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Service Accounts

It is also possible to request a Service-account that can be used to sync data from DWH to your environment. See https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/admin-user-management for an explanation of the different types of users.

A Service-account can not log in to Snowsight. It is only to be used for programmatic exchange of data. For example: if you want to collect data at regular intervals you would typically set this up using a service-account, since you do not want a person to log in at regular intervals. You don't want this because every time a person logs in, that person is forced to use MFA.

Private / public key setup​

A Service-account can not use MFA. You will, however, need to establish a public/private key setup as described on https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/key-pair-auth. Please follow the steps on that page. It explains in detail the steps required. Basically these are:

  1. Go to https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html and download the installer for OpenSSL Light (you don't need the full version)
  2. Install it.
  3. Add it to your PATH, using CTRL-R (run), sysdm.cpl, Advanced → Environment Variables, Under System variables, select Path → Edit, Click New, enter "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin". OK out of all dialogs. Open terminal, type "openssl", hit ENTER. It should show output (not errors).
  4. In Terminal, change dir to where you want to store your key-files. For example: C:\Keys\.
  5. Generate an unencrypted 2048 bits RSA key:

openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -out C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key.p8 -nocrypt

Or generate an encrypted version (you will need to provide a password):

openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -v2 des3 -inform PEM -out C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key-encrypted.p8

  1. Check the contents of the newly generated file C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key.p8. It should contain something like:
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEvQIBADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAASCBKcwggSjAgEAAoIBAQDPZV1y/3ev8U0N
<snipped some 23 lines>
Zzztal24GmgY0SJho4x5cXKh+HFsZzX34A2nUt4AAJFYhBn1pmT/1rnMTzqDhKn3
G0W5OfOaNIghfxfY06JnsZM=
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

If you generated an encrypted file, the contents would be roughly similar but the first and last line would read:

-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
<snipped 28 lines>
-----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
  1. Generate public key from this private key: openssl rsa -in C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key.p8 -pubout -out C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key.pub

Likewise, when used an encrypted private key: openssl rsa -in C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key-encrypted.p8 -pubout -out C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key-encrypted.pub

  1. Verify the contents of your new public key file:
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAz2Vdcv93r/FNDVuGQx2g
<snipped 5 lines>
>AwIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
  1. Generate a finger print from your public key:

openssl rsa -pubin -in C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key.pub -outform DER | openssl dgst -sha256 -binary | openssl enc -base64

Likewise for encrypted key:

openssl rsa -pubin -in C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key-encrypted.pub -outform DER | openssl dgst -sha256 -binary | openssl enc -base64

This outputs something like:

Pw8/KD9zOUNoPz8/IHI/A0o/Dz8/OUQnaz8/Pz8XPz8NCg==

This last line, starting with Pw8 in this example, is your finger print.

If you intend to use this keypair from PowerBI Desktop, see PowerBI - Keypair Authentication for the two supported options, and which type of key (encrypted or unencrypted) each option requires.

Once you completed those steps, you will need to share with Paxon ⸗ Active Ants:

  1. Your public key (the file C:\Keys\AA-Snowflake-rsa_key.pub, or the equivalent file if you used an encrypted key).
  2. The finger print of your public key (that last line of output).

Paxon ⸗ Active Ants also needs the finger print, so that we can verify if key-pair authentication was set up correctly.

ODBC Access using private / public key setup​

When using a SERVICE-type account with public/private keys, you will need to configure your ODBC DSN properly. There are 5 things you need to be aware off:

ODBC with private keys
  1. Your username. Typically something like "CLIENT_1234" (but not really 1234).
  2. The Snowflake server address for the Active Ants data: astunbh-ln60614.snowflakecomputing.com
  3. The type of Authenticator. Always use the value SNOWFLAKE_JWT here, when using public/private key setup.
  4. The filepath to your private key file.
  5. The password to decrypt your private key file. Leave blank if you used an unencrypted private key.

See https://docs.snowflake.com/en/developer-guide/odbc/odbc-parameters#label-odbc-key-pair-authentication for more details.

Accounts Needed​

A typical setup for clients would be like:

  • one or more regular (person-type) user accounts to access DWH via SnowSight. These accounts typically have a username equal to your email address. It is mandatory to enable MFA on these accounts.
  • one (service-type) user account to access DWH via ODBC / some other connector, for non-interactive purposes (basically: sync data). These accounts typically have a username like "CLIENT_1234" (where "1234" is an identifier linked to your account, this is just an example. Please don't really use "CLIENT_1234", it will not work).

Please ask your Account Manager at Paxon ⸗ Active Ants to have a service-account created for you.