How to load data from BigQuery to Snowflake destination

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your BigQuery data into Snowflake destination within minutes.

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Set up a BigQuery connector in Airbyte

Connect to BigQuery or one of 400+ pre-built or 10,000+ custom connectors through simple account authentication.

Set up Snowflake destination for your extracted BigQuery data

Select Snowflake destination where you want to import data from your BigQuery source to. You can also choose other cloud data warehouses, databases, data lakes, vector databases, or any other supported Airbyte destinations.

Configure the BigQuery to Snowflake destination in Airbyte

This includes selecting the data you want to extract - streams and columns -, the sync frequency, where in the destination you want that data to be loaded.

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How to Sync BigQuery to Snowflake destination Manually

  1. Open the BigQuery Console: Navigate to the BigQuery console within your Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account.
  2. Select the Dataset and Table: Locate the dataset and table you wish to export.
  3. Export Table Data: Use the BigQuery UI or the bq command-line tool to export your table data to Google Cloud Storage (GCS) in a format compatible with Snowflake, such as CSV, JSON, Avro, or Parquet.

    For example, using the bq tool:
    bq extract --destination_format CSV 'mydataset.mytable' gs://my-bucket/myfolder/mydata.csv

  4. Replace mydataset.mytable with your dataset and table name, and gs://my-bucket/myfolder/mydata.csv with your GCS bucket and desired file path.
  1. Choose a Staging Area: Decide on a staging area that Snowflake can access. Snowflake supports data loading from AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and Snowflake’s own staging area.
  2. Transfer to Staging Area:some text
    • If you're using GCS as your staging area and your Snowflake account is on GCP, you can use the data directly from GCS.
    • If your Snowflake account is not on GCP, you may need to transfer the data to a supported storage service like AWS S3 or Azure Blob Storage using cloud data transfer services or tools.
  1. Login to Snowflake: Access your Snowflake account.
  2. Create a File Format: Define a file format that matches the data files you exported from BigQuery.
    For example, for CSV files:
    CREATE FILE FORMAT my_csv_format

TYPE = 'CSV'

FIELD_DELIMITER = ','

SKIP_HEADER = 1

NULL_IF = ('NULL', 'null');

Create a Stage: Set up a stage in Snowflake that points to the location of your data files.
If using GCS:
CREATE STAGE my_gcs_stage

URL = 'gcs://my-bucket/myfolder/'

FILE_FORMAT = my_csv_format

CREDENTIALS = (AWS_KEY_ID = '<your_aws_key_id>' AWS_SECRET_KEY = '<your_aws_secret_key>');

Adjust the URL to point to your GCS bucket and folder, and provide the necessary credentials.

  1. Create a Target Table: Ensure that you have a target table in Snowflake with a schema that matches the data you're importing.
  2. Copy Data: Use the COPY INTO command to load the data from the stage into the target table.
    COPY INTO my_target_table

FROM @my_gcs_stage/mydata.csv

FILE_FORMAT = (FORMAT_NAME = my_csv_format)

ON_ERROR = 'CONTINUE';

  1. Replace my_target_table with the name of your target table and adjust the file path if necessary.
  1. Check the Loaded Data: After the COPY INTO operation, check the loaded data for any errors or discrepancies.
  2. Verify Row Counts: Compare the row counts in Snowflake with the original row counts in BigQuery to ensure completeness.
  3. Perform Data Quality Checks: Run queries to validate the data quality, ensuring that the migration process hasn't altered the data.
  1. Remove Temporary Files: After the data is successfully loaded into Snowflake, remove the temporary files from the staging area to avoid unnecessary storage costs.
  2. Delete GCS Data: If you no longer need the exported data in Google Cloud Storage, delete the files to free up space.
  • Security: Ensure that all data transfers are secure, using encryption in transit and at rest.
  • Cost: Be aware of the costs associated with data export, storage, and transfer in both GCP and Snowflake.
  • Automation: For recurring data transfers, consider automating the process with scripts or cloud functions.
  • Data Types: Make sure that data types are correctly mapped between BigQuery and Snowflake.

By following these steps, you can move data from BigQuery to Snowflake without using third-party connectors or integrations. Always test the process with a subset of data before migrating the entire dataset.

How to Sync BigQuery to Snowflake destination Manually - Method 2:

FAQs

ETL, an acronym for Extract, Transform, Load, is a vital data integration process. It involves extracting data from diverse sources, transforming it into a usable format, and loading it into a database, data warehouse or data lake. This process enables meaningful data analysis, enhancing business intelligence.

BigQuery is a cloud-based data warehousing and analytics platform that allows users to store, manage, and analyze large amounts of data in real-time. It is a fully managed service that eliminates the need for users to manage their own infrastructure, and it offers a range of features such as SQL querying, machine learning, and data visualization. BigQuery is designed to handle petabyte-scale datasets and can be used for a variety of use cases, including business intelligence, data exploration, and predictive analytics. It is a powerful tool for organizations looking to gain insights from their data and make data-driven decisions.

BigQuery provides access to a wide range of data types, including:

1. Structured data: This includes data that is organized into tables with defined columns and data types, such as CSV, JSON, and Avro files.
2. Semi-structured data: This includes data that has some structure, but not necessarily a fixed schema, such as XML and JSON files.
3. Unstructured data: This includes data that has no predefined structure, such as text, images, and videos.
4. Time-series data: This includes data that is organized by time, such as stock prices, weather data, and sensor readings.
5. Geospatial data: This includes data that is related to geographic locations, such as maps, GPS coordinates, and spatial databases.
6. Machine learning data: This includes data that is used to train machine learning models, such as labeled datasets and feature vectors.
7. Streaming data: This includes data that is generated in real-time, such as social media feeds, IoT sensor data, and log files.

Overall, BigQuery's API provides access to a wide range of data types, making it a powerful tool for data analysis and machine learning.

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps: 
1. Set up BigQuery to Snowflake Data Cloud as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
2. Choose a destination (more than 50 available destination databases, data warehouses or lakes) to sync data too and set it up as a destination connector
3. Define which data you want to transfer from BigQuery to Snowflake Data Cloud and how frequently
You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud. 

ELT, standing for Extract, Load, Transform, is a modern take on the traditional ETL data integration process. In ELT, data is first extracted from various sources, loaded directly into a data warehouse, and then transformed. This approach enhances data processing speed, analytical flexibility and autonomy.

ETL and ELT are critical data integration strategies with key differences. ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) transforms data before loading, ideal for structured data. In contrast, ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) loads data before transformation, perfect for processing large, diverse data sets in modern data warehouses. ELT is becoming the new standard as it offers a lot more flexibility and autonomy to data analysts.

What should you do next?

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