Core Concepts of Redshift Serverless

What is a Namespace?

A namespace contains all database-related components:

  • Database objects (schemas, tables, views)
  • Users and permissions
  • IAM roles
  • Data warehouse metadata
  • Encryption settings

In our case, the “manhattan-redshift-namespace” contains the “dev” database.

What is a Workgroup?

A workgroup is the compute part for running queries:

  • Base capacity (RPU - Redshift Processing Units)
  • Endpoint for connection
  • VPC/subnet/security group
  • Query monitoring
  • Cost/performance controls

The “manhattan-redshift-workgroup” has 4 base RPU and an endpoint for Query Editor v2 connection.

The Difference

  • Namespace: The “storage/metadata” part of the database
  • Workgroup: The “compute/query engine” part

They are separated to manage storage and compute independently.

Capacity and RPU

What is RPU?

RPU (Redshift Processing Unit) measures the compute power of Redshift Serverless, including CPU, memory, network, and query processing power.

Capacity Levels

  • 4 RPU: Minimum, suitable for light tests/queries
  • 8 RPU: Medium, more comfortable
  • 16-32 RPU: For larger data queries
  • 128 RPU: Default, powerful but expensive

We chose 4 RPU because we’re only testing queries on taxi data (~a few hundred MB).

Cost

Redshift Serverless charges based on RPU-hours used. Higher capacity means higher costs for heavy queries. For hands-on work, 4 RPU helps save money.

IAM Role

Redshift needs an IAM role to:

  • Read data from S3 buckets (yellow-taxi-trip-demo-fcaj, processed-yellow-taxi-trip-data)
  • Access Glue Data Catalog
  • Perform operations like COPY, UNLOAD

The role is created with AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess and AWSGlueServiceRole permissions to read S3 and Glue.

Free Trial

Redshift Serverless has a $300 free trial credit for 90 days for new accounts. This is separate from the AWS Free Tier $200.

We use this credit to avoid charges during learning.