Skip to main content

Connecting Snowflake to Omni

In this guide, you'll learn how to connect your Snowflake database to Omni.

Requirements​

To follow the steps in this guide, you'll need:

  • Organization Admin permissions in Omni
  • Permissions in Snowflake that allow you to:
    • Create database users and grant permissions
    • Allowlist IP addresses
    • Set up key-pair authentication

Step 1: Create a database user for Omni​

  1. Sign in to your Snowflake account.

  2. Create a new worksheet.

  3. Run the following to create a role and user for Omni, and grant privileges:

    use role ACCOUNTADMIN;
    create role if not exists omni_role;
    create user if not exists omni_user
    grant role omni_role to user omni_user;
    alter user omni_user
    set default_role = omni_role
    default_warehouse = '<warehouse>';

    -- grant read only database access - repeat for all database/schemas:
    grant usage, monitor on database <database> to role omni_role;
    grant usage, monitor on schema <database>.<schema> to role omni_role;
    grant usage, monitor on warehouse <warehouse> to role omni_role;

    -- alternatively, grant read only database access across all schemas:
    grant usage, monitor on database <database> to role omni_role;
    grant usage, monitor on ALL SCHEMAS IN DATABASE <database> to role omni_role;
    grant usage, monitor on FUTURE SCHEMAS IN DATABASE <database> to role omni_role;
    grant usage, monitor on warehouse <warehouse> to role omni_role;

    -- grant access to all tables in the schema to omni_role:
    grant select on all tables in schema <database>.<schema> to role omni_role;
    grant select on future tables in schema <database>.<schema> to role omni_role;

    -- grant access to all views in the schema to omni_role:
    grant select on all views in schema <database>.<schema> to role omni_role;
    grant select on future views in schema <database>.<schema> to role omni_role;

    -- grant ownership of omni_role to omni_user:
    grant role omni_role to user omni_user;

Step 2: Set up a table upload schema​

note

This step is optional, but Omni recommends completing it as part of the initial connection setup.

In this step, you'll create a dedicated schema to use for table uploads. This schema can't be used for other modeled tables.

  1. Create the schema in Snowflake. This can be in its own database or the same database as other schemas to be used in modeling.

  2. Run the following commands to grant the Omni user the required privileges:

    grant usage on database <upload_database> to role omni_role;
    grant usage, create table on schema <upload_database>.<csv_schema> to role omni_role;

Step 3: Allowlist Omni's IP addresses​

If access to the Snowflake database is limited by IP address, you'll need to add Omni's IPs to the allowlist before you create the database connection. For Redshift, this typically means creating a security group and adding an inbound traffic rule for each IP address.

Omni's IP addresses can be found on an individual connection's page, accessed by navigating to Settings > Connections and clicking a connection.

Step 4: Retrieve your Snowflake account identifier​

  1. In Snowflake, click your user icon in the bottom left corner of the page and then hover over Account.

  2. In the account selector, click the View account details link under the account:

  3. In the Account Details dialog, locate and copy the Account Identifier.

Refer to the Snowflake documentation for information about Snowflake account identifiers.

Step 5: Create the connection in Omni​

note

Snowflake connection parameters can be case sensitive, and are often capitalized. If you see errors on connection, confirm your connection parameters match your Snowflake environment exactly.

  1. In Omni, click Settings > Connections.

  2. Click Add connection.

  3. Click Snowflake.

  1. Fill in the fields as follows:

    • Display name - Required. Enter a name for the connection, which will display in the connections list in Omni.

    • Account identifier - Required. The account identifier you retrieved in Step 4.

    • Warehouse - Required. The name of the Snowflake warehouse.

    • Database - Required. Enter the name of the database Omni should connect to.

    • Include Other Databases - The names of other databases to generate models for.

    • Include schemas - To only include specific schemas, enter the names of the schemas as a comma-separated list. Leaving this field blank will allow Omni to access all schemas in the database.

    • Username - Required. Enter the username of the database user you want Omni to use.

      This is the Omni user you created in Step 1.

    • Keypair authentication - Click the toggle to enable key-pair authentication. You'll complete the setup in Step 6 after the connection is created.

    • Password - Leave this blank, as you'll be using key-pair authentication.

    • Schema for Table Uploads - Enter the name of the schema where table uploads will be stored. If left blank, you'll still be able to upload tables but they won't be pushed to the database.

      To specify the database, use dot notation. For example: <DATABASE>.<SCHEMA>

    • Database Timezone - Required. Select the timezone used by the database.

    • Query timezone - Required. If specified, data will be converted from the Database timezone to this timezone when querying. Refer to the Converting timezone data guide for more information.

    • Allow User-Specific Timezones - Check this option to allow individual users' Query timezone settings to be used as the query timezone for the connection.

    • Query timeout - Enter the number of seconds a query has to execute before the database cancels it. The default is 900 seconds.

  2. When finished, click Create connection.

Step 6: Set up Snowflake key-pair authentication​

What happened to passwords?

By November 2025, Snowflake will no longer allow single-factor password authentication. Using key-pair authentication is recommended to prevent any disruptions.

  1. After the connection is created in Omni, click the Keypairs tab.

  2. Click Generate key-pair.

  3. Click Copy next to the public key.

  4. Navigate back to your Snowflake account and run the following:

    alter user omni_user set RSA_PUBLIC_KEY='COPIED_PUBLIC_KEY';

  5. On the Keypair page in Omni, click the toggle in the Active column to enable the keypair.

Note: If you have multiple Snowflake connections, each connection must use a different key-pair. We recommend using a different Snowflake user for each connection, but these users can use the same Snowflake role to simplify permissions administration.

What's next?​

Now that Snowflake is set up, you can: