Snowflake
Setting up the Snowflake destination connector involves setting up Snowflake entities (warehouse, database, schema, user, and role) in the Snowflake console and configuring the Snowflake destination connector using the Airbyte UI.
This page describes the step-by-step process of setting up the Snowflake destination connector.
Prerequisites
- A Snowflake account with the
ACCOUNTADMIN
role. If you don’t have an account with the
ACCOUNTADMIN
role, contact your Snowflake administrator to set one up for you.
Network policies
By default, Snowflake allows users to connect to the service from any computer or device IP address. A security administrator (i.e. users with the SECURITYADMIN role) or higher can create a network policy to allow or deny access to a single IP address or a list of addresses.
If you have any issues connecting with Airbyte Cloud please make sure that the list of IP addresses is on the allowed list
To determine whether a network policy is set on your account or for a specific user, execute the SHOW PARAMETERS command.
Account
SHOW PARAMETERS LIKE 'network_policy' IN ACCOUNT;
User
SHOW PARAMETERS LIKE 'network_policy' IN USER <username>;
To read more please check official Snowflake documentation
Setup guide
Step 1: Set up Airbyte-specific entities in Snowflake
To set up the Snowflake destination connector, you first need to create Airbyte-specific Snowflake
entities (a warehouse, database, schema, user, and role) with the OWNERSHIP
permission to write
data into Snowflake, track costs pertaining to Airbyte, and control permissions at a granular level.
You can use the following script in a new Snowflake worksheet to create the entities:
-
Edit the following script to change the password to a more secure password and to change the names of other resources if you so desire.
Note: Make sure you follow the Snowflake identifier requirements while renaming the resources.
-- set variables (these need to be uppercase)
set airbyte_role = 'AIRBYTE_ROLE';
set airbyte_username = 'AIRBYTE_USER';
set airbyte_warehouse = 'AIRBYTE_WAREHOUSE';
set airbyte_database = 'AIRBYTE_DATABASE';
set airbyte_schema = 'AIRBYTE_SCHEMA';
-- set user password
set airbyte_password = 'password';
begin;
-- create Airbyte role
use role securityadmin;
create role if not exists identifier($airbyte_role);
grant role identifier($airbyte_role) to role SYSADMIN;
-- create Airbyte user
create user if not exists identifier($airbyte_username)
password = $airbyte_password
default_role = $airbyte_role
default_warehouse = $airbyte_warehouse;
grant role identifier($airbyte_role) to user identifier($airbyte_username);
-- change role to sysadmin for warehouse / database steps
use role sysadmin;
-- create Airbyte warehouse
create warehouse if not exists identifier($airbyte_warehouse)
warehouse_size = xsmall
warehouse_type = standard
auto_suspend = 60
auto_resume = true
initially_suspended = true;
-- create Airbyte database
create database if not exists identifier($airbyte_database);
-- grant Airbyte warehouse access
grant USAGE
on warehouse identifier($airbyte_warehouse)
to role identifier($airbyte_role);
-- grant Airbyte database access
grant OWNERSHIP
on database identifier($airbyte_database)
to role identifier($airbyte_role);
commit;
begin;
USE DATABASE identifier($airbyte_database);
-- create schema for Airbyte data
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS identifier($airbyte_schema);
commit;
begin;
-- grant Airbyte schema access
grant OWNERSHIP
on schema identifier($airbyte_schema)
to role identifier($airbyte_role);
commit;
- Run the script using the Worksheet page or Snowsight. Make sure to select the All Queries checkbox if using the Classic Console or select and highlight the entire query if you are using Snowsight.
Step 2: Set up a data loading method
Airbyte uses Snowflake’s Internal Stage to load data.
Make sure the database and schema have the USAGE
privilege.
