DESCRIBE SNAPSHOT¶

Note

This operation is not currently covered by the Service Level set forth in Snowflake’s Support Policy and Service Level Agreement.

Describes the properties of a snapshot of a block storage volume.

DESCRIBE can be abbreviated to DESC.

See also:: CREATE SNAPSHOT , ALTER SNAPSHOT, DROP SNAPSHOT, SHOW SNAPSHOTS

Syntax¶

{ DESC | DESCRIBE } SNAPSHOT <name>

Parameters¶

name: Specifies the identifier for the snapshot to describe.

If the identifier contains spaces or special characters, the entire string must be enclosed in double quotes. Identifiers enclosed in double quotes are also case-sensitive.

For more information, see Identifier requirements.

Output¶

The output of the command includes the following columns, which describe the properties and metadata of the object:

Column	Description
`name`	Name of the snapshot.
`state`	One of the following values, which indicates the current status of the snapshot: INITIALIZED: The snapshot creation is in progress. CREATED: The snapshot is created and can be used to create a volume. ERROR: Snapshot creation failed.
`database_name`	Database in which the snapshot is created.
`schema_name`	Schema in which the snapshot is created.
`service_name`	Fully qualified service name from which the snapshot is created.
`volume_name`	Volume from the specified service instance for which the snapshot is created.
`instance`	ID of the service instance.
`size`	Size (in GB) of the snapshot.
`comment`	General comment about the snapshot.
`owner`	Role that owns the snapshot.
`owner_role_type`	The type of role that owns the object, either ROLE or DATABASE_ROLE.
`created_on`	Date and time when the snapshot was created.
`encryption`	Encryption type configured for the volume, from which the snapshot was created. Possible values include `SNOWFLAKE_SSE` and `SNOWFLAKE_FULL`.

Access control requirements¶

A role used to execute this operation must have the following privileges at a minimum:

Privilege	Object	Notes
OWNERSHIP or USAGE	Snapshot	OWNERSHIP is a special privilege on an object that is automatically granted to the role that created the object, but can also be transferred using the [GRANT OWNERSHIP](/sql-reference/sql/grant-ownership) command to a different role by the owning role (or any role with the MANAGE GRANTS privilege).

Operating on an object in a schema requires at least one privilege on the parent database and at least one privilege on the parent schema.

For instructions on creating a custom role with a specified set of privileges, see Creating custom roles.

For general information about roles and privilege grants for performing SQL actions on securable objects, see Overview of Access Control.

Usage notes¶

To post-process the output of this command, you can use the pipe operator (->>) or the RESULT_SCAN function. Both constructs treat the output as a result set that you can query.

For example, you can use the pipe operator or RESULT_SCAN function to select specific columns from the SHOW command output or filter the rows.

When you refer to the output columns, use double-quoted identifiers for the column names. For example, to select the output column type, specify SELECT "type".

You must use double-quoted identifiers because the output column names for SHOW commands are in lowercase. The double quotes ensure that the column names in the SELECT list or WHERE clause match the column names in the SHOW command output that was scanned.

Examples¶

The following example describes the snapshot named my_snapshot:

DESC SNAPSHOT my_snapshot;

Output:

+-------------+---------+---------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------------+-------------+----------+------+--------------+-----------+-----------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------------+
| name        | state   | database_name | schema_name | service_name                                       | volume_name | instance | size | comment      | owner     | owner_role_type | created_on                    | updated_on                    | encryption    |
|-------------+---------+---------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------------+-------------+----------+------+--------------+-----------+-----------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------------|
| MY_SNAPSHOT | CREATED | TUTORIAL_DB   | DATA_SCHEMA | TUTORIAL_DB.DATA_SCHEMA.MY_SERVICE_WITH_EBS_VOLUME | block-vol1  | 0        |   10 | new snapshot | TEST_ROLE | ROLE            | 2024-05-09 21:36:58.502 -0700 | 2024-05-09 21:38:03.424 -0700 | SNOWFLAKE_SSE |
+-------------+---------+---------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------------+-------------+----------+------+--------------+-----------+-----------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------------+