Redshift Platform

Amazon Redshift is a fully managed petabyte-scale data warehouse service in AWS. BenchBox provides comprehensive support for Redshift benchmarking with S3-based data loading via COPY command.

Features

Columnar storage - Optimized for analytics
Massively parallel processing - Distributed query execution
RA3 nodes - Managed storage with S3 backing
Concurrency scaling - Automatic burst capacity
Redshift Spectrum - Query S3 directly

Prerequisites

Amazon Redshift cluster (provisioned or Serverless)
IAM role with S3 access for COPY command
S3 bucket for data staging
VPC security group allowing inbound connections

Installation

pip install redshift_connector boto3

pip install "benchbox[redshift]"

Configuration

Interactive Setup (Recommended)

benchbox setup --platform redshift

This saves the endpoint, port, database, username, password, schema, S3 bucket, IAM role and AWS region in the redshift: section of ~/.benchbox/credentials.yaml. benchbox run reads them from there; the endpoint, username and password are not --platform-option keys.

Environment Variables

benchbox setup --platform redshift can fill in its prompts from these variables. benchbox run does not read them.

export REDSHIFT_HOST=your-cluster.abc123xyz.us-east-1.redshift.amazonaws.com
export REDSHIFT_USERNAME=admin
export REDSHIFT_PASSWORD=your_password
export REDSHIFT_DATABASE=dev
export REDSHIFT_IAM_ROLE=arn:aws:iam::123456789:role/RedshiftS3Access

CLI Options

benchbox setup --platform redshift

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 1.0 \
  --platform-option compute_resource=my-cluster

Platform Options

The Set with column shows where each setting comes from: the saved credentials (benchbox setup, or the redshift: section of ~/.benchbox/credentials.yaml) or a --platform-option key on benchbox run.

Option	Set with	Default	Description
`host`	setup	(none)	Cluster or workgroup endpoint
`port`	setup	5439	Connection port
`username`	setup	(none)	Database username
`password`	setup	(none)	Database password
`schema`	setup	public	Schema name
`aws_region`	setup	us-east-1	AWS region
`statement_timeout`	credentials file	0 (none)	Statement timeout in milliseconds
`sslmode`	credentials file	require	SSL mode for the connection
`compute_resource`	`--platform-option`	(none)	Workgroup or cluster name (see Redshift Serverless below)
`iam_role`	`--platform-option` or setup	(none)	IAM role ARN for COPY
`s3_bucket`	`--platform-option` or setup	(none)	S3 bucket for staging
`staging_root`	`--platform-option`	(none)	S3 staging path (`s3://bucket/path`)
`driver_version`	`--platform-option`	(latest)	Pin the redshift_connector package version (e.g. `2.1.3`)
`driver_auto_install`	`--platform-option`	false	Auto-install the requested driver version via uv if missing

Testing a Specific Redshift Connector Version

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch \
  --platform-option driver_version=2.1.3 \
  --platform-option driver_auto_install=true

The driver package for Redshift is redshift-connector.

See Driver Version Management for the full guide, including why uv run may revert a manually-installed version and how to work around it.

Authentication Methods

Standard Authentication

BenchBox connects with a database username and password. Save them with benchbox setup --platform redshift, then run:

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 1.0

AWS Credentials for S3 Staging

The database connection always uses the saved username and password; BenchBox does not support IAM database authentication. AWS credentials are used only to stage data in S3 for COPY. Setup can save either an IAM role ARN (iam_role) or an access key pair (aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key); with neither, COPY uses the cluster’s default IAM role.

Redshift Serverless

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch \
  --platform-option compute_resource=default

compute_resource names the workgroup when the host is a Serverless endpoint (*.redshift-serverless.amazonaws.com) and the cluster when it is a provisioned endpoint (*.redshift.amazonaws.com). With any other host, pass workgroup_name or cluster_identifier instead.

Usage Examples

Basic Benchmark

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 1.0

With S3 Staging

Staging through S3 configures the COPY command. The IAM role is part of the stored Redshift credentials:

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 100.0 \
  --output s3://your-bucket/benchbox/

With Tuning

This applies distribution and sort keys:

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 10.0 \
  --tuning tuned

Python API

from benchbox import TPCH
from benchbox.platforms.redshift import RedshiftAdapter

adapter = RedshiftAdapter(
    host="cluster.abc123.us-east-1.redshift.amazonaws.com",
    user="admin",
    password="secure_password",
    database="dev",
    iam_role="arn:aws:iam::123456789:role/RedshiftS3Access",
)

benchmark = TPCH(scale_factor=1.0)
benchmark.generate_data()
adapter.load_benchmark(benchmark)
results = adapter.run_benchmark(benchmark)

