Replicate Multiple Snowflake Accounts via the CData Sync CLI

CData Sync for Snowflake is a stand-alone application that provides solutions for a variety of replication scenarios such as replicating sandbox and production instances into your database. Both Sync for Windows and Sync for Java include a command-line interface (CLI) that makes it easy to manage multiple Snowflake connections. In this article we show how to use the CLI to replicate multiple Snowflake accounts.

Getting Started

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Configure Snowflake Connections

You can save connection and email notification settings in an XML configuration file. To replicate multiple Snowflake accounts, use multiple configuration files. Below is an example configuration to replicate Snowflake to SQLite:

Windows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CDataSync>
 <DatabaseType>SQLite</DatabaseType>
 <DatabaseProvider>System.Data.SQLite</DatabaseProvider>
 <ConnectionString>Authscheme=Password;URL=https://myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com;User=Admin;Password=test123;Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Warehouse=TestWarehouse;Account=Tester1;MFACode=YourMFACode</ConnectionString>
 <ReplicateAll>False</ReplicateAll>
 <NotificationUserName></NotificationUserName>
 <DatabaseConnectionString>Data Source=C:\my.db</DatabaseConnectionString>
 <TaskSchedulerStartTime>09:51</TaskSchedulerStartTime>
 <TaskSchedulerInterval>Never</TaskSchedulerInterval>
</CDataSync>

Java

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CDataSync>
<DatabaseType>SQLite</DatabaseType>
 <DatabaseProvider>org.sqlite.JDBC</DatabaseProvider>
 <ConnectionString>Authscheme=Password;URL=https://myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com;User=Admin;Password=test123;Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Warehouse=TestWarehouse;Account=Tester1;MFACode=YourMFACode</ConnectionString>
 <ReplicateAll>False</ReplicateAll>
 <NotificationUserName></NotificationUserName>
 <DatabaseConnectionString>Data Source=C:\my.db</DatabaseConnectionString>
</CDataSync>

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.

Configure Queries for Each Snowflake Instance

Sync enables you to control replication with standard SQL. The REPLICATE statement is a high-level command that caches and maintains a table in your database. You can define any SELECT query supported by the Snowflake API. The statement below caches and incrementally updates a table of Snowflake data:

REPLICATE Products;

You can specify a file containing the replication queries you want to use to update a particular database. Separate replication statements with semicolons. The following options are useful if you are replicating multiple Snowflake accounts into the same database:

You can use a different table prefix in the REPLICATE SELECT statement:

REPLICATE PROD_Products SELECT * FROM Products 

Alternatively, you can use a different schema:

REPLICATE PROD.Products SELECT * FROM Products

Run Sync

After you have configured the connection strings and replication queries, you can run Sync with the following command-line options:

Windows

SnowflakeSync.exe -g MyProductionSnowflakeConfig.xml -f MyProductionSnowflakeSync.sql

Java

java -Xbootclasspath/p:c:\sqlitejdbc.jar -jar SnowflakeSync.jar -g MyProductionSnowflakeConfig.xml -f MyProductionSnowflakeSync.sql