Snowflake
Visier can retrieve data through this connector if the following requirements are met.
Overview
Visier offers two Snowflake data in connectors.
- Snowflake (Beta): Applies Visier's next generation data onboarding architecture to Snowflake, including an easy-to-use wizard to navigate and select tables directly from Snowflake. Mirrors your Snowflake data storage and uses Apache Spark to reduce onboarding time, simplify connector configuration, and load data changes more efficiently. For more information, see Snowflake (Beta) requirements.
- Snowflake (Legacy): Uses Visier's original data-in connector architecture. For more information, see Snowflake (Legacy) requirements.
Tip: Looking to send data from Visier to Snowflake instead? Check out Data Export Connectors.
Snowflake (Beta) requirements
This connector uses table sources, not file sources. For more information, see Use SQL with Table Sources.
Table sources support near real-time data freshness through data connectors. When enabled, Visier monitors the source system to retrieve the latest changes instead of waiting for the next scheduled data load. The freshness of your data depends on a variety of factors, including monitoring frequency, volume of the data changes received, and your organization's data architecture.
To discuss the feasibility of enabling near real-time data streaming for your tenant, contact your Customer/Partner Success Manager. For more information, see Enable near real-time data.
Prerequisites
- Create an integration user in Snowflake.
- Enable Snowflake (Beta). For more information, contact your Customer/Partner Success Manager.
- Provide Snowflake connection endpoints to Visier. For more information, see Get Snowflake connection endpoints.
- Allow network and data traffic between Visier and your source system. For more information, see Allow Visier Connections.
Integration user
Create an integration user in your source system and assign it the appropriate security access so that Visier can retrieve your source data through this user.
|
Access |
Description |
|---|---|
|
SELECT or OWNERSHIP access |
|
Connector credentials
Create a connector credential in Visier to authenticate and authorize access to your source system. Connector credentials can be created in Studio or through an API. For more information, see Set Up Data Connectors and "Create a connector credential" in API Reference. You will need to provide the following credentials in your connector credential configuration.
Note: We only support key-pair authentication because Snowflake blocks sign-ins using single-factor authentication with passwords as of November 2025. For instructions on how to configure key-pair authentication, see Key-pair authentication and key-pair rotation.
|
Credential |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Account Identifier |
The unique identifier of the account to retrieve data from. |
SAMPLE-ACCOUNT-IDENTIFIER |
|
Warehouse |
The warehouse to use. The user must be granted USAGE for the warehouse (or inherited through the Role). |
SAMPLEWAREHOUSE |
|
Username |
The integration user’s username. |
IntegrationUser |
|
Private Key |
The generated private key. |
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- ... ----END PRIVATE KEY---- |
|
Database (Optional) |
The database to retrieve data from. Useful if you want to restrict access to a specific set of tables in a particular database. The user must be granted USAGE for the database (or inherited through the Role). |
SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA |
|
Schema (Optional) |
The schema associated with the database. Useful if you want to restrict access to a specific set of tables in a particular schema. The user must be granted USAGE for the schema (or inherited through the Role). |
TPCH_SF1 |
|
Key Passphrase (Optional) |
The passphrase for the encrypted private key. |
|
|
Role (Optional) |
The database role that provides access to securable objects. If no role is provided, the user's default role is used. The user must be granted USAGE on the provided role or default role. |
|
|
Tenant Code Column (Optional) |
For administrating tenants only. When provided, records from all extracted tables will be automatically distributed to the specified analytic tenants. |
|
Get Snowflake connection endpoints
To allow Visier to connect to your Snowflake instance, you must provide the connection endpoints for SNOWFLAKE_DEPLOYMENT, SNOWFLAKE_DEPLOYMENT_REGIONLESS, and STAGE. These endpoints allow Visier to bypass network restrictions and securely access your instance. For more information about these endpoints, see SYSTEM$ALLOWLIST.
Run the following query in Snowsight and provide the output to your Customer/Partner Success Manager.
SELECT t.VALUE:type::VARCHAR as type,
t.VALUE:host::VARCHAR as host,
t.VALUE:port as port
FROM TABLE(FLATTEN(input => PARSE_JSON(SYSTEM$ALLOWLIST()))) AS t
WHERE type IN (
'SNOWFLAKE_DEPLOYMENT',
'SNOWFLAKE_DEPLOYMENT_REGIONLESS',
'STAGE'
);How the connector loads data
Initially, data connectors retrieve a full history for each subject to generate an initial history of events. In each subsequent data retrieval, each connector handles the data load differently.
- Full load: All data from the source system is loaded into Visier.
- Delta load: Only changed data is loaded into Visier. A delta load may take either the entire history or a specific number of years of history for each changed record.
- Snapshot load: All data at a particular point in time. A snapshot load does not contain historical records or show changes over time.
- Partial load: A subset of data is loaded into Visier.
