Preview Features¶
Preview features have been implemented and tested in Snowflake; however, full usability and corner-case handling may not be complete yet. We do not warranty the use of these features against defects that may produce unexpected or undesired results. Additionally, we may change the behavior of features while they are in preview. If we change the behavior of a preview feature, we do our best to notify users before making the change, but we do not guarantee to always pre-announce changes.
In addition, preview features can be disabled, enabled, or viewed for an entire account. See Managing access to all preview features, on this page, for details.
Attention
Preview features are provided primarily for evaluation and testing purposes. They should not be used in production systems or with production data.
For more details about the usage of preview features, see the Snowflake Preview Terms of Service.
Preview Availability¶
Availability is determined on a per-feature basis:
- Open:
Most preview features are Open, meaning they are enabled by default for all accounts and, therefore, openly available for use.
- On Request:
Some preview features are provided On Request, particularly in the early stages of the preview period. To request access to these features for your account, you must contact Snowflake.
Some preview features are available only in certain Snowflake editions or in specific cloud platforms or regions.
Features Currently in Preview¶
The following features are currently available for preview, listed roughly in the order in which they were introduced:
Feature |
Availability |
Introduced |
Additional reading |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Executing a Snowpark Container Services job service asynchronously |
Open |
December 2024 |
||
Enabling AWS inbound private connectivity to Snowpark Container Services |
Open |
December 2024 |
||
Restricted caller’s rights |
Open |
December 2024 |
||
Asynchronous child jobs for Snowflake Scripting |
Open |
December 2024 |
||
Profiling Python stored procedure handlers |
Open |
December 2024 |
||
Private Notebooks |
Open |
December 2024 |
||
Using block storage volumes with job services. |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
Outbound private connectivity to external volumes |
Open |
November 2024 |
Private connectivity to external volumes for Microsoft Azure |
Microsoft Azure only. |
Outbound private connectivity for external stages and Snowpipe automation |
Open |
November 2024 |
Azure private connectivity for external stages and Snowpipe automation |
Microsoft Azure only. |
Apache Iceberg™ table support for Microsoft Fabric OneLake |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
Snowflake ML: Distributed Hyperparameter Optimization (HPO) on Container Runtime for ML |
Open |
November 2024 |
Parallel Hyperparameter Optimization (HPO) on Container Runtime for ML |
|
Automatic sensitive data classification |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
Snowflake ML: Model Observability |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
CREATE OR ALTER <OBJECT> |
Open |
November 2024 |
Additional commands that create an object if it doesn’t exist, or alters it according to the object definition. |
|
Grouped Query History in Snowsight |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
Snowflake Connector for SharePoint |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
SPLIT_TEXT_RECURSIVE_CHARACTER function |
Open |
November 2024 |
||
Data Lineage |
Open |
November 2024 |
Includes ML Lineage |
|
Snowflake ML - Model Serving in Snowpark Container Services |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
SYSTEM$CREATE_BILLING_EVENTS system function |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Synthetic data generation |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Writing files from Snowpark Python UDFs and UDTFs |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Cortex Analyst Suggested Questions |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Cortex Analyst and Search integration |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
PARSE_DOCUMENT function |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Notebooks on Container Runtime |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Organization accounts and premium ORGANIZATION_USAGE views. |
Open |
October 2024 |
Requires Enterprise Edition (or higher). |
|
Support for IAM authentication in external network access |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Sharing of Cortex fine-tuned models in model registry |
Open |
October 2024 |
||
Snowflake ML Model Registry - Model Explainability |
Open |
September 2024 |
||
Cloning support for Snowflake-managed Apache Iceberg™ tables |
Open |
September 2024 |
||
Resource constraints for Snowpark-optimized warehouses |
Open |
September 2024 |
||
Automated refresh for externally managed Apache Iceberg™ tables |
Open |
September 2024 |
||
Apache Iceberg™ table support for Delta |
Open |
August 2024 |
||
Metrics data collection |
Open |
August 2024 |
||
Viewing log and trace data in Snowsight |
Open |
August 2024 |
||
Adding custom spans to a trace |
Open |
August 2024 |
||
Cortex Analyst |
Open |
August 2024 |
||
Support for Cross-Cloud Auto-Fulfillment in a Snowflake Native App with Snowpark Container Services |
Open |
August 2024 |
Currently only supported on Amazon Web Services. |
|
Retry failed tasks in Snowsight |
Open |
August 2024 |
||
Snowflake ML Model Registry - Partitioned Custom Models |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
Create and manage a Snowflake Native App in the Snowflake VS Code extension |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
Snowsight Notebooks default warehouses |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
Support for external and Apache Iceberg™ tables in the Snowflake Native App Framework |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
Event definitions in the Snowflake Native App Framework |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
