Connect Soda to Snowflake

Access configuration details to connect Soda to a Snowflake data source.

For Soda to run quality scans on your data, you must configure it to connect to your data source. To learn how to set up Soda and configure it to connect to your data sources, see Get started.

Connection configuration reference

Install package: soda-snowflake

Core connection:

data_source my_datasource_name:
  type: snowflake
  # Core
  account: ${SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT}
  database: <database>
  schema: <schema>
  warehouse: <warehouse>
  role: <role>                            # optional, strongly recommended
  connection_timeout: 240                 # optional
  client_session_keep_alive: false        # optional

Core connection properties

Property	Required	Type	Description
type	yes	string	Identify the type of data source for Soda. In this case, must be snowflake.
account	yes	string	Provide the unique value that identifies your account. Consider using system variables to retrieve this value securely using, for example, ${SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT}. Note: Account sometimes needs to take the form of <account_identifier>-<account_name> or <account_identifier>.<region>.
database	yes	string	Provide an identifier for your database.
schema	yes	string	Identify the schema in the data source in which your tables exist.
warehouse	yes	string	Provide an identifier for the cluster of resources that is a Snowflake virtual warehouse. See Overview of Warehouses.
role1	recommended	string	Specify a Snowflake role that has permission to access the database and schema of your data source.
connection_timeout	no	integer	Set the timeout period in seconds for an inactive login session.
client_session_keep_alive	no	boolean	Use this parameter to keep the session active, even with no user activity. Default value: false.
session_parameters	no	object	Pass-through Snowflake session params (e.g., QUERY_TAG, QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE).
proxy_http	no	string	HTTP proxy (agent environments); see Troubleshoot section.
proxy_https	no	string	HTTPS proxy (agent environments); see Troubleshoot section.

¹ Though optional, best practice dictates that you provide a value for role. If you do not provide a role, and Snowflake has not assigned a Snowflake System-Defined Role to the user account, Snowflake may, confusingly, deny access to the data source.

Authenticator selector

Property	Required	Values / Example	Description
authenticator2	no	externalbrowser | SNOWFLAKE_JWT | OAUTH_CLIENT_CREDENTIALS	Add an authenticator paramater with value externalbrowser to authenticate the connection to your Snowflake data source using any SAML 2.0-compliant identity provider (IdP) such as Okta or OneLogin.

² Use this parameter when adding Snowflake connection configurations to a configuration.yml file. However, if you are adding connection configuration details directly in Soda Cloud (connecting to your Snowflake data source via a Soda Agent) to authenticate using Okta, you must follow the instructions documented by Snowflake for Native SSO - Okta Only.

Choose exactly one authentication approach of the four options below.

Notes:

• Use one authentication method per connection.

• While role is technically optional, providing it avoids confusing access errors.

• Private key auth can use inline private_key (PEM) or private_key_path.

• externalbrowser SSO uses your SAML 2.0 IdP (e.g., Okta/OneLogin).

• Proxy parameters are supported when connecting via an agent behind a proxy.

1. Username + password

  # 1) Username + password
  username: ${SNOWFLAKE_USER}
  password: ${SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD}

Username/password properties (when no authenticator is set)

Property	Required	Description
username	yes	Snowflake user login. Consider using system variables to retrieve this value securely using, for example, ${SNOWFLAKE_USER}.
password	yes	Password for the user. Consider using system variables to retrieve this value securely using, for example, ${SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD}.

2. External browser SSO

  # 2) External browser SSO (SAML 2.0 IdP such as Okta/OneLogin)
  authenticator: externalbrowser

External browser SSO properties (when authenticator: externalbrowser)

Property	Required	Description
username	no	Depending on IdP settings, may be required. Consider using system variables to retrieve this value securely using, for example, ${SNOWFLAKE_USER}.
authenticator	yes	Must be externalbrowser to enable SAML 2.0 browser-based SSO.

3. Private key authentication

You can use the private_key and private_key_passphrase parameters to specify for key pair authentication. In you configuration YML file, add the parameters as per the following example.

  # 3) Key pair (JWT) authentication
  authenticator: SNOWFLAKE_JWT
  username: <user>
  private_key: |
    -----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
    -----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
  private_key_passphrase: ${SNOWFLAKE_PASSPHRASE}
  # or use a file path instead of inline key:
  private_key_path: /path/to/private-key.pk8

Key pair / JWT properties (when authenticator: SNOWFLAKE_JWT)

Property	Required	Description
username	yes	Snowflake user that owns the key pair.
private_key	yes*	Inline PEM private key. Use either this or private_key_path.
private_key_path	yes*	Path to private key file (.pk8). Use either this or private_key.
private_key_passphrase	no	Passphrase for encrypted private key.

4. OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials (NEW)

  # 4) OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials
  authenticator: OAUTH_CLIENT_CREDENTIALS
  oauth_client_id: <client-id>
  oauth_client_secret: <client-secret>
  oauth_token_request_url: https://<idp>/oauth/token
  oauth_scope: "scope1 scope2"        # space-delimited; optional if derived by role

OAuth 2.0 client properties (when authenticator: OAUTH_CLIENT_CREDENTIALS)

Property	Required	Description
oauth_client_id	yes	Client ID from the IdP for the Snowflake security integration.
oauth_client_secret	yes	Client secret from the IdP for the Snowflake security integration.
oauth_token_request_url	yes	IdP token endpoint that issues access tokens to the driver. (With Snowflake as IdP, derive from server/account parameters.)
oauth_scope	no	Space-delimited, case-sensitive scopes. Defaults may be derived from role; specify explicitly for multiple/custom scopes.

