# Access S3 Data with Redshift Spectrum

Easily analyze Parquet or CSV files stored in Amazon S3 using Redshift Spectrum—no data movement required. Tellius supports importing external tables from Redshift Spectrum as live datasets. Once your data is registered as an external table in Redshift, you can browse, query, and analyze it in Tellius just like any native Redshift object. This integration lets you unlock insights from S3 with minimal setup—without duplicating or moving files, and with cost-efficient scans where you only pay for the data actually read.

To get started, prepare your external tables in AWS, then connect Redshift to Tellius and begin live querying.

### Prerequisite: Prepare external table in Redshift Spectrum

Before using this data in Tellius, follow the [official AWS instructions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/c-getting-started-using-spectrum.html) to:

1. Create an IAM role for Redshift
2. Attach the IAM role to your Redshift cluster
3. Format and upload your data to S3 (CSV or Parquet recommended)
4. Create an external schema and table in Redshift using Redshift Spectrum
5. Verify the table by querying from Redshift directly

### Connecting Redshift to Tellius

Once your external table is created and verified:

1. In Tellius, navigate to **Data → Connect → Add new datasource → Amazon Redshift**.
2. For connecting to Redshift, check out [this](/tellius-documentation/data/create-new-datasource/connecting-to-redshift.md) page.

<figure><img src="/files/q4owHwgk018XErq1cq0Q" alt="" width="563"><figcaption><p>Amazon Redshift</p></figcaption></figure>

3. Either select from the list of available tables or use **Custom SQL** section to preview and import the required table(s).

<figure><img src="/files/0AxeEEg6TRa749150tZk" alt="" width="375"><figcaption><p>Custom SQL section</p></figcaption></figure>

4. When importing the tables, make sure to select **Live** connection checkbox.&#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/on1FmOe8CnMuZOYxHEjk" alt="" width="375"><figcaption><p>Live connection</p></figcaption></figure>

5. The imported table can be found under **Data → Datasets**. You can now begin  creating Business Views using this external table—just like any other dataset in Tellius and your queries will run live against Redshift Spectrum.


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://help.tellius.com/tellius-documentation/data/create-new-datasource/connecting-to-redshift/access-s3-data-with-redshift-spectrum.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.