Set up a Snowflake connector

C1 provides identity governance for Snowflake. Integrate your Snowflake instance with C1 to run user access reviews (UARs) and enable just-in-time access requests.

This is an updated and improved version of the Snowflake connector! If you’re setting up Snowflake with C1 for the first time, you’re in the right place.

Capabilities

Resource	Sync	Provision
Accounts
Account roles
Databases
Tables
Integrations
Secrets
RSA Public Keys

The Snowflake connector supports account provisioning.

This connector can sync secrets and display them on the Inventory page.

Gather Snowflake credentials

Configuring the connector requires you to pass in credentials generated in Snowflake. Gather these credentials before you move on.

For best results, use a dedicated service account. C1 will use the DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE, DEFAULT_NAMESPACE, and DEFAULT_ROLE properties of the user used for the integration. For this reason, we recommend creating a dedicated service account in Snowflake for integrating with C1 with these default user properties.

Give the service account the MONITOR USAGE and MANAGE GRANTS global permissions for the default warehouse and namespace, plus the MONITOR privilege on each user secret and database.

Generate a private key and set the public key on a Snowflake user

1. Generate an unencrypted private key in PEM format by running the following command:

   openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -out rsa_key.p8 -nocrypt
   
2. Next, use the private key to generate the public key. Run the following command:

   openssl rsa -in rsa_key.p8 -pubout -out rsa_key.pub
   
3. To enable public key authentication for a Snowflake user, execute the following ALTER USER command. A user with the ACCOUNTADMIN role must perform this operation:

   ALTER USER <SNOWFLAKEUSER> SET RSA_PUBLIC_KEY='MIIBIj...';
   

   Tip: When setting the RSA_PUBLIC_KEY, extract the key content between the -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- and -----END PUBLIC KEY----- lines from your public key file. Do not include the header or footer. The key should be a single continuous string.

4. Carefully save the private key.

Look up your account identifier

1. Find your account identifier by navigating in the Snowflake console to your account, selecting your user, and finding the alphanumeric code listed under Locator.

Done. Next, move on to the connector configuration instructions.

Configure the Snowflake connector

To complete this task, you’ll need:

• The Connector Administrator or Super Administrator role in C1
• Access to the set of Snowflake credentials generated by following the instructions above

Cloud-hosted

Follow these instructions to use a built-in, no-code connector hosted by C1.

1. In C1, navigate to Integrations > Connectors and click Add connector.

2. Search for Snowflake v2 and click Add.

3. Choose how to set up the new Snowflake connector:

   • Add the connector to a currently unmanaged app (select from the list of apps that were discovered in your identity, SSO, or federation provider that aren’t yet managed with C1)

   • Add the connector to a managed app (select from the list of existing managed apps)

   • Create a new managed app

4. Set the owner for this connector. You can manage the connector yourself, or choose someone else from the list of C1 users. Setting multiple owners is allowed.

   If you choose someone else, C1 will notify the new connector owner by email that their help is needed to complete the setup process.

5. Click Next.

6. Find the Settings area of the page and click Edit.

7. In the Account URL field, enter the full URL of your Snowflake instance.

8. In the Account ID / Locator field, enter your Snowflake account identifier.

9. In the Username field, enter your Snowflake username.

10. In the RSA Private Key (PEM Format) field, upload the private key file.

11. Optional. Enable Sync secrets to display them on the Inventory page.

12. Optional. In the Excluded Databases field, enter the names of any Snowflake databases you want to skip during sync. You can add multiple names. Matching is case-insensitive. Excluded databases and all their tables are omitted from every sync.

13. Click Save.

14. The connector’s label changes to Syncing, followed by Connected. You can view the logs to ensure that information is syncing.

Done. Your Snowflake connector is now pulling access data into C1.

Self-hosted

Follow these instructions to use the Snowflake connector, hosted and run in your own environment.

When running in service mode on Kubernetes, a self-hosted connector maintains an ongoing connection with C1, automatically syncing and uploading data at regular intervals. This data is immediately available in the C1 UI for access reviews and access requests.

Resources

• GitHub repository: Access the source code, report issues, or contribute to the project.