---

Other parameters

  # Optional Snowflake session parameters (passed through)
  session_parameters:
    QUERY_TAG: soda-queries
    QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE: false

  # Optional proxies (for agents behind proxy)
  proxy_http: http://host:port
  proxy_https: https://host:port

Other parameters properties

Property	Required	Notes
other params	optional	You can pass any other Snowflake parameters you wish by adding the key:value pairs to your Snowflake connection configuration. See Snowflake Python Connector API documentation for a list of passable parameters.
QUERY_TAG	optional	See QUERY_TAG in Snowflake documentation.
QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_ IGNORE_CASE	optional	See QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE in Snowflake documentation.

---

Use a values file to store private key authentication values

If you use a private key authentication with Snowflake and have deployed a Soda Agent, you can provide the required private key values in a values.yml file when you deploy or redeploy the agent.

You can also use the values.yml file to store other environment variables for the Soda Agent to use, such as SNOFLAKE_USER, SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT, SNOWFLAKE_PASSPHRASE, etc.

1. First, run the following command to create a local path to the Snowflake private key. Replace the local path to the Snowflake private key with your own value.

kubectl create secret generic -n <soda-agent-namespace> snowflake-private-key --from-file=snowflake-private-key.pk8=<local path to the Snowflake private key>

1. Then, add the following to the your values.yml file, adjusting the values to your own specific details.

   soda:
     scanlauncher:
       volumeMounts:
         - name: snowflake-private-key
           mountPath: /opt/soda/etc
       volumes:
         - name: snowflake-private-key
           secret:
             secretName: snowflake-private-key
             items:
               - key: snowflake-private-key.pk8
                 path: snowflake-private-key.pk8

2. Adjust the configuration.yml file to include the new path in the connection details, as in the following example.

   data_source ltsnowflakecustomer:
     type: snowflake
     username: ${SNOWFLAKE_USER}
     password: password
     account: ${SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT}
     database: PUBLISH_DEV
     warehouse: ${SNOWFLAKE_WAREHOUSE}
     role: ${SNOWFLAKE_ROLE}
     client_session_keep_alive: true
     session_parameters:
       QUERY_TAG: soda-queries
       QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE: false
     schema: CUSTOMER
     private_key_passphrase: ${SNOWFLAKE_PASSPHRASE}
     private_key_path: /opt/soda/etc/snowflake-private-key.pk8

3. Deploy, or redeploy, the agent for the changes to take effect.

Test the data source connection

To confirm that you have correctly configured the connection details for the data source(s) in your configuration YAML file, use the test-connection command. If you wish, add a -V option to the command to return results in verbose mode in the CLI.

soda test-connection -d my_datasource -c configuration.yml -V

Supported data types

Category	Data type
text	CHAR, VARCHAR, CHARACTER, STRING, TEXT
number	NUMBER, INT, INTEGER, BIGINT, SMALLINT, TINYINT, BYTEINT, FLOAT, FLOAT4, FLOAT8, DOUBLE, DOUBLE PRECISION, REAL
time	DATE, DATETIME, TIME, TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMPT_LTZ, TIMESTAMP_NTZ, TIMESTAMP_TZ

Troubleshoot

Problem: When testing the connection to your Snowflake data source, Snowflake returns an error message about using the use database command.

Solution: Use the role parameter to specify a Snowflake role that has permission to access the database and schema of your data source. Though optional, best practice dictates that you provide a value for role. If you do not provide a role, and Snowflake has not assigned a Snowflake System-Defined Role to the user account, Snowflake may, confusingly, deny access to the data source.

Problem: When Soda attempts to connect to your Snowflake data source, it produces a connectivity error that includes something like RunteimError: Command failed with exit code 2: ..... ocsp_response_validation_cash.lock.

Solution: Use Snowflake's troubleshooting guide to triage OCSP-related connectivity issues.

Problem: You have defined a Group By check and the scan that executes the check yields an error.

Solution: Be aware that, by default, Snowflake returns columns names in uppercase. Therefore, when defining a Group By check, you must specify the custom name of the check in uppercase as in the following example.

checks for VOLUME:
  - group by:
      group_limit: 50
      query: |
        SELECT TRADER, count(*) as trader_row_count
        FROM TRADEVOLUME
        WHERE TRADE_DATE = '2023-01-01'
        GROUP BY TRADER
      fields:
        - TRADER
      checks:
        - TRADER_ROW_COUNT > 40:
            name: Trader row count

Problem: While attempting to connect Soda to a Snowflake data source using proxy parameters, you encounter an error that reads something similar to Could not connect to data source "name_db": 250001 (08001): Failed to connect to DB: mydb.eu-west-1.snowflakecomputing.com:443. Incoming request with IP/Token xx.xxx.xx.xxx is not allowed to access Snowflake.

data_source: my_data_source
  type: snowflake
  ...
  session_param:
    QUERY_TAG: soda-test
    QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE: false
  proxy_http: http://a-proxy-o-dd-dddd-net:8000
  proxy_https: https://a-proxy-o-dd-dddd-net:8000

Solution: When connecting to a Snowflake data source by proxy, be sure to set the new proxy environment variables from the command-line using export statements, as in the following example.

export HTTP_PROXY=http://a-proxy-o-dd-dddd-net:8000
export HTTPS_PROXY=https://a-proxy-o-dd-dddd-net:800