Client versions & support policy

Snowflake provides a CLI (command line interface) as well as other client software (drivers, connectors, etc.) for connecting to Snowflake and using certain Snowflake features (e.g. Apache Kafka for loading data, Apache Hive metadata for external tables). The clients must be installed on each local workstation or system from which you wish to connect.

As needed, we release new versions of the clients to fix bugs, and introduce enhancements and new features. New versions are backward-compatible with existing Snowflake features, but we do not guarantee that earlier versions are forward-compatible. As such, we recommend actively monitoring and maintaining the versions of your installed clients; if they are not in-sync with the current version of Snowflake, you may encounter issues when connecting to and using Snowflake.

For more information about determining the current version of a client or driver, refer to the following:

All downloads on this page are considered “Client Software” as defined in your agreement for use of the Snowflake Service.

Attention

Customers who use GCP (Google Cloud Platform) for authentication must update their clients and drivers to new minimum versions due to upcoming changes by Google for signing request headers and payloads. Snowflake recommends affected customers read the FAQ: 2023 Client Driver deprecation for GCP customers knowledge base article for more information.

Minimum client versions

The minimum version for a client identifies the earliest supported version of the client. Any client versions lower than the documented minimum are no longer covered by our support policy (see below) and may encounter issues when connecting to Snowflake.

Attention

As stated in the Client Support Policy, Snowflake fixes issues on the latest client versions only. As such, the minimum versions might contain issues that have been fixed in later versions. Therefore, you should not install the minimum versions.

The versions documented in the table above serve only as guidelines for managing your installed clients relative to the support policy.

Client support policy

Snowflake maintains the following support policy for all clients provided by Snowflake:

  • For all clients listed on this page, Snowflake generally supports each client version for at least two years, except in cases where a more recent version introduces critical fixes (e.g. for security or performance issues).

    Client versions that are below the minimum supported version might be blocked from connecting to Snowflake. Note that Snowflake will provide advance notification before blocking access for a particular client version.

  • Unsupported versions might be removed from distribution (i.e. they may no longer be available for download/install).

  • Snowflake provides bug fixes, new features, and required security updates only on the latest client versions. Likewise, when troubleshooting client issues, Snowflake verifies only against the latest client versions only.

  • Snowflake ensures backward compatibility for APIs across all supported client versions.

  • For critical/important client changes (e.g. required security updates), Snowflake may require you to upgrade to the latest version, or at least a version higher than the minimum version (see the table in this topic).

Note

This policy does not cover client connectors provided by third-party partners (Informatica, Tableau, etc.); please consult directly with the partners providing the connectors for information about their support policies.

For more details about Snowflake’s third-party partners, see Snowflake Ecosystem.

Operating system support

The latest versions of most Snowflake clients are supported on the following operating systems:

Operating System

Supported Versions

AIX

AIX 7.2 (JDBC only)

Linux

CentOS 7, 8

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, 8

Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04 or later

macOS

10.14 or later

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows 8 or later

Microsoft Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022

Note

The supported version numbers change over time, based largely on the evolving support policies of the operating system vendors.

The following table shows which clients are available on which operating systems:

Linux

macOS

Microsoft Windows

Notes

.NET Driver

✔

✔

✔

Go Snowflake Driver

✔

✔

✔

Node.js Driver

✔

✔

✔

JDBC Driver

✔

✔

✔

ODBC Driver

✔

✔

✔

Linux support is based on the architecture, as follows:

  • x86:

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7

    • CentOS 7

    • Ubuntu versions 16.04 and 18.04

  • ARM64 (aarch64)

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8

    • CentOS 8

    • Ubuntu 20.04

Additionally, ODBC supports macOS 11.0 and later.

PHP PDO Driver

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake Connector for Kafka

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake Connector for Python

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake Connector for Spark

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake Library for Java

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake Library for Python

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake Library for Scala

✔

✔

✔

Snowflake ML

✔

✔

✔

Operating system support policy

Snowflake typically obsoletes support for an operating system version in accordance with the support timeline stated by the operating system vendor.

Snowflake typically provides three months’ notice before dropping support for a particular version of an operating system.

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