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In this quickstart, you’ll create a real-time data pipeline that streams changes from a Postgres database to a Redpanda cluster. You’ll:
  • Sign up for a Redpanda account
  • Create a Redpanda cluster and topic
  • Boot Sequin
  • Create a sink to stream changes to Redpanda
  • See changes flow from a sample database to Redpanda in real-time
By the end, you’ll have hands-on experience setting up Postgres change data capture (CDC) with Sequin. This same pattern can be used to setup your own Postgres CDC pipeline with Redpanda.
This is the quickstart for streaming Postgres to Redpanda. See the how-to guide for an explanation of how to use the Kafka sink or the reference for details on all configuration options.

Setup Redpanda

First, let’s get your Redpanda cluster ready:
1

Create a Redpanda account

Sign up for or sign in to your Redpanda account.
Redpanda provides a generous free tier.
2

Create a topic

Once your cluster is ready, create a new topic called products. A single partition is fine.
3

Create a user for Sequin

  1. Navigate to “Security” and click “Create User”.
  2. Enter sequin as the username.
  3. Copy the auto-generated password. You’ll need this in a moment.
  4. For SASL Mechanism, select SCRAM-SHA-256.
  5. Click “Create”.
4

Create an ACL for the Sequin user

Now, create an ACL for the Sequin user to allow it to publish to the products topic:
  1. Navigate to “Security” and to the “ACLs” tab.
  2. Click “Create ACL”.
  3. For “User / Principal”, enter sequin.
  4. For “Host”, enter *. This will let sequin connect from any host.
  5. In the “Topics” section, under “Operations”, toggle “All” to “Allow”.
  6. You can leave the rest of the ACL sections set to their defaults (“Not set”).
  7. Click “Ok”.
Create ACL for Sequin user
You’ve created a Redpanda cluster, topic, and user.

Run Sequin

The easiest way to get started with Sequin is with our Docker Compose file. This file starts a Postgres database, Redis instance, and Sequin server.
1

Create directory and start services

  1. Download sequin-docker-compose.zip.
  2. Unzip the file.
  3. Navigate to the unzipped directory and start the services:
cd sequin-docker-compose && docker compose up -d

curl -L https://github.com/sequinstream/sequin/releases/latest/download/sequin-docker-compose.zip -o sequin-docker-compose.zip \
  && unzip sequin-docker-compose.zip && rm sequin-docker-compose.zip
cd sequin-docker-compose && docker compose up -d

git clone [email protected]:sequinstream/sequin.git
cd sequin/docker
docker compose up -d
2

Verify services are running

Check that Sequin is running using docker ps:
docker ps
You should see output like the following:
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                           COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                    PORTS                              NAMES
bd5c458cabde   sequin/sequin:latest            "/scripts/start_comm…"   11 seconds ago   Up 9 seconds              4000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:7376->7376/tcp   sequin-sequin-1
3bacd89765e7   grafana/grafana                 "/run.sh"                11 seconds ago   Up 11 seconds             0.0.0.0:3000->3000/tcp             sequin-sequin_grafana-1
3ad41319a66c   postgres:16                     "docker-entrypoint.s…"   11 seconds ago   Up 11 seconds (healthy)   0.0.0.0:7377->5432/tcp             sequin-sequin_postgres-1
6139a5fc4e80   redis:7                         "docker-entrypoint.s…"   11 seconds ago   Up 11 seconds             0.0.0.0:7378->6379/tcp             sequin-sequin_redis-1
7e07a5b052de   prom/prometheus                 "/bin/prometheus --c…"   11 seconds ago   Up 11 seconds             0.0.0.0:9090->9090/tcp             sequin-sequin_prometheus-1
Sequin, Postgres, Redis, Prometheus, and Grafana should be up and running (status: Up).

Login

The Docker Compose file automatically configures Sequin with an admin user and a playground database.Let’s log in to the Sequin web console:
1

Open the web console

After starting the Docker Compose services, open the Sequin web console at http://localhost:7376:
Sequin login page, allowing login with default credentials
2

Login with default credentials

Use the following default credentials to login:
  • Email:
[email protected]
  • Password:
sequinpassword!

