Configure an external volume for S3-compatible storage¶

Prerequisites¶

To use S3-compatible storage for Iceberg tables, you must have an S3-compatible API endpoint for Snowflake. For more information, see Requirements for S3-compatible storage.

Create an external volume for S3-compatible storage by using SQL¶

Create an external volume that specifies an S3-compatible storage location. For information about the S3-compatible parameters in the CREATE EXTERNAL VOLUME command, see the command syntax.

CREATE OR REPLACE EXTERNAL VOLUME ext_vol_s3_compat
  STORAGE_LOCATIONS = (
    (
      NAME = 'my_s3_compat_storage_location'
      STORAGE_PROVIDER = 'S3COMPAT'
      STORAGE_BASE_URL = 's3compat://mybucket/unload/mys3compatdata'
      CREDENTIALS = (
        AWS_KEY_ID = '1a2b3c...'
        AWS_SECRET_KEY = '4x5y6z...'
      )
      STORAGE_ENDPOINT = 'mystorage.com'
    )
  );

Create an external volume for S3-compatible storage by using Snowsight¶

1. Sign in to Snowsight.

2. In the lower-left corner, select your name » Switch role, and then select ACCOUNTADMIN or a role that has the CREATE EXTERNAL VOLUME privilege.

   For more information, see Switch your primary role.

3. In the navigation menu, select Catalog » External data.

4. Select the External volumes tab.

5. Select + Create.

6. Select S3 compatible storage.

7. Select Next.

8. In your S3-compatible storage provider, create access key credentials that have the permissions required to access your bucket and get objects.

   For more information, see Requirements for S3-compatible storage.

9. Select Next.

10. To configure your external volume, from the Configure external volume page, complete the fields:

    Field	Description
    External volume name	Enter a name for your external volume.
    Storage endpoint	Specifies a fully qualified domain that points to your S3-compatible API endpoint. Note The storage endpoint should not include a bucket name; for example, specify example.com instead of my_bucket.example.com.
    AWS key ID	Specifies the AWS key ID for connecting to and accessing your S3-compatible storage location.
    AWS secret key	Specifies the AWS secret key for connecting to and accessing your S3-compatible storage location.
    Access scope	Specifies whether write operations are allowed for the external volume; must be set to Allow writes for the following tables: Iceberg tables that use Snowflake as the catalog. Iceberg tables that use an external catalog and are writable. Externally managed Iceberg tables are writable when you access them through a catalog-linked database that has the ALLOWED_WRITE_OPERATIONS parameter set to TRUE. For Iceberg tables created from Delta table files, setting this parameter to Allow writes enables Snowflake to write Iceberg metadata to your external storage. For more information, see Delta-based tables. The value of this field must also match the permissions that you set on the cloud storage account for each specified storage location. Note If you plan to use the external volume for reading externally managed Iceberg tables, you can set this field to Off. Snowflake doesn’t write data or Iceberg metadata files to your cloud storage when you read tables in an external Iceberg catalog.
    Scope	Choose where this external volume should become the default location for future Iceberg tables. Possible values are: Do not set a default: Don’t set the external volume as a default anywhere. Account: Set the external volume as the default for Iceberg tables that are created under the entire account. Specific database: Set the external volume as the default for Iceberg tables that are created under the database you specify. To specify this database, use the Database drop-down that appears when you select Specific database. Specific schema: Set the external volume as the default for Iceberg tables that are created under the schema you specify. To specify this schema, use the Database drop-down that appears to first select the parent database of the schema and then select the schema.
    Comment	Specifies a comment for the external volume.
    Storage base URL	Specifies the base URL for your cloud storage location.

11. Select Next.

    On the Verify connection & create volume page, Snowflake verifies your connection to your S3 compatible storage and then displays a “Successfully connected” message.

    Note

    If Snowflake is unable to verify your connection, check your permission or external volume configuration and then select Verify again.

12. Select Create.

Update your external volume credentials¶

To change or update the credentials for the external volume, you can use the ALTER EXTERNAL VOLUME … UPDATE command. Specify the name of the storage location that you want to change the credentials for.

ALTER EXTERNAL VOLUME ext_vol_s3_compat UPDATE
  STORAGE_LOCATION = 'my_s3_compat_storage_location'
  CREDENTIALS = (
    AWS_KEY_ID = '4d5e6f...'
    AWS_SECRET_KEY = '7g8h9i...'
  );