Snowflake Access History (DI/ETL) - Beta - Import
Bridge Requirements
This bridge:requires Internet access to https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/ and/or other tool sites to download drivers into <TDC_HOME>/data/download/MIMB/.
Bridge Specifications
| Vendor | Snowflake |
| Tool Name | Snowflake Database |
| Tool Version | 1 to current |
| Tool Web Site | https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/access-history |
| Supported Methodology | [Data Integration] Multi-Model, Data Store (Physical Data Model, Logical Data Model, Stored Procedure Expression Parsing), ETL (Source and Target Data Stores, Transformation Lineage, Expression Parsing), Graphical Layout via JDBC API |
| Data Profiling |  |
| Incremental Harvesting | |
| Multi-Model Harvesting |  |
| Remote Repository Browsing for Model Selection | |
SPECIFICATIONS
Tool: Snowflake / Snowflake Database version 1 to current via JDBC API
See https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/access-history
Metadata: [Data Integration] Multi-Model, Data Store (Physical Data Model, Logical Data Model, Stored Procedure Expression Parsing), ETL (Source and Target Data Stores, Transformation Lineage, Expression Parsing), Graphical Layout
Component: SnowflakeAccessHistory version 11.2.0
DISCLAIMER
This import bridge requires internet access to download third-party libraries:
- such as https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/ to download open source third-party libraries,
- and more sites for other third-party software such as database specific JDBC drivers.
The downloaded third-party libraries are stored into $HOME/data/download/MIMB/
- If HTTPS fails, the import bridge then tries with HTTP.
- If a proxy is used to access internet, you must configure that proxy in the JRE (see the -j option in the Miscellaneous parameter).
- If the import bridge does not have full access to internet, that $HOME/data/download/MIMB/ directory can be copied from another server with internet access where the command $HOME/bin/MIMB.sh (or .bat) -d can be used to download all third-party libraries used by all bridges at once.
By running this import bridge, you hereby acknowledge responsibility for the license terms and any potential security vulnerabilities from these downloaded third-party software libraries.
OVERVIEW
This import bridge uses a JDBC connection to a Snowflake database server in order to extract all of its metadata (e.g. Database, Schemas, Tables, External Tables, Columns, Data Types) and parse any SQL (e.g. Views, Materialized view, Stored Procedures) to produce the data flow lineage.
The recommended use of this import bridge is to import the lineage metadata that the Snowflake Database (via JDBC) bridge did not import - for example Dynamic SQL, with the capability to filter queries by:
- User (Users)
- Date (From Date, To Date)
- Object (Modified Database Objects, Accessed Database Objects)
This import bridge imports the database server metadata as multi models with one model per schema. Further imports (incremental harvesting) will detect changes in schema to only import changed schemas (reusing already harvested unchanged schemas).
REQUIREMENTS
Minimal supported database version is 8.4.
See the Driver Location parameter for any JDBC driver requirements.
See the PERMISSIONS section below.
AUTHENTICATION
n/a
PERMISSIONS
Any import bridge is warranted to be read only and only extracts metadata. Therefore the user of this import bridge requires much less permissions than classic users needing to read/write data.
In case of the Snowflake Database:
This import bridge requires the User to have the role that is granted USAGE privileges on all warehouses, databases, and schemas and References on schema objects, such as tables and views that you would like to import.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Is this import bridge able to import and parse the table, views and static stored procedure lineage?
A: The import of the aforementioned objects may be managed via utilizing the 'Modified Database Objects' (destination) and 'Accessed Database Objects' (source) parameters.
LIMITATIONS
Refer to the current general known limitations at https://metaintegration.com/Products/MIMB/Help/#!Documents/mimbknownlimitations.html
SUPPORT
Provide a troubleshooting package with:
- the debug log (can be set in the UI or in conf/conf.properties with MIR_LOG_LEVEL=6)
- the metadata backup if available (can be set in the Miscellaneous parameter with -backup option, although this common option is not implemented on all bridges for technical reasons).