View the playground database

To get you started quickly, Sequin’s Docker Compose file creates a logical database called sequin_playground with a sample dataset in the public.products table.Let’s take a look:
1

Navigate to Databases

In the Sequin web console, click Databases in the sidebar.
2

Select playground database

Click on the pre-configured sequin-playground database:
Playground database
The database “Health” should be green.
3

View contents of the products table

Let’s get a sense of what’s in the products table. Run the following command:
docker exec -i sequin-sequin_postgres-1 \
  psql -U postgres -d sequin_playground -c \
  "select id, name, price from products;"
This command connects to the running Postgres container and runs a psql command.
You should see a list of the rows in the products table:
  id |         name          | price 
----+-----------------------+-------
  1 | Avocados (3 pack)     |  5.99
  2 | Flank Steak (1 lb)    |  8.99
  3 | Salmon Fillet (12 oz) | 14.99
  4 | Baby Spinach (16 oz)  |  4.99
  5 | Sourdough Bread       |  6.99
  6 | Blueberries (6 oz)    |  3.99
(6 rows)
We’ll make modifications to this table in a bit.

Create a Kafka Sink

With the playground database connected, you can create a sink. This sink will send changes to the products table to your Redpanda topic:
1

Navigate to Sinks

Click “Sinks” in the sidebar navigation, then click “Create Sink”.
2

Select sink type

Select “Kafka” as the sink type and click “Continue”.
3

Note "Source" configuration

In the “Source” card, note that the sequin-playground database is selected and all schemas and tables are included. Leave these defaults:
Source card showing the sequin_playground database and products table
4

Setup a backfill

In the Inital backfill card, select the public.products table to initate a backfill when the sink is created.
Initial backfill card with public.products table selected
5

Configure "Kafka Configuration"

In the “Kafka Configuration” card, enter your Redpanda connection details:
  • Hosts: Your Redpanda bootstrap server (e.g., seed-xxx.redpanda.com:9092)
    • Find this in “Overview” > “Kafka API” > “Boostrap server URLs”
  • Topic: products
  • SASL Mechanism: Select SCRAM-SHA-256
  • Username: sequin
  • Password: The auto-generated password for the sequin user
  • TLS: Toggle ON
Kafka configuration card
6

Test the connection

At the bottom of the form, click the “Test Connection” button. If you provided proper credentials, it should succeed.
Sequin can connect to your Redpanda cluster.
7

Create the sink

You can leave the rest of the defaults. As configured, the Redpanda topic will first receive a backfill of all rows currently in the products table. Then, it will receive all changes to the products table in real-time.Click “Create Sink” to finish setting up your sink.

See changes flow to your Redpanda topic

On the new sink’s overview page, you should see the “Health” status turn green, indicating data is flowing to your topic.Let’s confirm messages are flowing:
1

Messages tab

Click the “Messages” tab. You’ll see a list of the recently delivered messages:
List of recently delivered messages
Sequin indicates it backfilled the products table to your Redpanda topic.
2

View in Redpanda Console

In the Redpanda Console, in the “Topics” tab of your cluster, navigate to the products topic. You should see the messages that were sent from Sequin. These are read events from the initial backfill of the products table:
Messages in Redpanda Console
If the messages haven’t appeared yet, refresh the page.
Messages are flowing from Sequin to your Redpanda topic.
3

Make some changes

Let’s make some changes to the products table and see them flow to your topic.In your terminal, run the following command to insert a new row into the products table:
docker exec -i sequin-sequin_postgres-1 \
  psql -U postgres -d sequin_playground -c \
  "insert into products (name, price) values ('Organic Honey (16 oz)', 12.99);"
Check your Redpanda Console. After refreshing, you should see a new message corresponding to the inserted row.Feel free to try other changes:
docker exec -i sequin-sequin_postgres-1 \
  psql -U postgres -d sequin_playground -c \
  "update products set price = 7.99 where name = 'Avocados (3 pack)';"

docker exec -i sequin-sequin_postgres-1 \
  psql -U postgres -d sequin_playground -c \
  "update products set name = 'Organic Avocados (3 pack)' where name = 'Avocados (3 pack)';"

docker exec -i sequin-sequin_postgres-1 \
  psql -U postgres -d sequin_playground -c \
  "delete from products where name = 'Blueberries (6 oz)';"
Each change will appear in your Redpanda topic within a few seconds.
Great work!
You’ve successfully:
  • Set up a complete Postgres change data capture pipeline
  • Created a Redpanda cluster and topic
  • Loaded existing data through a backfill
  • Made changes to the products table
  • Verified changes are flowing to your Redpanda topic

​
Ready to stream

Now you’re ready to connect your own database to Sequin and start streaming changes:

Guide: Connect Postgres

Connect your Postgres database to Sequin.

Guide: Setting up a Kafka sink

Setup a Kafka sink to send changes to your topic.