Connect to Snowflake Data from HeidiSQL


Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to and query live Snowflake data from HeidiSQL.

HeidiSQL is an open-source database administration tool that natively supports MariaDB, MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, HediSQL reach extends to include access to live Snowflake data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Snowflake using Connect Cloud and query Snowflake data in HeidiSQL.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Snowflake, allowing you to query data from Snowflake without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Snowflake, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Snowflake data quickly.

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


Configure Snowflake Connectivity for HeidiSQL

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

  1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Select "Snowflake" from the Add Connection panel
  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.

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

  4. Click Create & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Snowflake Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect Cloud through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect Cloud. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect Cloud app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Snowflake data from HeidiSQL.

Connect to Snowflake from HeidiSQL using Connect Cloud

To establish a connection from HeidiSQL to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

Create a new HeidiSQL Session

  1. In the Session Manager, select New in the bottom-left
  2. Give the new session a descriptive name, e.g. Connect-Cloud-Snowflake

Configure a SQL Server Connection to Connect Cloud

  1. In the session settings, set the Network type to Microsoft SQL Server (TCP/IP)
  2. The Library DLL should automatically update to MSOLEDBSQL
  3. Set the Hostname/IP to tds.cdata.com
  4. Set the User to your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected]
  5. Set the Password to your PAT created in Connect Cloud in the previous section.
  6. Set the Port to 14333

Query Snowflake from HeidiSQL

  1. In the database listing on the left, find your connection to Snowflake configured earlier.
  2. Expand this connection to view individual tables or data objects present within Snowflake.
  3. Write custom SQL queries targeting these tables, treating the data source like any SQL Server database, or visually explore each tabular data set by selecting the relevant tables

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect Cloud today!

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