Enable Snowflake Replication for Alation Analytics

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Available from version 2026.7.1.0

Important

You are viewing documentation for Alation’s Classic User Experience.

Overview

Snowflake Replication copies your Alation Analytics database into a dedicated Snowflake database. Once replication completes, you can connect directly to that database from Snowflake or from a third-party BI tool.

Note

Server Admins can now enable Snowflake Replication directly from Alation Analytics Settings. A support ticket is no longer required.

Depending on the volume of data in your Alation Analytics database, replication can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure the following conditions are met:

  • You must have Server Admin privileges to access the Alation Analytics Settings page.

  • No Snowflake Replication should already be in progress for your instance.

  • Any active Alation Analytics ETL run should be allowed to finish before you start replication. See Alation Analytics V2 ETL for how to check ETL status.

    Important

    No new ETL runs will start while replication is in progress.

Enable Snowflake Replication

  1. In Alation, navigate to Admin Settings > Platform Settings > Alation Analytics Settings.

  1. In Alation, navigate to Admin Settings > Alation Analytics Settings.

  1. Scroll to the Snowflake Replication section.

  2. Click Enable Replication.

  3. In the confirmation dialog, review the message, then click Enable.

    Note

    If an Alation Analytics ETL run is currently active, wait for it to complete before continuing.

The Snowflake Replication section now displays a progress indicator with the message Snowflake Replication in progress. The Enable Replication button is unavailable until replication finishes.

Replication Results

When replication finishes, the Snowflake Replication section is replaced by a Snowflake Configuration section showing your connection details:

  • Database

  • Role

  • Warehouse

  • Snowflake URL

Each field includes a copy icon so you can copy the value directly. Use these details to connect a BI tool or query client to your Alation Analytics database in Snowflake. See Connect Third-Party BI Tools to Alation Analytics V2.

If one or more tables could not be copied, Alation displays a warning instead of a plain success message:

Note

“Snowflake replication completed with warnings. One or more tables were skipped during the replication. Your other tables are up to date. Please review the skipped tables and contact support for assistance if you need them.”

Click View details to open the Skipped tables dialog. This dialog lists each skipped table along with its status and the reason it was skipped. If you need a skipped table restored, contact Alation Support with the table names shown in this dialog.