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Snowplow

Snowplow

BETA
In this section, we provide guides and references to use the Snowplow connector. Configure and schedule Snowplow metadata workflow from the OpenMetadata UI:

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Requirements

The Snowplow connector supports two deployment types:

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BDP (Business Data Platform) Deployment

For Snowplow BDP managed deployments, you need:
  • Access to the Snowplow Console
  • An API Key with read permissions for accessing pipeline configurations
  • Your Organization ID from the Snowplow Console

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Community Deployment

For self-hosted Snowplow Community deployments, you need:
  • Access to your Snowplow pipeline configuration files
  • Read permissions on the configuration directory
  • The file system path to your configuration files

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Metadata Ingestion

1

Visit the Services Page

Click `Settings` in the side navigation bar and then `Services`. The first step is to ingest the metadata from your sources. To do that, you first need to create a Service connection first. This Service will be the bridge between OpenMetadata and your source system. Once a Service is created, it can be used to configure your ingestion workflows.Visit Services Page
2

Create a New Service

Click on _Add New Service_ to start the Service creation.Create a new Service
3

Select the Service Type

Select Snowplow as the Service type and click _Next_.Select Service
4

Name and Describe your Service

Provide a name and description for your Service.

Service Name

OpenMetadata uniquely identifies Services by their **Service Name**. Provide a name that distinguishes your deployment from other Services, including the other Snowplow Services that you might be ingesting metadata from. Note that when the name is set, it cannot be changed.Add New Service
5

Configure the Service Connection

In this step, we will configure the connection settings required for Snowplow. Please follow the instructions below to properly configure the Service to read from your sources. You will also find helper documentation on the right-hand side panel in the UI.Configure Service connection

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Connection Details

1

Connection Details

When using a Hybrid Ingestion Runner, any sensitive credential fields—such as passwords, API keys, or private keys—must reference secrets using the following format:
password: secret:/my/database/password
This applies only to fields marked as secrets in the connection form (these typically mask input and show a visibility toggle icon). For a complete guide on managing secrets in hybrid setups, see the Hybrid Ingestion Runner Secret Management Guide.
  • Deployment Type: Select your Snowplow deployment type:
    • BDP: For Snowplow’s managed Business Data Platform
    • Community: For self-hosted Snowplow deployments The required configuration fields will change based on your deployment type selection.

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BDP Deployment Configuration

For BDP deployments, provide the following:
  • Console URL: The base URL of your Snowplow Console where you access the UI (e.g., https://console.snowplow.io)
  • API Key: Your Snowplow Console API Key with appropriate read permissions. To generate an API key:
    1. Log into your Snowplow Console
    2. Navigate to Account Settings
    3. Select the API Keys section
    4. Create a new API key with read permissions for pipeline configurations
  • Organization ID: Your unique Snowplow BDP Organization ID. You can find this in:
    • Snowplow Console Account Settings
    • The URL when accessing your console (e.g., https://console.snowplow.io/organizations/{org-id})

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Community Deployment Configuration

For Community deployments, provide:
  • Configuration Path: The file system path to your Snowplow pipeline configuration files. This should point to the directory containing your Snowplow configuration files such as:
    • Collector configurations
    • Enrichment configurations
    • Storage loader configurations
    • Pipeline orchestration files
    Example: /opt/snowplow/configs
Important: If you are using the Configuration Path option for Community deployments, you must run the ingestion workflow through the CLI instead of the UI. This is because the ingestion process needs direct access to your local filesystem, which is not available when running ingestion jobs from the UI or server.

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Additional Configuration

  • Cloud Provider: Select the cloud provider where your Snowplow infrastructure is deployed:
    • AWS: Amazon Web Services (default)
    • GCP: Google Cloud Platform
    • Azure: Microsoft Azure
    This information helps optimize metadata extraction based on cloud-specific configurations.
  • Pipeline Filter Pattern: Optionally provide a regular expression pattern to exclude certain pipelines from ingestion. Examples:
    • Exclude test pipelines: .*test.*
    • Exclude development pipelines: ^dev-.*
    • Exclude multiple patterns: (.*test.*|.*dev.*|.*staging.*)
    Leave empty to ingest all available pipelines.
2

Test the Connection

Once the credentials have been added, click on Test Connection and Save the changes.Test Connection
3

Configure Metadata Ingestion

In this step we will configure the metadata ingestion pipeline, Please follow the instructions belowConfigure Metadata Ingestion

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Metadata Ingestion Options

  • Name: This field refers to the name of ingestion pipeline, you can customize the name or use the generated name.
  • Pipeline Filter Pattern (Optional): Use to pipeline filter patterns to control whether or not to include pipeline as part of metadata ingestion.
    • Include: Explicitly include pipeline by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the Include field. OpenMetadata will include all pipeline with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other schemas will be excluded.
    • Exclude: Explicitly exclude pipeline by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the Exclude field. OpenMetadata will exclude all pipeline with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other schemas will be included.
  • Include lineage (toggle): Set the Include lineage toggle to control whether to include lineage between pipelines and data sources as part of metadata ingestion.
  • Enable Debug Log (toggle): Set the Enable Debug Log toggle to set the default log level to debug.
  • Mark Deleted Pipelines (toggle): Set the Mark Deleted Pipelines toggle to flag pipelines as soft-deleted if they are not present anymore in the source system.
4

Schedule the Ingestion and Deploy

Scheduling can be set up at an hourly, daily, weekly, or manual cadence. The timezone is in UTC. Select a Start Date to schedule for ingestion. It is optional to add an End Date.Review your configuration settings. If they match what you intended, click Deploy to create the service and schedule metadata ingestion.If something doesn’t look right, click the Back button to return to the appropriate step and change the settings as needed.After configuring the workflow, you can click on Deploy to create the pipeline.Schedule the Workflow
5

View the Ingestion Pipeline

Once the workflow has been successfully deployed, you can view the Ingestion Pipeline running from the Service Page.View Ingestion Pipeline
If AutoPilot is enabled, workflows like usage tracking, data lineage, and similar tasks will be handled automatically. Users don’t need to set up or manage them - AutoPilot takes care of everything in the system.