Visualize Live Snowflake Data in Power BI (via CData Connect AI)

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to Snowflake data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to Snowflake, connect to Snowflake data from Power BI and then create reports on Snowflake data in Power BI.

Getting Started

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Configure Snowflake Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to Snowflake from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Snowflake data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a Snowflake connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Snowflake" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Snowflake.

   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.
   6. (Optional) If MFA is enabled on your Snowflake account (via Duo Security), set MFACode to the passcode generated by your Duo authenticator app.

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

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Snowflake Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Snowflake data from Power BI.

Query Snowflake Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull Snowflake data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   
3. After signing in, click "Connect" 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
   
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce tables are shown)
   
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Snowflake data from Power BI

Create Snowflake Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Live Access to Snowflake Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect AI you have a direct connection to Snowflake data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Snowflake data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Snowflake) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect AI page and start a free trial.