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Snowflake Secure Data Sharing

Important: This feature is currently available in BETA.

This guide explains how to share a database and its objects with one or more accounts by creating a share. Currently, Keboola supports granting privileges directly to a share, specifically for tables, external tables, views, secure views, and secure materialized views. For further reference, consult the Snowflake documentation.

The process involves two roles:

  • Producer: The Snowflake account that owns and shares the data.
  • Consumer: The Snowflake account that accesses the shared data. This account must be used in Keboola as BYODB.

Producer Workflow

As the producer, your role involves creating the share, adding the necessary database objects, and granting access to consumer accounts. Follow these steps to configure the share:

Create a Share

Use CREATE SHARE to set up a share. Initially, the share is an empty container waiting for objects and accounts to be added.

CREATE SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;

Add Objects to the Share by Granting Privileges

Grant privileges using GRANT <privilege> ... TO SHARE. You need to provide:

  • USAGE privilege on the database to be shared.
  • USAGE privilege on each database schema containing the objects to be shared.
  • SELECT privilege for specific objects in the shared schema, such as:
    • Tables
    • External tables
    • Secure views
    • Secure materialized views

Example:

GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE <DATABASE_NAME> TO SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <DATABASE_NAME>.<SCHEMA_NAME> TO SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN DATABASE <DATABASE_NAME> TO SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA <DATABASE_NAME>.<SCHEMA_NAME> TO SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;
GRANT SELECT ON TABLE <DATABASE_NAME>.<SCHEMA_NAME>.<TABLE_NAME> TO SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;

To review object grants, use:

SHOW GRANTS TO SHARE <SHARE_NAME>;

Add Accounts to the Share

Add one or more accounts to the share using ALTER SHARE. To verify, use SHOW SHARES.

ALTER SHARE <SHARE_NAME> ADD ACCOUNTS=<ACCOUNT_NAME>;

SHOW SHARES;

The share is now ready for consumption by the specified accounts. For detailed guidance, refer to Create and configure shares.

Consumer Workflow

To use the shared data, follow these steps to create and configure a database from the provided share. Refer to the Snowflake documentation for more information.

Role Requirements

To perform these tasks, use the ACCOUNTADMIN role or a role with the IMPORT SHARE global privilege. For more details, see Enable non-ACCOUNTADMIN roles to perform data sharing tasks.

Limitations of Imported Databases

Imported databases have the following restrictions:

  • Read-only: Consumers can query data but cannot modify it or create new objects.
  • Unsupported actions include:
    • Cloning imported databases, schemas, or tables.
    • Using Time Travel for imported databases or their objects.
    • Editing comments for imported databases.
  • They cannot be:
    • Re-shared with other accounts.
    • Replicated.

Viewing Available Shares

Use the web interface or SQL to view available shares:

SHOW SHARES;

DESC SHARE <PRODUCER_ACCOUNT>.<SHARE_NAME>;

Create a Database from a Share

To consume shared data, create a database from the share:

CREATE DATABASE <CONSUMER_DATABASE_NAME> FROM SHARE <PRODUCER_ACCOUNT>.<SHARE_NAME>;

Granting Privileges on an Imported Database

Keboola currently supports only shares with direct access to database objects. Shares with roles are not supported.

To allow users to access shared objects, grant the IMPORTED PRIVILEGES privilege on the imported database to one or more roles in your account. A role can grant IMPORTED PRIVILEGES only if it:

  • Owns the imported database (i.e., has the OWNERSHIP privilege).
  • Has been granted the MANAGE GRANTS global privilege.

Example:

GRANT IMPORTED PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <CONSUMER_DATABASE_NAME> TO <KEBOOLA_PROJECT_ROLE>;

Limitations

While sharing data can greatly enhance collaboration, certain object types and policies are not supported. Please keep the following limitations in mind:

  • Supported objects exclude secure user-defined functions (UDFs) and Apache Iceberg™ tables.
  • Masking policies will not be applied after sharing with other Keboola projects.

Final Step

You can now register the schema in the newly created database as an external dataset in Keboola, enabling seamless data integration. Use <CONSUMER_DATABASE_NAME> as the database name and the schema present in this database. When registering, don’t forget to check the Secure Data Share checkbox.