Apache Iceberg™ tables: Metadata file naming convention change

Attention

This behavior change is in the 2024_05 bundle.

For the current status of the bundle, refer to Bundle History.

Snowflake names metadata files for new and existing Snowflake-managed Apache Iceberg™ tables as follows:

Before the change:

Snowflake uses a deterministic naming convention based on the table version.

For example: v1715886514322000000.metadata.json

After the change:

Snowflake uses a non-deterministic naming convention based on a universally unique identifier (UUID).

For example: 00001-8a14161c-65ad-45fc-b665-ec16dcbf647e.metadata.json

Snowflake doesn’t rename existing metadata files, but applies the new naming convention to new metadata files created when the table is updated.

Ref: 1645