Bridge Parameters
| Parameter Name | Description | Type | Values | Default | Scope |
| Driver location | The file directory where the JDBC driver files are located. When the value is empty (default), the bridge tries to download the driver files from Maven. The default driver class name is 'net.snowflake.client.jdbc.SnowflakeDriver'. If the driver specified has a different class name, specify that name using the -driver.className option in the Miscellaneous bridge parameter. |
DIRECTORY | |||
| Host | The host name used by JDBC to connect to the database server (localhost by default) e.g. MyDatabaseServer.com or its IP address, e.g. 192.169.1.2 or its fully qualified JDBC connection string, e.g. jdbc:snowflake://xyz.snowflakecomputing.com/?warehouse=mywh&db=mydb |
STRING | localhost | Mandatory | |
| Warehouse | The name of the warehouse instance to import. | STRING | |||
| User | The user name used by JDBC to connect to the database server. This parameter is ignored if the Host parameter is based on a fully qualified JDBC connection string that includes the user name. Refer to the PERMISSIONS section of this import bridge's main documentation. |
STRING | Mandatory | ||
| Password | The user password used by JDBC to connect to the database server. | PASSWORD | Mandatory | ||
| Users | The list of database users who ran queries that you would like to import. To import the query lineage for all users, leave this parameter empty (No filtering will occur). Refer to the PERMISSIONS section of this import bridge's main documentation. |
STRING | |||
| From Date | Import lineage of queries that started before this time. When empty, there is no bottom time limit. Time format is year-month-day Refer to the PERMISSIONS section of this import bridge's main documentation. |
STRING | |||
| To Date | Import lineage of queries that started after this time. When empty, there is no top time limit. Time format is year-month-day Refer to the PERMISSIONS section of this import bridge's main documentation. |
STRING | |||
| Modified Database Objects | The subset of modified objects to import expressed as a semicolon separated list of objects in schemas, like table, view, e.g. table1; table2; view1; This parameter also supports the [schema.]table dot annotation in combination with * wildcards to enable specification of what groups of objects to import, e.g. schema1.table1; *.table2; schema3.*; All user objects that the bridge supports are imported if that list is empty. Table name patterns using a SQL like expression syntax: - Inclusion syntax: using % or *, e.g. A%; %B; %C%; D - start with A or - end with B or - contain C or - equal D - Exclusion syntax: using NOT, e.g. A%; %B; NOT %SYS; NOT 'SYS%' - WHERE (name like A% or name like %B) - and (name NOT like %SYS) - and (name NOT like 'SYS%') - Special characters: ^ $ * + ? | \ ( ) [ ] { } whitespace enclose this name in square brackets and escape special characters, e.g. OneWord%; [Two\sWords.*]; [Dollar\$] Refer to the PERMISSIONS section of this import bridge's main documentation. |
STRING | |||
| Accessed Database Objects | The subset of accessed objects to import expressed as a semicolon separated list of objects in schemas, like table, view, e.g. table1; table2; view1; This parameter also supports the [schema.]table dot annotation in combination with * wildcards to enable specification of what groups of objects to import, e.g. schema1.table1; *.table2; schema3.*; All user objects that the bridge supports are imported if that list is empty. Table name patterns using a SQL like expression syntax: - Inclusion syntax: using % or *, e.g. A%; %B; %C%; D - start with A or - end with B or - contain C or - equal D - Exclusion syntax: using NOT, e.g. A%; %B; NOT %SYS; NOT 'SYS%' - WHERE (name like A% or name like %B) - and (name NOT like %SYS) - and (name NOT like 'SYS%') - Special characters: ^ $ * + ? | \ ( ) [ ] { } whitespace enclose this name in square brackets and escape special characters, e.g. OneWord%; [Two\sWords.*]; [Dollar\$] Refer to the PERMISSIONS section of this import bridge's main documentation. |
STRING | |||
