Using Liquibase with Snowflake

Snowflake enables data storage, processing, and analytic solutions and runs on the cloud infrastructure. Snowflake is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) that offers:

  • No hardware (virtual or physical) to select, install, configure, or manage.
  • Virtually no software to install, configure, or manage.
  • Ongoing maintenance, management, upgrades, and tuning handled by Snowflake.

For more information, see the Snowflake documentation page.

Supported versions

  • 6.X
  • 5.X
  • 4.X
  • 3.5

Prerequisites

Install drivers

To use Liquibase and Snowflake, you need the JDBC driver JAR file (Maven download). If you use Liquibase 4.11.0 or earlier, you also need the Liquibase extension for Snowflake.

The latest version of Liquibase has a pre-installed driver for this database in the liquibase/internal/lib directory. Read more: Adding and Updating Liquibase Drivers.

If you use Maven, you must include the driver JAR as a dependency in your pom.xml file. Read more: Configuring Liquibase Attributes in your Maven POM File.

<dependency>
    <groupId>net.snowflake</groupId>
    <artifactId>snowflake-jdbc</artifactId>
    <version>3.13.21</version>
</dependency>

If you use Liquibase 4.11.0 or earlier:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.liquibase.ext</groupId>
    <artifactId>liquibase-snowflake</artifactId>
    <version>4.11.0</version>
</dependency>

If you use Oracle Java and need to encrypt stage files using 256-bit keys, install the JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files for Oracle Java. After you download the zip file, which contains a README.txt file and two JAR files, put the two JAR files in the jre/lib/security subdirectory of your Java installation.

Note: The JDBC driver uses the AES specification to encrypt files uploaded to Snowflake stages. The JDBC driver automatically encrypts staged files using 128-bit keys. However, to use 256-bit keys instead of the default 128-bit keys for encryption of staged files, follow the Java Requirements for JDBC Driver documentation.

Test your connection

  1. Ensure your Snowflake database is configured.
    1.  To validate that Snowflake is available, you can use the SnowSQL CLI tool and run connect. You can also log into the Snowflake console in your browser to validate that the instance is running. The browser link is different for each Snowflake instance, but the format is: https://<cloudHostName>.snowflakecomputing.com. You will receive an email with the link when the database is ready for use.
    2. Grant schema permissions for all SQL statements you intend to use in your Liquibase changelogs, such as CREATE TABLE if you want to create a new table.
  2. Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard JDBC format:
  3. url: jdbc:snowflake://<account_ID>.snowflakecomputing.com/?<connection_params>

    Note: The account ID is the host name for your Snowflake instance. Snowflake sends an email with the URL to the host. The JDBC driver only needs the hostname, not the full URL: tn12345.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.com.

    Example: Depending on the cloud provider you select during the database creation, your domain name will be different. The example is for an AWS cloud instance: jdbc:snowflake://tn12345.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.com/?db=lbcat&schema=public.

    Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>

  1. Create a text file called changelog (.xml, .sql, .json, or .yaml) in your project directory and add a changeset.
  2. Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:
  3. liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

    Note: You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.

  4. Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.
  5. liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
    liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
  6. From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the test_table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

Related links