Step 1: Set up a new Snowflake connector

1. In C1, navigate to Integrations > Connectors > Add connector.

2. Search for Baton and click Add.

3. Choose how to set up the new Snowflake connector:

   • Add the connector to a currently unmanaged app (select from the list of apps that were discovered in your identity, SSO, or federation provider that aren’t yet managed with C1)

   • Add the connector to a managed app (select from the list of existing managed apps)

   • Create a new managed app

4. Set the owner for this connector. You can manage the connector yourself, or choose someone else from the list of C1 users. Setting multiple owners is allowed.

   If you choose someone else, C1 will notify the new connector owner by email that their help is needed to complete the setup process.

5. Click Next.

6. In the Settings area of the page, click Edit.

7. Click Rotate to generate a new Client ID and Secret.

   Carefully copy and save these credentials. We’ll use them in Step 2.

Step 2: Create Kubernetes configuration files

Create two Kubernetes manifest files for your Snowflake connector deployment:

Secrets configuration

# baton-snowflake-secrets.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: baton-snowflake-secrets
type: Opaque
stringData:
  # C1 credentials
  BATON_CLIENT_ID: <C1 client ID>
  BATON_CLIENT_SECRET: <C1 client secret>
  
  # Snowflake credentials
  BATON_ACCOUNT_IDENTIFIER: <Snowflake account identifier>
  BATON_ACCOUNT_URL: <Snowflake account URL>
  BATON_USER_IDENTIFIER: <Snowflake username>
  BATON_PRIVATE_KEY: <PEM-encoded private key content>

  # Optional: include if you want C1 to provision access using this connector
  BATON_PROVISIONING: true

  # Optional: comma-separated list of database names to exclude from sync (case-insensitive)
  # BATON_EXCLUDED_DATABASES: "MY_DB,ANOTHER_DB"

See the connector’s README or run --help to see all available configuration flags and environment variables.

Deployment configuration

# baton-snowflake.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: baton-snowflake
  labels:
    app: baton-snowflake
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: baton-snowflake
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: baton-snowflake
        baton: true
        baton-app: snowflake
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: baton-snowflake
        image: public.ecr.aws/conductorone/baton-snowflake:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: BATON_HOST_ID
          value: baton-snowflake
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: baton-snowflake-secrets

Step 3: Deploy the connector

1. Create a namespace in which to run C1 connectors (if desired), then apply the secret config and deployment config files.

2. Check that the connector data uploaded correctly. In C1, click Apps. On the Managed apps tab, locate and click the name of the application you added the Snowflake connector to. Snowflake data should be found on the Entitlements and Accounts tabs.

Done. Your Snowflake connector is now pulling access data into C1.

Troubleshooting the Snowflake v2 connector

4xx errors

If you’re seeing a 422 unprocessable entity or 401 unauthorized error in the logs, make sure that your service account has the DEFAULT_WAREHOUSEproperty, and that you’ve correctly looked up your Snowflake account identifier.

Connector fails when Snowflake IP allowlisting is enabled

If your Snowflake account has a network policy configured that restricts access by IP address, you must add C1’s egress IP addresses to the allowlist. Otherwise, Snowflake will reject connections from the connector.

For cloud-hosted connectors, C1 manages the connector infrastructure. Add C1’s connector egress IPs to your Snowflake network policy. See C1 egress IP addresses for the current list.

For self-hosted connectors, the connector runs on your own infrastructure, so you should add the outbound IP addresses of your own environment instead.

User fields (LOGIN, DISPLAY_NAME, etc.) are empty in synced data

If user records are syncing but fields such as LOGIN, DISPLAY_NAME, and others are empty, with no other errors, checking the following:

• Ensure that the service account has a role granted. If the service account has a default role set, but no roles granted, user data will not sync correctly. Grant the default role to the service account to resolve this issue.

• Ensure the MANAGE GRANTS privilege is granted directly to the service account user (not inherited via a role). Use the following steps to grant the privilege directly:

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
GRANT MANAGE GRANTS ON ACCOUNT TO USER <SERVICE ACCOUNT>;