Step 3: Set up Snowflake as a destination in Airbyte
Navigate to the Airbyte UI to set up Snowflake as a destination. You can authenticate using username/password or key pair authentication:
Login and Password
Field | Description |
---|---|
Host | The host domain of the snowflake instance (must include the account, region, cloud environment, and end with snowflakecomputing.com). Example: accountname.us-east-2.aws.snowflakecomputing.com |
Role | The role you created in Step 1 for Airbyte to access Snowflake. Example: AIRBYTE_ROLE |
Warehouse | The warehouse you created in Step 1 for Airbyte to sync data into. Example: AIRBYTE_WAREHOUSE |
Database | The database you created in Step 1 for Airbyte to sync data into. Example: AIRBYTE_DATABASE |
Schema | The default schema used as the target schema for all statements issued from the connection that do not explicitly specify a schema name. |
Username | The username you created in Step 1 to allow Airbyte to access the database. Example: AIRBYTE_USER |
Password | The password associated with the username. |
JDBC URL Params (Optional) | Additional properties to pass to the JDBC URL string when connecting to the database formatted as key=value pairs separated by the symbol & . Example: key1=value1&key2=value2&key3=value3 |
Disable Final Tables (Optional) | Disables writing final Typed tables See output schema. WARNING! The data format in _airbyte_data is likely stable but there are no guarantees that other metadata columns will remain the same in future versions |
Key pair authentication
In order to configure key pair authentication you will need a private/public key pair. If you do not have the key pair yet, you can generate one using openssl command line tool Use this command in order to generate an unencrypted private key file:
openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -out rsa_key.p8 -nocrypt
Alternatively, use this command to generate an encrypted private key file:
openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -v1 PBE-SHA1-RC4-128 -out rsa_key.p8
Once you have your private key, you need to generate a matching public key. You can do so with the following command:
openssl rsa -in rsa_key.p8 -pubout -out rsa_key.pub
Finally, you need to add the public key to your Snowflake user account. You can do so with the following SQL command in Snowflake:
alter user <user_name> set rsa_public_key=<public_key_value>;
and replace <user_name>
with your user name and <public_key_value>
with your public key.
Output schema
Airbyte outputs each stream into its own raw table in airbyte_internal
schema by default (can be
overriden by user) and a final table with Typed columns. Contents in raw table are NOT
deduplicated.
Raw Table schema
Airbyte field | Description | Column type |
---|---|---|
_airbyte_raw_id | A UUID assigned to each processed event | VARCHAR |
_airbyte_extracted_at | A timestamp for when the event was pulled from the data source | TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE |
_airbyte_loaded_at | Timestamp to indicate when the record was loaded into Typed tables | TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE |
_airbyte_data | A JSON blob with the event data. | VARIANT |
Note: Although the contents of the _airbyte_data
are fairly stable, schema of the raw table
could be subject to change in future versions.
Note: By default, Airbyte creates permanent tables. If you prefer transient tables, create a dedicated transient database for Airbyte. For more information, refer to Working with Temporary and Transient Tables
Data type map
Airbyte type | Snowflake type |
---|---|
STRING | TEXT |
STRING (BASE64) | TEXT |
STRING (BIG_NUMBER) | TEXT |
STRING (BIG_INTEGER) | TEXT |
NUMBER | FLOAT |
INTEGER | NUMBER |
BOOLEAN | BOOLEAN |
STRING (TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIMEZONE) | TIMESTAMP_TZ |
STRING (TIMESTAMP_WITHOUT_TIMEZONE) | TIMESTAMP_NTZ |
STRING (TIME_WITH_TIMEZONE) | TEXT |
STRING (TIME_WITHOUT_TIMEZONE) | TIME |
DATE | DATE |
OBJECT | OBJECT |
ARRAY | ARRAY |
Supported sync modes
The Snowflake destination supports the following sync modes:
- Full Refresh - Overwrite
- Full Refresh - Append
- Incremental Sync - Append
- Incremental Sync - Append + Deduped
Snowflake tutorials
Now that you have set up the Snowflake destination connector, check out the following Snowflake tutorials:
- Build a data ingestion pipeline from Mailchimp to Snowflake
- Replicate data from a PostgreSQL database to Snowflake
- Migrate your data from Redshift to Snowflake
- Orchestrate ELT pipelines with Prefect, Airbyte and dbt
Troubleshooting
'Current role does not have permissions on the target schema'
If you receive an error stating Current role does not have permissions on the target schema
make
sure that the Snowflake destination SCHEMA
is one that the role you've provided has permissions
on. When creating a connection, it may allow you to select Mirror source structure
for the
Destination namespace
, which if you have followed some of our default examples and tutorials may
result in the connection trying to write to a PUBLIC
schema.
A quick fix could be to edit your connection's 'Replication' settings from Mirror source structure
to Destination Default
. Otherwise, make sure to grant the role the required permissions in the
desired namespace.