How to Connect Amazon Redshift to Looker

How do I connect Amazon Redshift to Looker without timeouts or permission errors?

Create a secure, performant JDBC connection between Amazon Redshift and Looker for modeling and dashboarding.

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Description

Why connect Redshift to Looker?

Looker needs a live SQL connection to Redshift so it can run queries in real time, build Explores, and refresh dashboards without ETL.

What prerequisites must be in place?

You need a Redshift user with SELECT on target schemas, the cluster’s host & port, an allow-listed Looker IP range, and the JDBC driver (bundled in Looker).

How do I create the Redshift user?

Run CREATE USER looker_user PASSWORD '•••'; then GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO looker_user; and GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO looker_user;.

Which network settings are required?

Add Looker’s outbound IP addresses to the Redshift security group ingress rules (TCP 5439). This avoids handshake timeouts.

How do I enter the connection in Looker?

In Admin → Connections, click “New Connection”, choose Redshift, and supply Host, Port, Database, Username, and Password. Leave JDBC params empty unless you need SSL or fetch size tuning.

What JDBC parameters speed up large result sets?

Add `ssl=true&tcpKeepAlive=true&defaultRowFetchSize=10000` in the JDBC field to improve stability and transfer rate.

How can I test the connection?

Click “Test” in Looker. A green check means JDBC, auth, and permissions work. If it fails, inspect VPC rules and user grants.

How do I verify data access with SQL?

Use Looker’s SQL Runner and execute SELECT customer_id, SUM(total_amount) AS revenue FROM orders GROUP BY 1 LIMIT 10;. A result set confirms read access.

Best practices for production?

Use a dedicated, non-superuser account; restrict schemas; enable SSL; rotate passwords via Looker Secrets Manager; and monitor STL_USERLOG.

How to automate permission updates?

Create a nightly job that runs ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO looker_user; so new tables stay readable.

Why How to Connect Amazon Redshift to Looker is important

How to Connect Amazon Redshift to Looker Example Usage


-- Validate Looker can query aggregated order revenue
SELECT c.name,
       COUNT(o.id)        AS orders,
       SUM(o.total_amount) AS total_spent
FROM   Customers c
JOIN   Orders o ON o.customer_id = c.id
GROUP  BY c.name
ORDER  BY total_spent DESC
LIMIT 10;

How to Connect Amazon Redshift to Looker Syntax


JDBC URL:
 jdbc:redshift://<HOST>:5439/<DATABASE>?ssl=true&tcpKeepAlive=true

Looker connection fields:
 Name           : redshift_looker
 Dialect        : Amazon Redshift
 Host           : redshift-cluster.abc123.us-east-1.redshift.amazonaws.com
 Port           : 5439
 Database       : ecommerce
 Username       : looker_user
 Password       : ********
 JDBC Params    : ssl=true&tcpKeepAlive=true&defaultRowFetchSize=10000

SQL to create user and grants (run in Redshift):
 CREATE USER looker_user PASSWORD 'StrongPwd1!';
 GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO looker_user;
 GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO looker_user;
 ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO looker_user;

Common Mistakes

Using the Redshift master user in Looker. This grants excessive privileges and may hit connection limits. Fix: create a least-privilege looker_user with SELECT only.
Forgetting to alter default privileges, so new tables are invisible in Looker. Fix: run ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES to automatically grant SELECT on future tables.