Why Am I Getting “Permission Denied for Schema” in Redshift? A Guide for BI Users

Managing access permissions for BI tools like Tableau and Metabase when using Amazon Redshift to analyze behavioral data captured by Snowplow is crucial, yet can be complex due to Redshift's layered permission model. Even when table-level SELECT privileges are correctly assigned, users might encounter a "permission denied" error if they lack USAGE privileges on the schema, which are necessary for listing tables and querying them via SQL clients. To ensure seamless access, users need both USAGE on the schema and SELECT on all tables within it, and they can automate these permissions using tools like Terraform or dbt hooks. Additionally, verifying permissions through specific queries and adopting best practices like using database roles and consistent naming conventions can streamline access management. By incorporating schema-level access controls into the data modeling workflow, Snowplow users can avoid BI tool access issues and efficiently manage event-level analytics on Redshift.