Snowflake

The Snowflake destination exports logs, metrics, and traces from a Bindplane pipeline to Snowflake, a cloud data warehouse. The exporter authenticates with a Snowflake user and writes telemetry into tables under a database, schema, and warehouse you specify. Databases, schemas, and tables are created automatically if they do not already exist, provided the configured user has the required privileges.

Supported Telemetry Types

Metrics	Logs	Traces
✓	✓	✓

Prerequisites

You need the following on the Snowflake side before configuring this destination:

• A Snowflake account, identified by its account identifier.
• A Snowflake warehouse to run the writes against.
• A user and role for the collector to authenticate as. The role needs USAGE on the warehouse, CREATE DATABASE on the account (so the destination can create the configured database, schemas, and tables), or the equivalent privileges on a pre-created database. See Granting Snowflake Privileges in the exporter documentation.

A minimal grant against one of Snowflake's default roles (SYSADMIN) looks like the following. Run these with a role that can grant privileges and create users, such as ACCOUNTADMIN, replacing the warehouse and user values with your own:

-- Allow the role to use the warehouse and create databases
GRANT USAGE ON WAREHOUSE "TEST" TO ROLE "SYSADMIN";
GRANT CREATE DATABASE ON ACCOUNT TO ROLE "SYSADMIN";

-- Create the collector user and assign the role
CREATE USER BP_AGENT PASSWORD="password" LOGIN_NAME="BP_AGENT" DEFAULT_ROLE="SYSADMIN";
GRANT ROLE "SYSADMIN" TO USER BP_AGENT;

If the collector user's default role does not hold these privileges, set the Role parameter so the exporter assumes one that does. For alternative grant approaches, see the exporter's alternatives section.

Configuration

Account Information

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Choose Telemetry Type	Telemetry Selector	Yes	Logs, Metrics, Traces	Which signals to export to Snowflake. Controls which of the schema and table parameters below apply.
Account Identifier	String	Yes	(empty)	The account identifier for the Snowflake account that data is sent to.
Warehouse	String	Yes	(empty)	The Snowflake warehouse that telemetry data is stored in.
Username	String	Yes	(empty)	Username the exporter uses to authenticate with Snowflake.
Password	String (sensitive)	Yes	(empty)	Password the exporter uses to authenticate with Snowflake.
Database	String	Yes	otlp	The Snowflake database that telemetry schemas are stored in. Created if it does not exist.

Logs

Applies when Logs is selected.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Log Schema	String	No	logs	The schema the log table is stored in. Created if it does not exist.
Log Table	String	No	data	The table logs are stored in. Created if it does not exist.

Metrics

Applies when Metrics is selected.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Metric Schema	String	No	metrics	The schema metric tables are stored in. Created if it does not exist.
Metric Table	String	No	data	The prefix used for metric tables. Tables are created if they do not exist. See the exporter metrics documentation.

Traces

Applies when Traces is selected.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Trace Schema	String	No	traces	The schema the trace table is stored in. Created if it does not exist.
Trace Table	String	No	data	The table traces are stored in. Created if it does not exist.

Advanced

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Role	String	No	(empty)	The role the exporter should use. Required if the default role of the provided credentials does not have the correct privileges.
Parameters	Map	No	(empty)	Additional optional parameters the exporter uses when connecting to Snowflake. Generally not required.
Drop Raw Copy	Boolean	No	true	When enabled, the raw copy of the log stored in log.record.original is dropped before export. Logs only.

Retry on Failure

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Retry on Failure	Boolean	No	true	Attempt to resend telemetry data that failed to transmit to the destination.
Initial interval	Integer	No	5	Time (in seconds) to wait after the first failure before retrying. Applies when retry is enabled.
Max interval	Integer	No	30	Upper bound (in seconds) on backoff. Applies when retry is enabled.
Max elapsed time	Integer	No	300	Maximum time (in seconds) spent trying to send a batch before giving up, to avoid a never-ending retry loop. Applies when retry is enabled.

Sending Queue

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Sending Queue	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry data temporarily before sending to help ensure data is not lost during a temporary network outage.
Number of Consumers	Integer	No	10	Number of consumers that dequeue batches. Applies when the sending queue is enabled.
Queue Size	Integer	No	5000	Maximum number of batches kept in memory before dropping. Applies when the sending queue is enabled.
Enable Persistent Queuing	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry data to disk before sending to help ensure data is not lost during network outages or collector restarts. Applies when the sending queue is enabled.
Persistent Queue Storage	Extension	Yes	file_storage_persistent_queue	The storage extension used for the persistent queue. Applies when both the sending queue and persistent queuing are enabled. See persistent queue.

Examples

Send all three telemetry types to a Snowflake account using the default database, schema, and table names, with the sending queue, persistent queue, and retry on failure enabled. The database (otlp), schemas (logs, metrics, traces), and tables (data) are created automatically if they do not exist.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: snowflake
spec:
  type: snowflake
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
        - Metrics
        - Traces
    - name: account_id
      value: my_account_id
    - name: warehouse
      value: my_warehouse
    - name: username
      value: BP_AGENT
    - name: password
      value: my_password
    - name: database
      value: otlp
    - name: sending_queue_enabled
      value: true
    - name: persistent_queue_enabled
      value: true
    - name: retry_on_failure_enabled
      value: true

Configuration Tips

• Leave Database, the schema fields, and the table fields at their defaults to get telemetry flowing quickly. The exporter creates each resource on first write if the configured user has CREATE DATABASE (and the implied schema and table creation) privileges.
• Use Role when the collector user's default role lacks the required grants. This avoids granting broad privileges to the user's default role and lets the exporter assume a purpose-built role instead.
• Keep Drop Raw Copy enabled to avoid storing a duplicate, full copy of each log in log.record.original, which reduces table size and storage cost in Snowflake. Disable it only if you need the unmodified original record.
• Keep the persistent queue enabled so buffered telemetry survives collector restarts. The default storage extension writes to ${OIQ_OTEL_COLLECTOR_HOME}/storage.

Troubleshooting

Authentication or permission errors

Symptoms: the exporter logs authentication failures, or errors creating the database, schema, or table.

Solutions:

1. Verify the Account Identifier, Username, and Password are correct.
2. Confirm the user's role holds USAGE on the warehouse and CREATE DATABASE on the account, or the equivalent privileges on a pre-created database. See Granting Snowflake Privileges.
3. If the user's default role lacks these privileges, set the Role parameter to a role that has them.

Warehouse not found or suspended

Symptoms: writes fail with a warehouse error, or data does not appear in Snowflake.

Solutions:

1. Confirm the Warehouse name matches an existing warehouse exactly, including case where the warehouse was created with a quoted identifier.
2. Ensure the configured role has USAGE on that warehouse and that the warehouse is able to resume to run the writes.

Telemetry is delayed or dropped under load

Symptoms: data lags behind, or the collector reports dropped batches.

Solutions:

1. Keep Enable Retry on Failure on so transient Snowflake or network errors are retried.
2. Keep Enable Sending Queue and Enable Persistent Queuing on so batches are buffered rather than dropped during outages or restarts.
3. If the in-memory queue fills, increase Queue Size or Number of Consumers to raise throughput.

Standalone Destination

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: snowflake
spec:
  type: snowflake
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
        - Metrics
        - Traces
    - name: account_id
      value: my_account_id
    - name: warehouse
      value: my_warehouse
    - name: username
      value: BP_AGENT
    - name: password
      value: my_password
    - name: database
      value: otlp

Related Resources

• Snowflake exporter (bindplane-otel-collector)
• Snowflake account identifiers
• Snowflake warehouses overview