VS Code extension |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
Snowflake Notebooks external access support |
Open |
July 2024 |
||
Snowflake Native SDK for Connectors |
Open |
June 2024 |
||
Snowflake Cortex Fine-Tuning |
Open |
June 2024 |
||
Snowflake Native App with Snowpark Container Services |
Open |
June 2024 |
About Snowflake Native Apps with Snowpark Container Services. |
|
Snowflake ML - Dataset |
Open |
May 2024 |
||
CREATE OR ALTER TABLE |
Open |
May 2024 |
Creates a table if it doesn’t exist, or alters it according to the table definition. |
|
CREATE OR ALTER TASK |
Open |
May 2024 |
Creates a task if it doesn’t exist, or alters it according to the task definition. |
|
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE FROM template file |
Open |
May 2024 |
Execute a template file using the Jinja2 templating language. |
|
View more rows of query results in Snowsight worksheet |
Open |
March 2024 |
Not available to accounts in U.S. government regions, accounts using Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS), and accounts that use Private Connectivity to access Snowflake. |
|
Limit functionality of Snowflake Native App |
Open |
March 2024 |
||
Snowflake CLI 2.x |
Open |
March 2024 |
||
Custom classification |
Open |
March 2024 |
Available in Enterprise Edition (or higher) |
|
COPY FILES |
Open |
February 2024 |
||
Snowflake Connector for Google Analytics Raw Data |
Open |
January 2024 |
||
Snowflake Connector for Google Analytics Aggregate Data |
Open |
January 2024 |
||
Support for the Arrow format in the Snowflake .NET driver |
Open |
November 2023 |
||
Set up and Monitor Client Redirect Using Snowsight |
Open |
November 2023 |
||
Set up and Monitor Replication Using Snowsight |
Open |
November 2023 |
Replicating databases and account objects across multiple accounts |
|
Python Package Version Range Support |
Open |
August 2023 |
||
Snowflake ML - FileSystem and FileSet |
Open |
N/A |
This feature is currently supported, but will not be made generally available. |
|
References to Tables, Views, Functions, and Queries |
Open |
Passing references for tables, views, functions, and queries to stored procedures |
||
Custom Event Billing |
Open |
|||
Tracking DDL commands, tags, and policies in the ACCESS_HISTORY view |
Open |
|||
ACCOUNTS view (Organization Usage) |
Open |
|||
Create and call stored procedures in Snowpark Java and Scala |
Open |
|||
Scala User-Defined Functions (UDFs) |
Open |
|||
Java Tabular Stored Procedures |
Open |
|||
Scala Tabular Stored Procedures |
Open |
|||
External table support for Delta Lake |
Open |
|||
Support for XML |
Open |
N/A |
Managing access to all preview features¶
Snowflake provides the ability for account administrators to manage access to preview features at the account level.
Account administrators can enable or disable access to preview features for their entire Snowflake account. Additionally, account administrators can check whether all preview features are enabled or disabled.
This setting affects all users and all preview features (including private preview features) within the account.
By default, access to all preview features is enabled for most accounts.
Caution
Before disabling or enabling preview features for your account, please review the associated documentation for a complete list of limitations and other information.
The following limitations apply to enabling and disabling preview feature access:
Applies to both private and open preview features.
This is an all-or-nothing setting that affects all users and all previews within an account.
Any user in the account who is using a preview feature will lose access to that feature immediately after SYSTEM$DISABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS is executed.
Snowflake Marketplace products, which are managed separately through IMPORTED PRIVILEGES, are not covered as part of this capability.
Client-side libraries (such as Snowpark API) are not covered as part of this capability.
Checking the status of preview features in your account¶
To check whether preview features are enabled in your account, call the SYSTEM$GET_PREVIEW_ACCESS_STATUS function.
For example:
SELECT SYSTEM$GET_PREVIEW_ACCESS_STATUS();
Which returns:
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| SYSTEM$GET_PREVIEW_ACCESS_STATUS() |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Preview access is [ENABLED|DISABLED] for this account |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Indicating the current state of preview features for the account.
Enabling preview features in your account¶
To enable preview features for your account, call the SYSTEM$ENABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS function.
For example:
SELECT SYSTEM$ENABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS();
Which returns:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| SELECT SYSTEM$ENABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS(); |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Preview access has been successfully enabled for this account |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Disabling preview features in your account¶
To disable preview features for your account, call the SYSTEM$DISABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS function.
Caution
Caution should be exercised when disabling preview features. All preview features, including both public and private, are disabled when you call SYSTEM$DISABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS. Private preview features cannot be enabled by calling SYSTEM$ENABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS.
SELECT SYSTEM$DISABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS();
Which returns:
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| SYSTEM$DISABLE_PREVIEW_ACCESS() |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Preview access has been successfully disabled for this account |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+