Using Password Authentication

Before you start

To connect Snowflake to Select Star, you will need:

• Admin access to your Snowflake instance via the ACCOUNTADMIN role.

Complete the following steps to enable metadata, lineage, and popularity for your Snowflake data in Select Star.

1. Create a Select Star role and user in Snowflake

2. Grant optional permissions

3. Connect Snowflake to Select Star

4. Choose databases and schemas

1. Create Select Star user in Snowflake

Log in to Snowflake. Using the ACCOUNTADMIN role, execute the following SQL:

-- Required for basic metadata & query history access
create role selectstar_role;
grant imported privileges on database snowflake to role selectstar_role;
create user selectstar password='s313ctst8r' default_role='selectstar_role' type='LEGACY_SERVICE';
grant role selectstar_role to user selectstar;
grant usage on warehouse MED to selectstar_role;

These are the minimum permissions required for Select Star to collect basic metadata and query history. Query history is also used to generate lineage.

2. Grant optional permissions

To enable Select Star’s Preview feature and access additional metadata—such as Primary Keys (PK) and Foreign Keys (FK) —you’ll need to grant the following permissions.

Using the ACCOUNTADMIN role, execute the following SQL for each database you want to ingest (example uses DWH as the database name):

use role ACCOUNTADMIN;
grant usage on database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant usage on all schemas in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant select on all tables in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant select on all views in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant usage on future schemas in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant select on future tables in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant select on future views in database DWH to role selectstar_role;

If the latency of updates in ACCOUNT_USAGE is too high for your needs (see Snowflake documentation on data latency), you can switch to INFORMATION_SCHEMA instead, providing faster updates in the UI.

Enhanced Lineage for Dynamic Tables

To see lineage for dynamic tables, we recommend granting permission to read dynamic table definitions. Without this, lineage can only be inferred from query logs, which may not be fully reliable.

Using the ACCOUNTADMIN role, execute the following SQL for each database you want to ingest (example uses DWH as the database name):

use role ACCOUNTADMIN;
grant usage on database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant usage on all schemas in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant monitor on all dynamic tables in database DWH to role selectstar_role;
grant monitor on future dynamic tables in database DWH to role selectstar_role;

If you're granting these permissions after your Snowflake metadata has already been synced, you'll need to re-sync it.

1. Go to Settings > Data

2. Click on Sync metadata on your Snowflake Data source.

3. Connect Snowflake to Select Star

Go to the Select Star Settings. Click Data in the sidebar, then + Add to create a new Data Source.

Choose Snowflake in the Source Type dropdown and provide the following information:

• Display Name: This value is Snowflake by default, but you can override it if desired.

• Account: The account name is the name to the left of snowflakecomputing.com when you log in to Snowflake.

• Role: The role you granted the service account user. In the example above, it is selectstar_role

• Warehouse: The name of the data warehouse you've given us access to. In the example above it is MED

Click Save and fill in the Authentication Details:

• Authentication: Select Password.

• Username: The name of the service account user you created. In the example above, it is selectstar

• Password: The password for the service account user you created. In the example above, it is s313ctst8r

4. Choose databases and schemas

After you fill in the information, you'll be asked to select the databases you'd like to load into Select Star.

Select Star will not read queries or metadata or generate lineage for databases, schemas, or tables that are not loaded. Please load all data for which you expect to see lineage.

You can change the databases and schemas you have loaded if needed.

Select the database and click Next.

For each database you selected, you'll be able to select the schemas.

Your metadata should start loading automatically. Please allow 24-48 hours to completely generate popularity and lineage.

When the sync is complete, you'll be able to explore Snowflake in Select Star. See the link below for more information on Snowflake in Select Star.

Getting Started: Snowflake