dbt Setup Guide Beta

Follow our setup guide to set up dbt transformations for Fivetran.

Prerequisiteslink

• dbt installed on your computer. If you have not installed dbt yet, follow dbt’s installation instructions. We support the following versions of dbt:

  • 0.18.0 - 0.18.2
  • 0.19.0 - 0.19.2
  • 0.20.0 - 0.20.2
  • 0.21.0

• A source code editor of your choice (such as VSCode or Atom)

• An account with a Git provider of your choice (such as GitHub or BitBucket) with permissions to add deploy keys at the repository level

• One of the following destinations:

  • BigQuery
  • Databricks
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redshift
  • Snowflake

Setup instructionslink

To see how to set up dbt transformations with Fivetran, read the instructions below or watch this short video:

Get startedlink

1. In the left column of your Fivetran dashboard, go to Transformations.

2. Your Transformations page varies slightly based on whether or not you have set up any basic transformations in your Fivetran dashboard.

   • If you have not set up any basic transformations, click the Try dbt transformations button at the bottom of the page.

   • If you have set up basic transformations, click Enable dbt transformations in the top right corner of the page.

   NOTE: If you have basic transformations, you will be prompted to download them. You can then re-purpose these scripts in your dbt project.

3. You will be redirected to a page with information about dbt transformations. Read it, then click Enable dbt transformations.

4. In the pop-up window, you’ll be prompted to choose a setup option:

   • If you do not have a dbt project yet, click Help me set up my dbt project.
   • If you have a dbt project you’d like to connect, click I am ready to connect my Git repo.
     • Your dbt project must have both a deployment.yml file, which is specific to Fivetran, and a dbt_project.yml file. To learn more about the deployment.yml file, see Step 5.
     • By default, Fivetran expects your dbt project to be at the root of your Git repo. If your dbt project is elsewhere, you must specify its file path in your Fivetran setup form in Step 8.

5. If you clicked I am ready to connect my Git repo, skip ahead to Step 7. If you clicked Help me set up my dbt project, continue to the next section.

Create new Git repository link

Create a new repository for your new dbt project using your Git provider.

Set up a basic dbt projectlink

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Ensure that you have dbt installed on your computer by running the dbt --version command.

3. Run the dbt init my_git_repo_name command to create your starter dbt package.

4. Open your source code editor.

5. Open the newly created dbt project.

Connect dbt to destinationlink

NOTE: If you already have a dbt project, skip ahead to Step 5.

You’ll use the profiles.yml file to connect dbt to your destination. The file specifies which destination you’re connecting to, the credentials to access that destination, and the schema that dbt will load your transformed data into. Learn more in dbt’s Configure your profile documentation.

The profiles.yml file you’ll configure in this step is generally used for local development and testing purposes. Once Fivetran begins to run your dbt commands, we generate the production version of the profiles.yml file for your dbt project that you cannot view or edit.

1. Open the profiles.yml file that was automatically created as part of your dbt installation.

   NOTE: profiles.yml is a hidden file. It is created in your ~/.dbt folder, not in the dbt project.

2. Set up your profiles.yml file to enable dbt to connect to your destination. How you configure this file differs based on your destination. See dbt’s profiles documentation for setup instructions for your destination.

   For additional help, see dbt’s profiles.yml documentation.

3. Be sure that the profile name in your dbt_project.yml file matches the profile name in your profiles.yml file.

   NOTE: The profile names only need to match for testing purposes. Once Fivetran begins to run your dbt commands, we ignore the profile name in your dbt_project.yml file.

4. Run the dbt run command. If you have successfully linked your destination, you will see a Completed successfully message.

Write dbt jobslink

1. Download the deployment.yml file. This file contains jobs that enable Fivetran to run your dbt commands on a schedule.

2. Edit the jobs in the deployment.yml file to reflect how and when you want Fivetran to run your dbt commands. The file contains instructions on how to do this.

   IMPORTANT: Do not add comments inside a multiline command because they cause parsing errors. You can split your command into multiple steps. For more information about comment usage, see the YAML format specification.

