Connect to Postgres via SSL using R

Question

I have the same question that was asked here Connect to Redshift via SSL using R

However, the answer given requires certificate validation. I\'m wondering if there i

Answer 1

This worked for me:

connection <- DBI::dbConnect(RPostgres::Postgres(),
                             dbname = "dbname",
                             host = "host",
                             port = "port",
                             password = "password",
                             user = "user_name",
                             base::list(sslmode="require", connect_timeout="10"),
                             service = NULL)

So the parameter key words can be passed as a list. This worked for RPostgres 1.1.1 and 1.2.0, as well.

Answer 2

Instead of passing verify-full to sslmode, try require or allow:

dbConnect(dbDriver('PostgreSQL'),
    dbname   = 'dbname=foobar sslmode=require',
    host     = 'foobar.redshift.amazonaws.com',
    port     = 5439,
    user     = 'foobar',
    password = 'foobar')

Answer 3

https://github.com/r-dbi/RPostgres seems to be the more modern and maintained package at this point. This is what worked for me...

install.packages("RPostgres")
require(RPostgres)

db = dbConnect(
  Postgres(), 
  user = 'user',
  password = 'password',
  dbname = 'dbname',
  host = 'host',
  port = port,
  sslmode = 'require'
)

dbListTables(db)

Answer 4

I rely on R DBI and odbc packages. Here is setup I used with help from @Floris

• First, create client SSL certificate and key, sign client certificate using postgres server root certificate, and also keep postgres server root certificate on client side at ~/.postgresql/. A client ssl key is owned and read-only by owner only. Here is a guide from jealastic.com that I followed to create server and client SSL certificates.

ls -alh ~/.postgresql/

drwx------  2 foo staff      122 Jul 23 10:45 ./
drwx------ 54 foo staff 2.1K Jul 23 10:45 ../
-rw-r--r--  1 foo staff      875 Jul 21 17:42 postgresql.crt
-rw-r--r--  1 foo staff      631 Jul 21 17:41 postgresql.csr
-r--------  1 foo staff      891 Jul 21 17:41 postgresql.key
-rw-r--r--  1 foo staff     1.1K Jul 21 17:40 root.crt

• nano ~/.odbcinst.ini and add following:

[PostgreSQL Driver]
Driver              = /home/foo/anaconda3/envs/sql/lib/psqlodbcw.so

where odbc driver was installed in a conda env using conda create --name sql -c conda-forge psqlodbc.

• nano ~/.odbc.ini and add one or more entry for database you like to connect with valid credentials:

[foodb]
Driver              = PostgreSQL Driver
Database            = foodb
Servername          = db.example.com
UserName            = foo
Password            = mypassword
Port                = 5432
sslmode             = require

Note that PostgreSQL Driver matches corresponding entry in ~/.odbcinst.ini For type of sslmode vs security and overhead, here is a good read: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/libpq-ssl.html

• Fix permissions

chmod 600 ~/.odbc.ini ~/.odbcinst.ini

• In RStudio GUI, either create a new connection and it should show an entry foodb from ~/.odbc.ini or type this into R console.

library(odbc)
foodb <- dbConnect(odbc::odbc(), "foodb", timeout = 10)

Done!