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Get the Report →Access Snowflake Data as a Remote Oracle Database
Use the Oracle ODBC Gateway and Heterogeneous Services technology to access Snowflake data from your Oracle system.
The Oracle Database Gateway for ODBC and Heterogeneous Services technology enable you to connect to ODBC data sources as remote Oracle databases. This article shows how to use the CData ODBC Driver for Snowflake to create a database link from Snowflake to Oracle and to query Snowflake data through the SQL*Plus tool. You can also create the database link and execute queries from SQL Developer.
About Snowflake Data Integration
CData simplifies access and integration of live Snowflake data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:
- Reads and write Snowflake data quickly and efficiently.
- Dynamically obtain metadata for the specified Warehouse, Database, and Schema.
- Authenticate in a variety of ways, including OAuth, OKTA, Azure AD, Azure Managed Service Identity, PingFederate, private key, and more.
Many CData users use CData solutions to access Snowflake from their preferred tools and applications, and replicate data from their disparate systems into Snowflake for comprehensive warehousing and analytics.
For more information on integrating Snowflake with CData solutions, refer to our blog: https://www.cdata.com/blog/snowflake-integrations.
Getting Started
Connect to Snowflake as an ODBC Data Source
Information for connecting to Snowflake follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.
To connect to Snowflake:
- Set User and Password to your Snowflake credentials and set the AuthScheme property to PASSWORD or OKTA.
- Set URL to the URL of the Snowflake instance (i.e.: https://myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com).
- Set Warehouse to the Snowflake warehouse.
- (Optional) Set Account to your Snowflake account if your URL does not conform to the format above.
- (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.
Windows
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
Note: If you need to modify the DSN or create other Snowflake DSNs, you must use a system DSN and the bitness of the DSN must match your Oracle system. You can access and create 32-bit DSNs on a 64-bit system by opening the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe.
Linux
If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Snowflake in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.
/etc/odbc.ini
[CData Snowflake Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Snowflake
Description = My Description
User = Admin
Password = test123
Server = localhost
Database = Northwind
Warehouse = TestWarehouse
Account = Tester1
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
Set Connection Properties for Compatibility with Oracle
The driver provides several connection properties that streamline accessing Snowflake data just as you would an Oracle database. Set the following properties when working with Snowflake data in SQL*Plus and SQL Developer. For compatibility with Oracle, you will need to set the following connection properties, in addition to authentication and other required connection properties.
MapToWVarchar=False
Set this property to map string data types to SQL_VARCHAR instead of SQL_WVARCHAR. By default, the driver uses SQL_WVARCHAR to accommodate various international character sets. You can use this property to avoid the ORA-28528 Heterogeneous Services data type conversion error when the Unicode type is returned.
MaximumColumnSize=4000
Set this property to restrict the maximum column size to 4000 characters.
IncludeDualTable=True
Set this property to mock the Oracle DUAL table. SQL Developer uses this table to test the connection.
Linux Configuration
In Linux environments, Oracle uses UTF-8 to communicate with the unixODBC Driver manager, whereas the default driver encoding is UTF-16. To resolve this, open the file /opt/cdata/cdata-driver-for-snowflake/lib/cdata.odbc.snowflake.ini in a text editor and set the encoding.
cdata.odbc.snowflake.ini
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-8
Configure the ODBC Gateway, Oracle Net, and Oracle Database
Follow the procedure below to set up an ODBC gateway to Snowflake data that enables you to query live Snowflake data as an Oracle database.
-
Create the file initmysnowflakedb.ora in the folder oracle-home-directory/hs/admin and add the following setting:
initmysnowflakedb.ora
HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "CData Snowflake Sys"
-
Add an entry to the listener.ora file. This file is located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin.
If you are using the Database Gateway for ODBC, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:
listener.ora
SID_LIST_LISTENER = (SID_LIST = (SID_DESC = (SID_NAME = mysnowflakedb) (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home) (PROGRAM = dg4odbc) ) )
If you are using Heterogeneous Services, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:
listener.ora
SID_LIST_LISTENER = (SID_LIST = (SID_DESC = (SID_NAME = mysnowflakedb) (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home) (PROGRAM = hsodbc) ) )
-
Add the connect descriptor below in tnsnames.ora, located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin:
tnsnames.ora
mysnowflakedb = (DESCRIPTION= (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521)) (CONNECT_DATA=(SID=mysnowflakedb)) (HS=OK) )
- Restart the listener.
Test the configuration with the following command:
tnsping mysnowflakedb
-
Open SQL*Plus and create the database link with the command below:
CREATE DATABASE LINK mysnowflakedb CONNECT TO "user" IDENTIFIED BY "password" USING 'mysnowflakedb';
You can now execute queries in SQL*Plus like the one below (note the double quotation marks around the table name):
SELECT * from "Products"@mysnowflakedb WHERE Id = '1';