Set up Openflow - Snowflake Deployment: Create the execute-as role and external access integrations¶

Openflow - Snowflake Deployment runtimes need a few supporting resources before they can access your data:

• An execute-as role that flows use to access Snowflake objects
• Network rules and external access integrations (EAI) that let the runtime reach external data sources

This topic describes the creation of these resources.

1. Create an execute-as role and grant it the privileges needed to write data to Snowflake.
2. Associate the execute-as role with the runtime.
3. Create external access integrations and associate them with the runtime. See Creating network rules and external access integrations.
4. Configure outbound PrivateLink if required to connect to a private system using SPCS egress.

Create the execute-as role¶

When creating an Openflow runtime, you associate a role with it. Flows that run within the runtime execute as this role, so it’s called the execute-as role. You can reuse the same execute-as role across multiple runtimes. For more information, see What is an execute-as role?.

Creating the role is a prerequisite for creating a runtime:

1. Create the role.

   Note

   <RUNTIME_NAME> denotes the name of the associated runtime.

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   USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
   
   CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EXECUTE_AS_RL;
   
   GRANT ROLE OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EXECUTE_AS_RL TO ROLE OPENFLOW_ADMIN;
   

2. Allow the execute-as role to use an existing warehouse that you plan to use for data ingestion. Use this warehouse later when configuring your connectors for runtimes where you use this execute-as role.

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   GRANT USAGE, OPERATE ON WAREHOUSE <OPENFLOW_INGEST_WAREHOUSE> TO ROLE OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EXECUTE_AS_RL;
   

3. Allow the execute-as role to use, create, or otherwise access Snowflake objects.

   Note

   Depending on the Openflow connector being created, the required underlying objects vary. The example below is for illustration purposes only.

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   GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE <openflow_db> TO ROLE OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EXECUTE_AS_RL;
   GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <openflow_schema> TO ROLE OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EXECUTE_AS_RL;
   

Creating network rules and external access integrations¶

The following steps apply to both gen 1 and gen 2 Snowflake deployments. Both generations require network rules and EAIs so the runtime can reach external data sources.

Snowflake’s security model provides secure access to specific endpoints and systems external to Snowflake using network policies.

Two key aspects of network policies are Network rules and External Access Integrations (EAI). Each of which is used to provide secure access to external resources required by the runtime.

There are three steps that are required to create network rules and external access integrations:

1. Create the network rule, grouping the network identifiers into logical areas.
2. Create the external access integration (EAI), specifying the list of network rules and ensuring the execute-as role has USAGE on the EAI.
3. Associate the EAI with the Runtime in the Openflow UI when creating Runtimes.

To create the required network rule and EAI, perform the following steps:

1. Create an appropriate network rule. See CREATE NETWORK RULE for more information.

   Note

   Snowflake recommends creating network rules in the same infrastructure schema (openflow_db.openflow_schema) you’ve been using for Openflow objects, so that everything is in one place. An EAI is an account-level object, so it has no database or schema; a network rule is a schema-level object. Where you keep the network rule is your choice as long as the execute-as role has access to the EAI, but using the infrastructure schema keeps things simple and consistent.

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   USE DATABASE <openflow_db>;
   USE SCHEMA <openflow_schema>;
   
   CREATE NETWORK RULE IF NOT EXISTS OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_NETWORK_RULE
    MODE = EGRESS
    TYPE = HOST_PORT
    VALUE_LIST = ('comma separated list of host:port pairs');
   

2. Create an external access integration, or add the network rule to an existing one. See CREATE EXTERNAL ACCESS INTEGRATION for more information.

   To create a new EAI:

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   USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
   
   CREATE EXTERNAL ACCESS INTEGRATION IF NOT EXISTS OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EAI
   ALLOWED_NETWORK_RULES = (OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_NETWORK_RULE)
   ENABLED = TRUE;
   

   To add the network rule to an existing EAI, first check which rules are already associated with it, then update the EAI to include both the existing and new rules:

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   USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
   
   -- Check the current rules on the EAI
   DESCRIBE EXTERNAL ACCESS INTEGRATION OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EAI;
   

   In the output, find the ALLOWED_NETWORK_RULES property and note the existing rules. Then update the EAI, listing all existing rules along with the new one:

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   ALTER EXTERNAL ACCESS INTEGRATION OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EAI
   SET ALLOWED_NETWORK_RULES = (
      <EXISTING_RULE_1>,
      <EXISTING_RULE_2>,
      OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_NETWORK_RULE
   );
   

3. Grant access to the EAI to the previously created execute-as role.

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   GRANT USAGE ON INTEGRATION OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EAI TO ROLE OPENFLOW_<RUNTIME_NAME>_EXECUTE_AS_RL;
   

Next steps¶

Create runtime