| Miscellaneous | INTRODUCTION Specify miscellaneous options starting with a dash and optionally followed by parameters, e.g. -connection.cast MyDatabase1="MICROSOFT SQL SERVER" Some options can be used multiple times if applicable, e.g. -connection.rename NewConnection1=OldConnection1 -connection.rename NewConnection2=OldConnection2; As the list of options can become a long string, it is possible to load it from a file which must be located in ${MODEL_BRIDGE_HOME}\data\MIMB\parameters and have the extension .txt. In such case, all options must be defined within that file as the only value of this parameter, e.g. ETL/Miscellaneous.txt JAVA ENVIRONMENT OPTIONS -java.memory <Java Memory's maximum size> (previously -m) 1G by default on 64bits JRE or as set in conf/conf.properties, e.g. -java.memory 8G -java.memory 8000M -java.parameters <Java Runtime Environment command line options> (previously -j) This option must be the last one in the Miscellaneous parameter as all the text after -java.parameters is passed "as is" to the JRE, e.g. -java.parameters -Dname=value -Xms1G The following option must be set when a proxy is used to access internet (this is critical to access https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/ and exceptionally a few other tool sites) in order to download the necessary third-party software libraries. Note: The majority of proxies are concerned with encrypting (HTTPS) the outside (of the company) traffic and trust the inside traffic that can access proxy over HTTP. In this case, an HTTPS request reaches the proxy over HTTP where the proxy HTTPS-encrypts it. -java.parameters -java.parameters -Dhttp.proxyHost=127.0.0.1 -Dhttp.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttp.proxyUser=user -Dhttp.proxyPassword=pass MODEL IMPORT OPTIONS -model.name <model name> Override the model name, e.g. -model.name "My Model Name" -prescript <script name> This option allows running a script before the bridge execution. The script must be located in the bin directory (or as specified with M_SCRIPT_PATH in conf/conf.properties), and have .bat or .sh extension. The script path must not include any parent directory symbol (..). The script should return exit code 0 to indicate success, or another value to indicate failure. For example: -prescript "script.bat arg1 arg2" -postscript <script name> This option allows running a script after successful execution of the bridge. The script must be located in the bin directory (or as specified with M_SCRIPT_PATH in conf/conf.properties), and have .bat or .sh extension. The script path must not include any parent directory symbol (..). The script should return exit code 0 to indicate success, or another value to indicate failure. For example: -postscript "script.bat arg1 arg2" -cache.clear Clears the cache before the import, and therefore will run a full import without incremental harvesting. If the model was not changed and the -cache.clear parameter is not used (incremental harvesting), then a new version will not be created. If the model was not changed and the -cache.clear parameter is set (full source import instead of incremental), then a new version will be created. -backup <directory> Allows to save the input metadata for further troubleshooting. The provided <directory> must be empty. -restore <directory> Specify the backup <directory> to be restored. DATA CONNECTION OPTIONS Data Connections are produced by the import bridges typically from ETL/DI and BI tools to refer to the source and target data stores they use. These data connections are then used by metadata management tools to connect them (metadata stitching) to their actual data stores (e.g. databases, file system, etc.) in order to produce the full end to end data flow lineage and impact analysis. The name of each data connection is unique by import model. The data connection names used within DI/BI design tools are used when possible, otherwise connection names are generated to be short but meaningful such as the database / schema name, the file system path, or Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The following option allows to manipulate connections. These options replaces the legacy options -c, -cd, and -cs. -connection.cast ConnectionName=ConnectionType Casts a generic database connection (e.g. ODBC/JDBC) to a precise database type (e.g. ORACLE) for SQL Parsing, e.g. -connection.cast "My Database"="MICROSOFT SQL SERVER". The list of supported data store connection types includes: ACCESS APACHE CASSANDRA DB2/UDB DENODO GOOGLE BIGQUERY HIVE MYSQL NETEZZA ORACLE POSTGRESQL PRESTO REDSHIFT SALESFORCE SAP HANA SNOWFLAKE MICROSOFT SQL AZURE MICROSOFT SQL SERVER SYBASE SQL SERVER SYBASE AS ENTERPRISE TERADATA VECTORWISE HP VERTICA -connection.rename OldConnection=NewConnection