Postgresql – Permission denied with Copy command when using network share

Networkpostgresql

I am running the following Copy command via npgsql (.Net) from a client on the network: 

COPY work_narcra00_2017_q2.a2_aevent FROM '//BRAHMA//EnvironProcessing//dbprocessfixedasciiimport.tmp' WITH CSV

I am getting this error: 

ERROR: could not open file "//BRAHMA//EnvironProcessing//dbprocessfixedasciiimport.tmp" for reading: Permission denied
SQL state: 42501

I also tried the command from PgAdmin III and I get the same error.

The obvious answer is the file/folder permissions, but both the share and NTFS permissions have read/write permissions to Everyone.

Another post suggested adding permissions for Network Service but that makes little sense for accessing a network share because I cannot add the DBServer/NetworkService account to the client computer's share (though I tried adding the local Network Service account just in case)

Moving the file to a local folder on the server of course works, but that is not a viable long-term option right now.

Edit: I can see and edit the file just fine from within Windows using Notepad.

Best Answer

With COPY from a named file, the file is read on the server by the user who owns the database cluster (usually a service account) not on the client. So the server (both machine and account) is what needs to have access to it. If your file is readable on the client, you can use COPY...FROM STDIN in conjunction with the support functions described here.

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