3. In your source code editor, go to your dbt project and add your edited deployment.yml file to the same folder as the dbt_project.yml file.

Link dbt project to Git repositorylink

1. In a terminal window, ensure that you are in the directory of your new dbt project.

2. Run the following commands. Replace the example URL https://github.com/USERNAME/dbt-tutorial.git with the URL of your Git repository.

   $ git init
   $ git add .
   $ git commit -m ‘add your commit message here’
   $ git remote add origin https://github.com/USERNAME/dbt-tutorial.git
   $ git push -u origin master
   

3. Open your Git repository to see your new dbt project.

Grant Fivetran access to Git repositorylink

1. Return to your Fivetran dashboard. You will be redirected to the dbt setup form.

2. Find the public key and click the blue clipboard icon to copy it. You will need it to grant Fivetran SSH access to your Git repository.

3. Follow the instructions for your Git provider below to grant Fivetran SSH access to your repository.

Finish Fivetran Configurationlink

1. Follow the instructions for your Git provider below to find the URL of your Git repository. The URL must be in the format git@host.xz:path/to/repo.git (except for AWS CodeCommit).

   • In GitHub:

     i. Go to your repository page and click Code.

     ii. In the drop-down window, select SSH, then copy the repository URL that appears in the text box below.

   • In GitLab:

     i. Go to your repository page and find the HTTPS/SSH dropdown.

     ii. Select SSH, then copy the repository URL that appears in the text box on the right.

   • In BitBucket:

     i. Go to your repository’s Source page.

     ii. Click Clone.

     iii. In the pop-up window, select SSH, then copy the repository URL that appears in the text box below (be sure to remove the git clone prefix). Click Close.

   • In Azure Repos:

     i. Go to your repository page and click Clone.

     ii. In the pop-up window, select SSH, then copy the repository URL that appears in the text box below.

     iii. Close the window.

   • In AWS CodeCommit, go to your repository page and copy the SSH URL.

     IMPORTANT: The SSH URL must be in the following format ssh://Your-SSH-Key-ID@git-codecommit.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/v1/repos/MyDemoRepo. To find your SSH Key ID, go to your Amazon IAM console > Users > IAM user you created for Fivetran > Security Credentials > SSH keys.

2. In the dbt setup form, enter your Git repository’s URL.

3. Enter your chosen default schema name. This production schema will contain your transformed data.

4. By default, Fivetran accesses your destination for dbt Transformations using the same credentials that you configured in the Destination section of your Fivetran dashboard. If your destination is Snowflake, you can choose to customize the credentials that Fivetran uses instead. In the Credentials section, select the Custom option and specify your custom credentials.

   Your destination credentials (combined with your custom dbt credentials, if you chose to use them) define the target database where dbt will put the transformed data. By default, dbt looks for the source data in that same database. If you want to fetch the source data from a different database, you must define source properties in your dbt project and override the source database.

5. By default, Fivetran works with the master branch of your repository. Fivetran searches for a dbt project in the root folder and uses one thread for working on your dbt commands. If you would like to change the branch, the path to the dbt project or the number of threads used, click Show Advanced Options and enter your chosen values. Note that the number of threads must be compatible with your destination type, for example, Snowflake supports only 8 concurrent queries.

6. Click Save & Test.

7. When your changes have been saved and tests have been passed, you will see a All connection tests passed! message. Click Transformations.

8. You will be redirected to your main Transformations page. Fivetran will sync your project in a few minutes.

9. In the top right corner, set the toggle to ON to enable dbt transformations.

10. Your dbt jobs are synced directly from your deployment.yml file. If you have not added any dbt jobs yet, click Help me write dbt jobs to learn how.

Install Fivetran dbt packages (optional)link

Fivetran has created dbt packages for some of our most popular connectors. To install Fivetran’s dbt packages, do the following:

1. Go to Fivetran’s dbt hub.

2. Click on the name of your connector.

3. Follow the instructions in the Installation section at the top of the page.

4. Run the dbt deps command. The dbt packages for your connector will automatically install in the dbt_modules folder.

5. If you’re ready to start your dbt packages, run the dbt run command.