Renames an existing connection to a new name, e.g. -connection.rename OldConnectionName=NewConnectionName Multiple existing database connections can be renamed and merged into one new database connection, e.g. -connection.rename MySchema1=MyDatabase -connection.rename MySchema2=MyDatabase -connection.split oldConnection.Schema1=newConnection Splits a database connection into one or multiple database connections. A single database connection can be split into one connection per schema, e.g. -connection.split MyDatabase All database connections can be split into one connection per schema, e.g. -connection.split * A database connection can be explicitly split creating a new database connection by appending a schema name to a database, e.g. -connection.split MyDatabase.schema1=MySchema1 -connection.map SourcePath=DestinationPath Maps a source path to destination path. This is useful for file system connections when different paths points to the same object (directory or file). On Hadoop, a process can write into a CSV file specified with the HDFS full path, but another process reads from a Hive table implemented (external) by the same file specified using a relative path with default file name and extension, e.g. -connection.map /user1/folder=hdfs://host:8020/users/user1/folder/file.csv On Linux, a given directory (or file) like /data can be referred to by multiple symbolic links like /users/john and /users/paul, e.g. -connection.map /data=/users/John -connection.map /data=/users/paul On Windows, a given directory like C:\data can be referred to by multiple network drives like M: and N:, e.g. -connection.map C:\data=M:\ -connection.map C:\data=N:\ -connection.casesensitive ConnectionName... Overrides the default case insensitive matching rules for the object identifiers inside the specified connection, provided the detected type of the data store by itself supports this configuration (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server, MySql etc.), e.g. -connection.casesensitive "My Database" -connection.caseinsensitive ConnectionName... Overrides the default case sensitive matching rules for the object identifiers inside the specified connection, provided the detected type of the data store by itself supports this configuration (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server, MySql etc.), e.g. -connection.caseinsensitive "My Database" -connection.level AggregationLevel Specifies the aggregation level for the external connections, e.g.-connection.level catalog The list of the supported values: server catalog schema (default) JDBC DATABASE OPTIONS -system.objects.import (previously -s) Imports all system objects (that are skipped by default). -synonyms.ignore (previously -synonyms) Ignores the synonyms when importing, therefore reducing the size of the model when a large number synonyms exist. -data.dictionary.server <database identification name> (previously -server.name) Sets a server name for the data dictionary to use for extracting tables and view definitions. In a multitenant Container Database (CDB), the metadata for data dictionary tables and view definitions is stored only at the root level. However, each Pluggable Database (PDB) has its own set of data dictionary tables and views for the database objects contained in the PDB. It is possible that some dba_ views are not available because they are not applicable. -driver.fetch.size <number of rows> (previously -f) The database driver fetch size in number of rows, e.g. -driver.fetch.size 100 -model.split (previously -multiModel) Splits a large database model into multi models (e.g. one schema per model). Warning: this is a system option managed by the application calling this import bridge and should not be set by users. -driver.className The full name (including the package name) of the Java class that implements the JDBC driver interface. -describe.function Extract function definitions using DESCRIBE FUNCTION commands for the user that does not have privileges to get these definitions in bulk. Can slow down the import when there are a lot of functions. -external_tables Extract external table metadata using system view external_tables -show.columns Extract column metadata using SHOW COLUMNS commands for the user that does not have privileges to get the column metadata in bulk. Can slow down the import when there are a lot of schemas. |
STRING |
Bridge Mapping
Mapping information is not available