Node Types

RA3 Nodes (Recommended)

Node Type	vCPU	Memory	Storage
ra3.xlplus	4	32 GB	Managed
ra3.4xlarge	12	96 GB	Managed
ra3.16xlarge	48	384 GB	Managed

DC2 Nodes (Dense Compute)

Node Type	vCPU	Memory	Storage
dc2.large	2	15 GB	160 GB
dc2.8xlarge	32	244 GB	2.56 TB

Serverless

Use serverless for variable workloads:

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch \
  --platform-option compute_resource=benchbox-wg

Performance Features

Distribution Keys

BenchBox applies distribution keys with --tuning tuned. Large tables use key distribution, and small tables use DISTSTYLE ALL:

CREATE TABLE lineitem (...)
DISTKEY (l_orderkey)
SORTKEY (l_shipdate);

CREATE TABLE nation (...)
DISTSTYLE ALL;

Redshift tables are vacuumed and analyzed after loading by the existing maintenance pass, which auto_vacuum and auto_analyze control (both on by default). A tuned run adds an ANALYZE <table> after a table with a tuning entry loads, only when auto_analyze is false; that time is reported as phases.post_load_maintenance and is not counted in data-loading time.

Sort Keys

A compound sort key suits queries that filter on the leading columns. An interleaved sort key suits queries that filter on multiple columns:

CREATE TABLE orders (...)
COMPOUND SORTKEY (o_orderdate, o_custkey);

CREATE TABLE lineitem (...)
INTERLEAVED SORTKEY (l_shipdate, l_receiptdate);

WLM Configuration

BenchBox can route its queries to a WLM queue by setting query_group for the session. Set the queue name with the wlm_query_queue_name argument of RedshiftAdapter in the Python API; benchbox run has no option for it. Configure the queues themselves, and concurrency scaling, in the cluster’s WLM parameter group.

Data Loading

COPY from S3 (Recommended)

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 10.0 \
  --output s3://bucket/benchbox/

IAM Role Setup

These commands create an IAM role for COPY, attach an S3 read policy, and associate the role with the cluster:

aws iam create-role --role-name RedshiftS3Access \
  --assume-role-policy-document file://trust-policy.json

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name RedshiftS3Access \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess

aws redshift modify-cluster-iam-roles \
  --cluster-identifier my-cluster \
  --add-iam-roles arn:aws:iam::123456789:role/RedshiftS3Access

Direct Insert (Small Datasets)

For datasets under 1GB, direct INSERT is used automatically:

benchbox run --platform redshift --benchmark tpch --scale 0.01

Cost Optimization

Concurrency Scaling

Concurrency scaling adds burst capacity. Turn it on per WLM queue in the cluster’s parameter group; BenchBox does not change it.

Pause/Resume

Pause the cluster when not in use, and resume it before a benchmark:

aws redshift pause-cluster --cluster-identifier my-cluster

aws redshift resume-cluster --cluster-identifier my-cluster

Serverless RPU

Set the workgroup’s base and maximum RPU capacity in the Redshift console or with aws redshift-serverless update-workgroup; BenchBox does not change it. Point BenchBox at the workgroup with --platform-option compute_resource=benchbox.

Troubleshooting

Connection Refused

Check the cluster status, verify that the security group allows your IP, and add your IP to the security group if it does not:

aws redshift describe-clusters --cluster-identifier my-cluster

aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids sg-xxx

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id sg-xxx \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 5439 \
  --cidr YOUR_IP/32

COPY Failed

Check the COPY errors, verify that the IAM role is attached, and test S3 access:

SELECT * FROM stl_load_errors ORDER BY starttime DESC LIMIT 10;

aws redshift describe-clusters --cluster-identifier my-cluster \
  --query 'Clusters[0].IamRoles'

SELECT * FROM svl_s3list
WHERE bucket = 'your-bucket';

Permission Denied

Grant the required permissions:

GRANT CREATE ON DATABASE dev TO benchbox_user;
GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA public TO benchbox_user;
GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO benchbox_user;

Query Timeout

Increase the statement timeout. The value is in milliseconds, so 3600000 is 1 hour. statement_timeout is not a --platform-option key; set it in the redshift: section of ~/.benchbox/credentials.yaml:

redshift:
  statement_timeout: 3600000

Disk Space Exceeded

Check disk usage, then vacuum to reclaim space:

SELECT owner, host, diskno, used, capacity
FROM stv_partitions
ORDER BY used DESC;

VACUUM FULL lineitem;

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