Replicate data with Fivetran

Summary: Logical replication from Neon to Fivetran lets you stream Postgres WAL changes to any Fivetran-supported destination by configuring a pgoutput replication slot and publication on Lakebase Postgres, then connecting Fivetran via a direct (non-pooled) connection. Use this page when setting up Neon as a PostgreSQL source in Fivetran. Note that enabling logical replication is a one-way, irreversible change, and Fivetran IPs must be added to Neon's IP Allow list.

Replicate data with Fivetran

Learn how to replicate data from Neon with Fivetran

Neon's logical replication feature allows you to replicate data from your Lakebase Postgres database to external destinations.

Fivetran is an automated data movement platform that helps you centralize data from disparate sources, which you can then manage directly from your browser. Fivetran extracts your data and loads it into your data destination.

In this guide, you will learn how to define a Lakebase Postgres database as a data source in Fivetran so that you can replicate data to one or more of Fivetran's supported destinations.

Prerequisites

A Fivetran account
A Neon account
Read the important notices about logical replication in Neon before you begin

Important: Compute and billing

Replication keeps compute active (no scale to zero) while subscribers are connected, which can increase your bill. See Important notices about logical replication in Neon.

Enable logical replication in Neon

Important: Enabling logical replication modifies the Postgres wal_level configuration parameter, changing it from replica to logical for all databases in your Neon project. Once the wal_level setting is changed to logical, it cannot be reverted. Enabling logical replication also restarts all computes in your Neon project, meaning active connections will be temporarily dropped before automatically reconnecting.

To enable logical replication in Neon:

Select your project in the Neon Console.
On the Neon Dashboard, select Settings.
Select Postgres, then Logical replication.
Click Enable to enable logical replication.

You can verify that logical replication is enabled by running the following query from the Neon SQL Editor:

SQL

SHOW wal_level;
 wal_level
-----------
 logical

Create a Postgres role for replication

It is recommended that you create a dedicated Postgres role for replicating data. The role must have the REPLICATION privilege. The default Postgres role created with your Neon project and roles created using the Neon CLI, Console, or API are granted membership in the neon_superuser role, which has the required REPLICATION privilege.

CLI

The following CLI command creates a role. To view the CLI documentation for this command, see Neon CLI commands — roles

Bash

neon roles create --name replication_user

Console

To create a role in the Neon Console:

Navigate to the Neon Console.
Select a project.
Select your branch from the project/branch menu at the top of the sidebar.
Under Postgres database, select Roles.
Click Add Role.
In the role creation dialog, specify a role name.
Click Create. The role is created, and you are provided with the password for the role.

API

The following Neon API method creates a role. To view the API documentation for this method, refer to the Neon API Reference.

Bash

curl 'https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/{project_id}/branches/{branch_id}/roles' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "role": {
    "name": "replication_user"
  }
}' | jq

Replace {project_id} and {branch_id} with your actual Neon project and branch IDs, and set the NEON_API_KEY environment variable with your Neon API key.

Grant schema access to your Postgres role

If your replication role does not own the schemas and tables you are replicating from, make sure to grant access. For example, the following commands grant access to all tables in the public schema to Postgres role replication_user:

SQL

GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO replication_user;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO replication_user;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO replication_user;

Granting SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA instead of naming the specific tables avoids having to add privileges later if you add tables to your publication.

Create a publication

Create the Postgres publication. Include all tables you want to replicate as part of the publication:

SQL

CREATE PUBLICATION fivetran_pub FOR TABLE <tbl1, tbl2, tbl3>;

The publication name is customizable. Refer to the Postgres docs if you need to add or remove tables from your publication.

Create a replication slot

Fivetran requires a dedicated replication slot. Only one source should be configured to use this replication slot.

Fivetran uses the pgoutput plugin in Postgres for decoding WAL changes into a logical replication stream. To create a replication slot called fivetran_slot that uses the pgoutput plugin, run the following command on your database using your replication role:

SQL

SELECT pg_create_logical_replication_slot('fivetran_pgoutput_slot', 'pgoutput');

The name assigned to the replication slot is fivetran_pgoutput_slot. You will need to provide this name when you set up your Fivetran source.

Create a Postgres source in Fivetran

Log in to your Fivetran account.
On the Select your datasource page, search for the PostgreSQL source and click Set up.
In your connector setup form, enter a value for Destination Schema Prefix. This prefix applies to each replicated schema and cannot be changed once your connector is created. In this example, we'll use neon as the prefix.
Enter the connection details for your Neon database. You can find your Neon database connection details by clicking the Connect button in the Console nav to open the Connect to your branch modal.

Important: Use a direct connection to your compute endpoint, not a pooled connection. Logical replication requires a persistent connection and is not compatible with connection poolers. When copying your connection string from Neon, make sure it does not include -pooler in the hostname. For more information about connection pooling and when to use direct connections, see Connection pooling.

For example, let's say this is your connection string:
Bash
```
postgresql://alex:AbC123dEf@ep-cool-darkness-123456.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech/dbname?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require
```
From this string, the values in the Fivetran Create a source dialog would show as below. Your actual values will differ, with the exception of the port number.
- Host: ep-cool-darkness-123456.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech
- Port: 5432
- Username: alex
- Password: AbC123dEf
- Database Name: dbname
For Connection Method, select Logical replication of the WAL using the pgoutput plugin and enter values for the Replication Slot and Publication Name. You defined these values earlier (fivetran_pgoutput_slot and fivetran_pub, respectively).
If you are using Neon's IP Allow feature to limit IP addresses that can connect to Neon, add Fivetran's IPs to your allowlist in Neon.

For instructions, see Configure IP Allow. You'll need to do this before you can validate your connection in the next step. If you are not using Neon's IP Allow feature, you can skip this step.
Click Save & Test. Fivetran tests and validates the connection to your database. Upon successful completion of the setup tests, you can sync your data using Fivetran.

During the test, Fivetran asks you to confirm the certificate chain by selecting the certificate to use as the trust anchor. Select the CN=ISRG Root X1, 0=Internet Security Research Group, C=US option. This certificate is valid until 2035-06-04.

When the connection test is completed, you should see an All connection tests passed! message in Fivetran, as shown below:
Click Continue.
On the Select Data to Sync page, review the connector schema and select any columns you want to block or hash.
Click Save & Continue.
On the How would you like to handle changes? page, specify how you would like to handle future schema changes. For this example, we'll select We will allow all new schemas, tables and columns. Choose the option that best fits your organization's requirements.
Click Continue. Your data is now ready to sync.
Click Start Initial Sync to enable syncing.

References

Fivetran Generic PostgreSQL Setup Guide

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Replicate data with Fivetran

Prerequisites

Enable logical replication in Neon

Create a Postgres role for replication

Grant schema access to your Postgres role

Create a publication

Create a replication slot

Create a Postgres source in Fivetran

References

Related docs (Replicate from Neon)