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Snowflake support

Applies to: Dataedo 23.x versions, Article available also for: 24.x (current), 10.x
You are looking at documentation for an older release.
Switch to the documentation for Dataedo 24.x (current).

Connection requirements

To connect to Snowflake you need to install ODBC connector:

https://docs.snowflake.net/manuals/user-guide/odbc-download.html

Connecting to Snowflake

To connect to Snowflake create new documentation by clicking Add documentation and choosing Database connection.

Connection to SQL Server

On the connection screen choose Snowflake as DBMS.

Select authentication mode:

  • Password - you will need to provide username and password.
  • SSO (browser) - Dataedo will open web browser to let you authenticate with Okta.
  • JWT (private key) - authentication with a private key. Learn more

Provide database connection details:

  • Host - provide a host name or address where a database is on. E.g. server17, server17.ourdomain.com or 192.168.0.37.
  • Port - change the default port of Amazon Redshift instance if required
  • User and password - provide your username and password
  • Database - type in schema name

Connection to SQL Server

Here is a comparison with connection details in DBeaver.

Connection to SQL Server

Saving password

You can save password for later connections by checking Save password option. Password are saved in the repository database.

Importing schema

When connection was successful Dataedo will read objects and show a list of objects found. You can choose which objects to import. You can also use advanced filter to narrow down list of objects.

Objects to import

Confirm list of objects to import by clicking Next.

Next screen with allow you to change default name of the documentation under with your schema will be visible in Dataedo repository.

Change title

Click Import to start the import.

Importing documentation

When done close import window with Finish button.

Your database schema has been imported to new documentation in the repository.

Imported database schema

Importing changes

To sync any changes in the schema in Snowflake and reimport any technical metadata simply choose Import changes option. You will be asked to connect to Snowflake again and changes will be synced from the source.

Specification

Imported metadata

Imported Editable
Tables, External tables ✅ ✅
  Columns ✅ ✅
   Data types ✅ ✅
   Nullability ✅
   Column comments ✅ ✅
  Table comments ✅ ✅
  Foreign keys ✅ ✅
  Primary keys ✅ ✅
  Unique keys ✅ ✅
Views ✅ ✅
  Script ✅ ✅
  Columns ✅ ✅
    Data types ✅ ✅
    Column comments ✅ ✅
  View comments ✅ ✅
Stored procedures ✅ ✅
  Script ✅ ✅
  Parameters ✅ ✅
User-defined Functions ✅ ✅
  Script ✅ ✅
  Input arguments (all as a single field) ✅ ✅
  Output results (as a single field) ✅ ✅
  Function comments ✅ ✅
Stages ✅ ✅
  Location ✅ ✅
  Stage comments ✅ ✅
Pipelines ✅ ✅
  Script ✅ ✅
  Pipeline comments ✅ ✅
Shared metadata
  Dependencies ✅ ✅
  Created time ✅
  Last updated time ✅

Comments

Dataedo reads comments from following Snowflake objects:

Object Read Write back
Table comments ✅
  Column comments ✅
View comments ✅
  Columns ✅
Function comments ✅

Data profiling

Datedo supports following data profiling in Snowflake:

Profile Support
Table row count ✅
Table sample data ✅
Column distribution (unique, non-unique, null, empty values) ✅
Min, max values ✅
Average ✅
Variance ✅
Standard deviation ✅
Min-max span ✅
Number of distinct values ✅
Top 10/100/1000 values ✅
10 random values ✅

Data Lineage

Source Method Status
Views - object level From dependencies ✅
Views - object level From SQL parsing ✅
Views - column level From SQL parsing ✅
External storages (Azure, AWS) -> Stages From INFORMATION_SCHEMA ✅
Stages -> External tables (Azure, AWS) From INFORMATION_SCHEMA ✅
Stages -> Pipelines From SQL parsing ✅
Pipelines -> Tables From SQL parsing ✅
Stages -> Tables (COPY INTO) FROM ACCOUNT_USAGE ✅
Tables - from Kafka TBD TBD
dbt dbt connector ✅

Column-level data lineage is retived using Dataedo SQL parser. Read more about capabilities of Snowflake SQL parser.

Known limitations

  • Snowflake’s INFORMATION_SCHEMA currently doesn’t contain data on object dependencies or usage of COPY INTO statements. Information about dependencies and COPY INTO history is retrieved from the SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.OBJECT_DEPENDENCIES and SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.COPY_HISTORY views. By default, the SNOWFLAKE database is available only to the ACCOUNTADMIN role. Read more about Enabling Snowflake Database Usage for Other Roles.

Due to Snowflake Connector for .NET limitations:

  • Username and password
    • Cannot contain ; and = characters
  • Database, role and warehouse name
    • Cannot contain ; and ‘ or \ characters

Learn more

Connect to Snowflake

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