pg-bulk-ingest

A Python utility function for ingesting data into a SQLAlchemy-defined PostgreSQL table, automatically migrating it as needed, and minimising locking.

Installation

pg-bulk-ingest can be installed from PyPI using pip. psycopg2 or psycopg (Psycopg 3) must also be explicitly installed.

pip install pg-bulk-ingest psycopg

Usage

The API is made of a single function, ingest that can be used to insert data into a table. This:

• creates the table if necessary
• migrates any existing table if necessary, minimising locking
• inserts the incoming data into the table
• if the table has a primary key, performs an "upsert" based matching on this primary key
• handles "high-watermarking" to carry on from where the previous ingest finished
• optionally deletes all existing rows before ingestion

For example:

import sqlalchemy as sa
from pg_bulk_ingest import HighWatermark, Visibility, Delete, ingest

# Run postgresql locally should allow the below to run
# docker run --rm -it -e POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD=trust -p 5432:5432 postgres
engine = sa.create_engine('postgresql+psycopg://postgres@127.0.0.1:5432/')

# A SQLAlchemy Metadata of a single table definition
metadata = sa.MetaData()
my_table = sa.Table(
    "my_table",
    metadata,
    sa.Column("id", sa.INTEGER, primary_key=True),
    sa.Column("value", sa.VARCHAR(16), nullable=False),
    schema="my_schema",
)

# A function that yields batches of data, where each batch is a tuple of of (high watermark, data rows).
# The batches must all be strictly _after_ the high watermark passed into the function
# Each high watermark must be JSON-encodable
# Each row must have the SQLAlchemy table associated with it
def batches(high_watermark):
    if high_watermark is None or high_watermark < '2015-01-01',
        yield '2015-01-01', (
            (my_table, (3, 'a')),
            (my_table, (4, 'b')),
            (my_table, (5, 'c')),
        )
    if high_watermark is None or high_watermark < '2015-01-02',
        yield '2015-01-02', (
            (my_table, (6, 'd')),
            (my_table, (7, 'e')),
            (my_table, (8, 'f')),
        )

with engine.connect() as conn:
    ingest(
        conn, metadata, batches,
        high_watermark=HighWatermark.LATEST,     # Carry on from where left off
        visibility=Visibility.AFTER_EACH_BATCH,  # Changes are visible after each batch
        delete=Delete.OFF,                       # Don't delete any existing rows
    )

API

The API is a single function ingest, together with HighWatermark, Visibility, and Delete enums.

ingest(conn, metadata, batches, high_watermark=HighWatermark.LATEST, visibility=Visibility.AFTER_EACH_BATCH, delete=Delete.OFF)

Ingests data into a table

• conn - A SQLAlchemy connection not in a transaction, i.e. started by connection rather than begin.

• metadata - A SQLAlchemy metadata of a single table.

• batches - A function that takes a high watermark, returning an iterable that yields data batches that are strictly after this high watermark. See Usage above for an example.

• high_watermark (optional) - The high watermark passed into the batches function. If this is the HighWatermark.LATEST, then the most recent high watermark that been returned from a previous ingest's batch function whose corresponding batch has been succesfully ingested is passed into the batches function.

• visibility (optional) - When ingests will be visible to other clients.

• delete (optional) - If existing rows are to be deleted.

HighWatermark

An Enum to indicate to the ingest function how it should use any previously stored high watermark. Its single member is:

• LATEST - use the most recently high watermark, passing it to the batches function.

Visibility

An enum to indicate when changes are visible to other database clients. Note that schema changes become visible even if there are no batches.

• AFTER_EACH_BATCH - changes are visible to other database clients after each batch

Delete

An Enum that controls how existing data in the table is deleted

• OFF

  There is no deleting of existing data

• ALL

  All existing data in the table is deleted

Data types

The SQLAlchemy "CamelCase" data types are not supported in table definitions. Instead, you must use types specified with "UPPERCASE" data types. These are non-abstracted database-level types. This is to support automatic migrations - the real database type is required in order to make a comparison with the live table and the one passed into the ingest function.

Also not supported is the sqlalchemy.JSON type. Instead use sa.dialects.postgresql.JSON or sa.dialects.postgresql.JSONB.

Under the hood

• Ingestion is done exclusively with COPY FROM.
• Ingestion is transactional, each batch is ingested completely or not at all
• The table is migrated to match the definition, using techniques to avoid exclusively locking the table to allow parallel SELECT queries.
• If the table has a primary key, then an "upsert" is performed. Data is ingested into an intermediate table, and an INSERT ... ON CONFLICT(...) DO UPDATE is performed to copy rows from this intermediate table to the existing table. This doesn't involve an exclusive lock on the live table.
• If there is no known technique for a migration without a long-running exclusive lock, then an intermediate table is used, swapped with the live table at the end of the first batch. This swap does require an exclusive lock, but only for a short time. Backends that hold locks that conflict with this lock are forcably terminated after a delay.
• The high watermark is stored on the table as a COMMENT, JSON-encoded.

Compatibility

• Python >= 3.7.1 (tested on 3.7.1, 3.8.0, 3.9.0, 3.10.0, and 3.11.0)
• psycopg2 >= 2.9.2 or Psycopg 3 >= 3.1.4
• SQLAlchemy >= 1.4.24 (tested on 1.4.24 and 2.0.0)
• PostgreSQL >= 9.6 (tested on 9.6, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, 14.0, and 15.0)

Note that SQLAlchemy < 2 does not support Psycopg 3, and for SQLAlchemy < 2 future=True must be passed to create_engine.