and-postgres-sql.html

[JBailey]

Hi,

SAS/ACCESS to PostgreSQL is not a valid way to access Redshift data. In the beginning, Amazon pointed people to a PostgreSQL ODBC driver. It was problematic. That is why they created and Amazon Redshift specific ODBC driver.

Right now (and this may change, soon), the preferred method to access Redshift from SAS is via SAS/ACCESS to ODBC combined with a Redshift ODBC driver. Amazon and DataDirect produce ODBC drivers.

****** UPDATE******

The preferred method of accessing Redshift data is via SAS/ACCESS Interface to Redshift. 

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[mebass]

Also, as of April 2016, SAS/ACCESS Interface to Amazon Redshift is a new offering. You can use this SAS/ACCESS engine that is geared specifically to Amazon Redshift  to take advantage of features access the DBMS system directly. You can find more information about direct support for Amazon Redshift here. 

[ChrisHemedinger]

You can see SAS/ACCESS to Amazon Redshift in action in this talk and demo from SAS Global Forum -- check it out!  Hear about how Amazon Redshift can be slower with straight ODBC, and much faster with the dedicated access engine.