Validating Data from Amazon Redshift¶

This page covers Amazon Redshift-specific setup for Data validation. For workflow field definitions, see Data validation configuration reference.

Prerequisites¶

ODBC connectivity to Redshift from Worker hosts (standard or IAM auth; same TOML as Migrating Data from Amazon Redshift).
Live Redshift access for L2/L3: validation runs SQL against live Redshift even when tables were loaded via UNLOAD to S3.

Connectivity¶

Reuse the same [connections.source.redshift] Worker TOML as Migrating Data from Amazon Redshift.

Standard authentication example:

[connections.source.redshift]
username = "myuser"
password = "mypassword"
database = "mydatabase"
host = "my-cluster.abcdef123456.us-west-2.redshift.amazonaws.com"
port = 5439
auth_method = "standard"

Validation behavior¶

After UNLOAD migrations: Validation still runs SQL against live Redshift for source-side metrics and row checks. Ensure the Worker can reach the cluster and that large partition result sets stay within timeout and spool limits.
Iceberg targets: Validation compares whatever is in Snowflake (native or Iceberg). Iceberg targets don’t change L2/L3 SQL on the Redshift side.

For partitioning and index_column_list, see Data validation configuration reference.

Example workflow excerpt:

source_platform: redshift
target_database: TARGET_DB
validation_configuration:
  schema_validation: true
  metrics_validation: true
  row_validation: false
tables:
  - fully_qualified_name: snowconvert_demo.ecommerce_raw.customers
    column_names_to_partition_by:
      - customer_id
  - fully_qualified_name: snowconvert_demo.ecommerce_raw.orders
    column_names_to_partition_by:
      - order_id
    index_column_list:
      - order_id
    validation_configuration:
      row_validation: true

Data type mappings¶

Redshift type	Snowflake target type	Supported for validation	Notes
SMALLINT, INTEGER, BIGINT, DECIMAL, REAL, DOUBLE PRECISION	NUMBER / FLOAT	Yes
BOOLEAN, DATE, TIMESTAMP	BOOLEAN / DATE / TIMESTAMP_NTZ	Yes
CHAR, VARCHAR	VARCHAR	Yes
VARBYTE / BINARY VARYING	BINARY	Yes
TIMESTAMPTZ	TIMESTAMP_TZ	No
TIME, TIMETZ	TIME	No
INTERVALY2M, INTERVALD2S	VARCHAR	No
GEOMETRY, GEOGRAPHY	GEOGRAPHY	No	Schema-level comparison only
HLLSKETCH	VARCHAR	No	No Snowflake equivalent
SUPER	VARIANT	No

Platform-specific suggestions¶

For tables migrated via UNLOAD, confirm the live Redshift source still reflects the data snapshot you expect to compare.
Keep large partition result sets within Redshift timeout and spool limits when running L2/L3 against wide tables.
Anti-locking: No automatic hint is added on Redshift. Set queryModifiers only when you need custom source SQL hints. See Anti-locking and query modifiers.