When connecting to Snowflake from the Syniti Knowledge Platform (SKP), provide the following connection properties to establish a secure and reliable connection. This article explains each property to understand what information is required and how it is used.
Property | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Name | Name of the Snowflake connection, unique in the SKP. | NA |
Description | Enter a brief description stating the purpose of this connection. | NA |
Server | Specifies the fully qualified Snowflake account URL used to establish the connection. | Use the following format: ...snowflakecomputing.com This endpoint is used by the SKP to authenticate and communicate with your Snowflake environment. |
Port | Defines the network port used when connecting to Snowflake. | Snowflake uses port 443 for all secure HTTPS-based communication. This value should remain set to 443 unless your organization uses a custom proxy configuration. |
Database | The name of the target Snowflake database to connect to. | The SKP accesses this database during data extraction, profiling, or migration processes. It serves as the logical container for schemas, tables, and other objects used in SKP workflows. |
Schema | Identifies the schema within the selected database where the SKP reads or writes objects. | Schemas help segment and organize Snowflake objects such as tables, views, and stages used during integration or migration activities. |
Warehouse | Specifies the Snowflake virtual warehouse that provides compute resources for all SKP-initiated operations. | The warehouse controls processing capacity, parallelism, and cost. Ensure it is appropriately sized and configured with suitable auto-suspend and auto-resume policies. |
Role | Defines the Snowflake security role used when establishing the session. | This role determines the permissions available to the SKP, including data access and object creation. Typical roles include ACCOUNTADMIN or project-specific custom roles. |
Connection Timeout | Maximum time (in seconds) the system waits for a connection attempt before failing. | Default value: 60 seconds. |
Command Timeout | Maximum duration (in seconds) allowed for a command executed against Snowflake. If exceeded, the SKP cancels the operation and returns a timeout error. | Use this setting to manage long-running queries or extraction operations. |
Connection Pooling | Allows the SKP to reuse existing database connections instead of creating a new connection for each operation. | * Enabled (Default): Maintains a pool of open connections to reduce connection overhead. * Disabled: Creates and closes a connection per operation; simpler but slower for frequent workloads. |
Minimum Pool Size | Defines the minimum number of physical Snowflake connections that the SKP always maintains in the connection pool. These connections are pre-allocated and kept open to ensure that requests can start without incurring the overhead of creating new Snowflake sessions. | Use a higher minimum pool size when: * Multiple concurrent SKP processes frequently access Snowflake. * You need consistent performance for high-volume workloads. * You want to avoid latency penalties during connection initialization. * If left blank, the SKP uses the default minimum pool size defined by the underlying connector which is 0. |
Maximum Pool Size | Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous Snowflake connections that can be created and managed by the connection pool. This parameter limits how many concurrent Snowflake sessions SKP can open to support parallel extractions, profiling tasks, or transformation operations. | Use a higher maximum pool size when: * You expect heavy parallel workloads or multiple jobs running concurrently. * You need to increase throughput for large table scans or multi-threaded pipelines. * Your Snowflake warehouse and role permissions allow multiple session openings. Use a lower maximum pool size when: * You want stricter control over Snowflake consumption and warehouse concurrency. * You are operating under limited warehouse credit budgets or governance policies. * If the pool reaches the maximum size, additional requests will wait for an available connection, maximum value is 100. |
Client Session Keep Alive | Enables or disables the Snowflake driver’s keep-alive mechanism for long-running sessions. | When enabled, periodic heartbeats prevent session expiration due to inactivity. Recommended for long-running operations such as large data loads or multi-hour replication jobs. If disabled, session timeout is controlled by Snowflake’s server-side settings only. |
Heartbeat Frequency | Interval (in seconds) at which the client sends heartbeat signals when Client Session Keep Alive is enabled. Ensures the session stays active even if no queries are running. | * If set too high (long intervals), the session may still time out. * If set too low (very frequent), it may generate unnecessary network traffic. * Typical values 120–300 seconds for ETL/replication tools. Leave empty to use Snowflake driver defaults (30 seconds). |
Query Tag | Specifies a user-defined tag string that will be attached to every SQL statement executed by the SKP. Allows administrators to identify, filter, monitor, and audit queries associated with a specific application, replication process, or user workflow. | Snowflake records this tag in the QUERY_HISTORY view, allowing teams to: * Attribute workloads to specific applications or pipelines Perform usage analytics and auditing Track and isolate SKP-driven queries in large multi-team environments. * Use meaningful tags such as project names, migration phases, or processing identifiers. |
Application | Identifies the name of the client application that is connected to Snowflake. | Snowflake logs this value in the SESSION_HISTORY and QUERY_HISTORY views. This setting allows administrators to distinguish SKP sessions from other applications and supports governance, monitoring, and cost attribution. |
Validate Default Parameters | Controls whether the SKP validates Snowflake account-level and session-level default parameters during connection initialization. | When this option is enabled, the connector verifies that Snowflake’s default session parameters (for example, timeouts, date formats, or execution settings) are compatible with the driver and the SKP execution model. This helps detect configuration conflicts early and prevents unexpected runtime behavior. This option should normally remain enabled. Disable it only when: * You are using custom Snowflake session defaults that are known to be compatible. * Snowflake Support or Syniti Support has explicitly recommended disabling this validation. |
Disable Retry | Determines whether the Snowflake connector automatically retries operations that fail due to transient conditions. | When this option is disabled (recommended), the connector will retry certain operations automatically in response to temporary issues such as: * Brief network interruptions * Temporary warehouse unavailability * Transient Snowflake service throttling When enabled, automatic retries are turned off and any transient failure causes the operation to fail immediately. This option is typically enabled only for: * Troubleshooting and diagnostics * Environments where immediate failure is required for strict error handling * Scenarios where retries could interfere with external transaction control |
Authentication Method | Authentication mechanism for connecting to Snowflake. | Supported Methods: * Password * KeyPair |
Username | Defines the Snowflake user account used to authenticate the connection. | The account must have the necessary privileges for the operations being performed. |
Password | The password for the username above. | This authenticates your connection to the database. |
KeyPair | Authenticates to Snowflake using asymmetric key-pair authentication (Private Key and Passphrase) instead of a password. With this option, the SKP uses a private RSA key to generate a secure authentication token, while the corresponding public key is registered with the Snowflake user account. No password is transmitted during the authentication process. | The Snowflake user must be configured with an RSA public key, and the private key must be securely stored and accessible to Syniti Replicate Server.
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