After the initial load, this connector does one of:
- Full load: If table change tracking is not enabled, the connector retrieves all data from Snowflake every time.
- Delta load: To support delta loads, enable change tracking in Snowflake for each table you want to load in Visier. If the time between data extractions exceeds the data retention period, a full load occurs. The default data retention period in Snowflake is 1 day.
Sync data
After the connector credential is created, you can configure the connector to bring data into Visier. For more information, see Sync Snowflake Data.
Snowflake (Legacy) requirements
Prerequisites: Create an integration user in Snowflake.
If table sources are enabled, you can select the source type during connector credential creation. Select one of:
- File sources: File-based containers that use regex and override behavior to manage data. For more information about acceptable files, see Data File Guidelines.
- Table sources: Row-based containers that support incremental updates and SQL transformations during sync. For more information, see Use SQL with Table Sources.
The following table describes the differences between the behavior of each source type.
|
File sources |
Table sources |
|---|---|
|
Each data transfer or extraction outputs to a unique file. |
Each data transfer or extraction directly modifies the same table. |
|
Use Visier Extraction Language to query records in a source's Records tab or SQL to query sources in the Data > Query room. For more information, see Query Source Data. |
Use Spark SQL to interact with the table data. For more information, see Use SQL with Table Sources. |
|
To delete an individual's data, such as for GDPR compliance, open a Visier Technical Support ticket to remove the information one-by-one from every extracted file. |
To delete an individual's data, such as for GDPR compliance, use a DELETE SQL query on the table without contacting Visier Technical Support. Note: The snapshot retention period specifies how long to keep previous snapshots of tables before permanently deleting them. You can set the retention period between 1 and 180 days. The default is 3 days. |
|
The data is available in the Data Transfers room. For more information, see Navigate Studio. |
The data is available in the associated table source in the Sources room. For more information, see Sources. |
|
Exclude or delete uploaded files individually. Files load in order by snapshot time. |
Use the Reset action to roll the table back to a particular timestamp. This rolls back all changes since the timestamp. You can't easily undo actions or apply changes out of order. Tables do not keep a complete history of every action. |
|
Optionally enable Snap to midnight setting to move the snapshot time to the start of the day. |
Actions are applied strictly in order. |
|
Files uploaded manually or by SFTP connect to the source using a file regex. |
Because you upload files directly into a table source, files uploaded manually in the Data Transfers room or by SFTP cannot connect to the source. |
You cannot change the source type after creating a credential. To use a different source type, create a new credential.
Integration user
Create an integration user in your source system and assign it the appropriate security access so that Visier can retrieve your source data through this user.
|
Access |
Description |
|---|---|
|
SELECT or OWNERSHIP access |
|
Connector credentials
Create a connector credential in Visier to authenticate and authorize access to your source system. Connector credentials can be created in Studio or through an API. For more information, see Set Up Data Connectors and "Create a connector credential" in API Reference. You will need to provide the following credentials in your connector credential configuration.
Note: We recommend using key-pair authentication because Snowflake will block sign-ins using single-factor authentication with passwords by November 2025. For instructions on how to configure key-pair authentication, see Key-pair authentication and key-pair rotation.
|
Credential |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Account Identifier |
The unique identifier of the account to retrieve data from. |
SAMPLE-ACCOUNT-IDENTIFIER |
|
Warehouse |
The warehouse to use. The user must be granted USAGE for the warehouse (or inherited through the Role). |
SAMPLEWAREHOUSE |
|
Username |
The integration user's username. |
IntegrationUser |
|
Private Key |
The generated private key. |
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- ... ----END PRIVATE KEY---- |
| Role |
The default database role that provides access to securable objects. The user must be granted USAGE on the default role. |
|
|
Database (Optional) |
The database to retrieve data from. Useful if you want to restrict access to a specific set of tables in a particular database. The user must be granted USAGE for the database (or inherited through the Role). |
SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA |
|
Schema (Optional) |
The schema associated with the database. Useful if you want to restrict access to a specific set of tables in a particular schema. The user must be granted USAGE for the schema (or inherited through the Role). |
TPCH_SF1 |
|
Key Passphrase (Optional) |
The passphrase for the encrypted private key. |
|
Data files
The Snowflake data connector only retrieves data stored in Snowflake for use in Visier.
For other data, you must provide that data through alternative methods such as SFTP or Visier’s other data connectors. For more information about sending data to Visier, see File Upload.
How the connector loads data
Initially, data connectors retrieve a full history for each subject to generate an initial history of events. In each subsequent data retrieval, each connector handles the data load differently.
- Full load: All data from the source system is loaded into Visier.
- Delta load: Only changed data is loaded into Visier. A delta load may take either the entire history or a specific number of years of history for each changed record.
- Snapshot load: All data at a particular point in time. A snapshot load does not contain historical records or show changes over time.
- Partial load: A subset of data is loaded into Visier.
After the initial load, this connector only retrieves data for changed records.