Installing and configuring the ODBC Driver for Linux¶

Operating system¶

For a list of the operating systems supported by Snowflake clients, see Operating system support.

With ODBC version 3.0.1, the driver no longer supports CentOS 6 versions.

Driver manager: iODBC or unixODBC¶

A driver manager is required to manage communication between Snowflake and the ODBC driver. The driver supports using either iODBC or unixODBC as the driver manager.

1.1: Download and import the latest Snowflake public key¶

From the public keyserver, download and import the Snowflake GPG public key for the version of the ODBC driver that you are using:

• For version 3.5.0 and higher:

  $ gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 5A125630709DD64B

• For version 2.25.6 through 3.4.1:

  $ gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 630D9F3CAB551AF3

• For version 2.22.1 through 2.25.5:

  $ gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 37C7086698CB005C

• For version 2.18.2 through 2.22.0:

  $ gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys EC218558EABB25A1

• For version 2.18.1 and lower:

  $ gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 93DB296A69BE019A

1.2: Download the RPM or DEB driver package¶

Download the package from the Snowflake Client Repository. For details, see Downloading the ODBC Driver.

1.3: Verify the signature for the RPM or DEB driver package¶

1.4: Delete the old Snowflake public key — Optional¶

Your local environment can contain multiple GPG keys; however, for security reasons, Snowflake periodically rotates the public GPG key. As a best practice, we recommend deleting the existing public key after confirming that the latest key works with the latest signed package.

To delete the key:

$ gpg --delete-key "Snowflake Computing"

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Using yum to download and install the driver¶

With version 2.21.1 of the ODBC Driver (and later versions), you can use yum to download and install the driver.

To download and install the Snowflake ODBC driver for Linux using yum:

1. Create a file named /etc/yum.repos.d/snowflake-odbc.repo, and add the following text to the file:

   [snowflake-odbc]
   name=snowflake-odbc
   baseurl=https://sfc-repo.snowflakecomputing.com/odbc/linux/<VERSION_NUMBER>/
   gpgkey=https://sfc-repo.snowflakecomputing.com/odbc/Snowkey-<GPG_KEY_ID>-gpg
   

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   where VERSION_NUMBER is the specific version number of the driver (for example, 3.5.0) and GPG_KEY_ID is one of the following key IDs:

   ODBC Driver Version	GPG Key ID
   3.5.0 and higher	5A125630709DD64B
   2.25.6 through 3.4.1	630D9F3CAB551AF3
   2.22.1 through 2.25.5	37C7086698CB005C

   In the settings above, baseurl and gpgkey point to the Snowflake Client Repository on Amazon S3. If you want to use the mirror on Azure Blob instead, change the hostname to https://sfc-repo.azure.snowflakecomputing.com/:

   [snowflake-odbc]
   name=snowflake-odbc
   baseurl=https://sfc-repo.azure.snowflakecomputing.com/odbc/linux/<VERSION_NUMBER>/
   gpgkey=https://sfc-repo.azure.snowflakecomputing.com/odbc/Snowkey-<GPG_KEY_ID>-gpg
   

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2. Run the following command to install the driver:

   yum install snowflake-odbc
   

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Installing the TGZ file¶

To install the Snowflake ODBC driver for Linux using the TGZ file that you downloaded earlier.

1. Copy the downloaded file (snowflake_linux_x8664_odbc-version.tgz) to a working directory.

2. Unzip the file:

   $ gunzip snowflake_linux_x8664_odbc-<version>.tgz
   

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3. Extract the files from the .tar file:

   $ tar -xvf snowflake_linux_x8664_odbc-<version>.tar
   

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4. Copy the resulting snowflake_odbc folder to the directory where you want to install the driver. Make note of this directory. You’ll need the location later in the instructions.

Installing the RPM package¶

To install the Snowflake ODBC driver for Linux using the RPM package that you downloaded earlier, after optionally verifying the package signature, run the following command:

$ yum install snowflake-odbc-<version>.x86_64.rpm

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Installing the DEB package¶

To install the Snowflake ODBC driver for Linux using the DEB package that you downloaded earlier, after optionally verifying the package signature, run the following command:

$ sudo dpkg -i snowflake-odbc-<version>.x86_64.deb

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The command may fail if any required dependencies for the package manager are not installed. If that happens, install them now:

$ sudo apt-get install -f

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Configuring with iODBC¶

In a terminal window, change to the snowflake_odbc directory, and run the following command to install Snowflake ODBC:

$ ./iodbc_setup.sh

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This script completes the following steps:

• Adds one Snowflake connection to your system-level /etc/odbc.ini file.

• Adds the Snowflake driver information to your system-level /etc/odbcinst.ini file.

• Adds all certificate authority (CA) certificates required by the Snowflake ODBC driver to your system-level simba.snowflake.ini file.

By running iodbc_setup.sh, you don’t need to set any environment variables.

Alternatively, if you don’t want Snowflake to change your system configurations, add the following environment variables to your shell configuration file (e.g. .profile, .bash_profile):

• ODBCINI = <path>/conf/odbc.ini

• ODBCINSTINI = <path>/conf/odbcinst.ini

Where path is the location of the snowflake_odbc directory. If you have configured other ODBC drivers in your system and plan to add the Snowflake ODBC entries to your existing odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files in the next step, then point ODBCINI and ODBCINSTINI to the location of those files.

