Connect to Snowflake Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Snowflake data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live Snowflake data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Snowflake data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Snowflake data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Snowflake and gain immediate access to Snowflake data within your data lake. By surfacing Snowflake data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Snowflake data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Snowflake to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-snowflake-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Snowflake

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.snowflake.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Snowflake

Snowflake will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Snowflake data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Snowflake JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.snowflake.jar

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

To connect to Snowflake:

1. Set User and Password to your Snowflake credentials and set the AuthScheme property to PASSWORD or OKTA.
2. Set URL to the URL of the Snowflake instance (i.e.: https://myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com).
3. Set Warehouse to the Snowflake warehouse.
4. (Optional) Set Account to your Snowflake account if your URL does not conform to the format above.
5. (Optional) Set Database and Schema to restrict the tables and views exposed.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:snowflake:RTK=5246...;User=Admin;Password=test123;Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Warehouse=TestWarehouse;Account=Tester1;

Access Snowflake as an External Source

To add Snowflake as an External Source, click to add a new source and select Snowflake. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New Snowflake Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Snowflake data in Dremio, easily incorporating Snowflake data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake in Dremio, you can incorporate live Snowflake data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake page for more information about connecting to Snowflake. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake and get started today.