Configuring with unixODBC¶

In a terminal window, change to the snowflake_odbc directory, and run the following command to install Snowflake ODBC:

$ ./unixodbc_setup.sh

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This script completes the following steps:

• Adds a Snowflake connection to your system-level /etc/odbc.ini file.

• Adds the Snowflake driver information to your system-level /etc/odbcinst.ini file.

• Adds all certificate authority (CA) certificates required by the Snowflake ODBC driver to your system-level simba.snowflake.ini file.

By running unixodbc_setup.sh, you don’t need to set any environment variables.

Alternatively, if you don’t want Snowflake change your system configurations, add the following environment variables to your shell configuration file, e.g. .profile, .bash_profile:

• ODBCSYSINI = <path>/conf/

Where path is the location of the snowflake_odbc directory. If you have configured other ODBC drivers in your system and plan to add the Snowflake ODBC entries to your existing odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files in the next step, then point ODBCSYSINI to the location of those files.

4.1: simba.snowflake.ini file (driver manager and logging)¶

Add the following entries to the simba.snowflake.ini file:

ErrorMessagesPath=<path>/ErrorMessages/
LogPath=/tmp/
ODBCInstLib=<driver_manager_path>
CABundleFile=<path>/lib/cacert.pem
ANSIENCODING=UTF-8

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Where:

• path is the location of the snowflake_odbc directory.

• driver_manager_path is the location of your driver manager directory:

  • iODBC: ODBCInstLib=libiodbcinst.so.2

  • unixODBC: ODBCInstLib=libodbcinst.so

  Note

  If your driver manager directory is not included in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, specify the full path to the driver manager library here.

Verify that you have write permissions on the log path.

The ANSIENCODING parameter specifies the application’s character encoding. The default is UTF-8. The parameter is intended for use only by Snowflake; customers should not change the value.

4.2: odbcinst.ini file (driver registration)¶

Add the following entries to the odbcinst.ini file:

[ODBC Drivers]
SnowflakeDSIIDriver=Installed

[SnowflakeDSIIDriver]
APILevel=1
ConnectFunctions=YYY
Description=Snowflake DSII
Driver=/<path>/lib/libSnowflake.so
DriverODBCVer=03.52
SQLLevel=1

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Where path is the location of the snowflake_odbc directory.

4.3: odbc.ini file (DSN entries)¶

For each DSN, add the following entries to the odbc.ini file:

• DSN Name and driver name (SnowflakeDSIIDriver), in the form of <dsn_name> = <driver_name>.

• Parameters:

  • Required connection parameters, such as server.

  • Any additional, optional parameters, such as default role, database, and warehouse.

  Parameters are specified in the form of <parameter_name> = <value>. For details about the parameters that can be set for each DSN, see ODBC configuration and connection parameters.

The following example illustrates an odbc.ini file that configures two data sources that use different forms of an account identifier in the server URL:

• testodbc1 uses the account name as an identifier for the account myaccount in the organization myorganization.

• testodbc2 uses the account locator xy12345 as the account identifier.

  Note that testodbc2 uses an account in the AWS US West (Oregon) region. If the account is in a different region or if the account uses a different cloud provider, you need to specify additional segments after the account locator.

  [ODBC Data Sources]
  testodbc1 = SnowflakeDSIIDriver
  testodbc2 = SnowflakeDSIIDriver
  
  
  [testodbc1]
  Driver      = /usr/jsmith/snowflake_odbc/lib/libSnowflake.so
  Description =
  server      = myorganization-myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com
  role        = sysadmin
  
  
  [testodbc2]
  Driver      = /usr/jsmith/snowflake_odbc/lib/libSnowflake.so
  Description =
  server      = xy12345.snowflakecomputing.com
  role        = analyst
  database    = sales
  warehouse   = analysis
  

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Note the following:

• Both testodbc1 and testodbc2 have default roles.

• testodbc2 also has a default database and warehouse.

Testing with iODBC¶

Test the DSNs you created. On the command line, specify the DSN name, user login name, and password, using the following format:

iodbctest "DSN=<dsn_name>;UID=<user_name>;PWD=<password>"

For example:

$ iodbctest "DSN=testodbc2;UID=mary;PWD=password"
iODBC Demonstration program
This program shows an interactive SQL processor
Driver Manager: 03.52.0709.0909
Driver: 2.12.70 (Snowflake)

SQL>

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Testing with unixODBC¶

Test the DSNs you created using the isql command line utility provided with unixODBC.

On the command line, specify the DSN name, user login name, and password.

For example:

$ isql -v testodbc2 mary <password>

Dec 14 22:57:50 INFO  2022078208 Driver::LogVersions: SDK Version: 09.04.09.1013
Dec 14 22:57:50 INFO  2022078208 Driver::LogVersions: DSII Version: 2.12.36
Dec 14 22:57:50 INFO  2022078208 SFConnection::connect: Tracing level: 4

+---------------------------------------+
| Connected!                            |
|                                       |
| sql-statement                         |
| help [tablename]                      |
| quit                                  |
|                                       |
+---------------------------------------+
SQL>

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