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ODBC for Mac Users

odbc_mac.Rmd

There are multiple ways to connect Snowflake to RStudio using MacOs. The two main ways are using the iODBC Driver or the unixODBC manager. Using the unixODBC manager is recommended because although the iODBC manager is simpler to use, it doesn’t work in many cases. This tutorial focuses on using the unixODBC manager to connect to Snowflake.

Step 1: Install the unixODBC Manager

Open the terminal and enter the following commands to install the manager.

brew update

brew install unixodbc freetds

Step 2: Install the iODBC and ODBC Managers

The ODBC Manager is a useful tool to configure the ODBC DSN. Once downloaded, open the file and follow the instructions to install the driver.

The iODBC Manager will still need to be installed, despite what was mentioned earlier. It contains files needed to properly configure DSNs.

Step 3: Download the Driver

Download the latest version of the driver from the Snowflake Client Repository. Download the version that uses the AWS endpoint.

Follow the prompts to install the driver.

Step 4: Specify the ODBC Manager path

  1. In the terminal, use the following command to open the simba.snowflake.ini file:

    vi /opt/snowflake/snowflakeodbc/lib/universal/simba.snowflake.ini

  2. In the file, there are instructions to uncomment the ODBCInstLib being used with the driver manager. The driver manager being used is iODBC. Locate the “Darwin Specific ODBCInstLib” in the file, then uncomment the line of code that contains “libodbcinst.dylib”.

  1. Use the command :wq to save the file. If this throws an error, use :wq!.

Step 5: Determine where the default files odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini are located. 

`odbcinst -j`

Step 6: Add Driver

  1. Open the odbcinst.ini file

    sudo vi /usr/local/etc/odbcinst.ini

  2. If prompted for a password, enter your computer’s password to access the file.

  1. Insert the following sample text.
          [ODBC Drivers]
          SnowflakeDSIIDriver=Installed
          [SnowflakeDSIIDriver]
          APILevel=1
          ConnectFunctions=YYY
          Description=Snowflake DSII
          Driver=/opt/snowflake/snowflakeodbc/lib/universal/libSnowflake.dylib
          DriverODBCVer=03.52
          SQLLevel=1
      The end result will look like the following image.

  1. Save and close the file using :wq

Step 7: Add the Snowflake DSN

  1. Open the local odbc.ini file

    sudo vi /usr/local/etc/odbc.ini

  2. Add the sample entry to the file.

          [ODBC Data Sources]
          SNOWFLAKE_ODBC = SnowflakeDSIIDriver
          [SNOWFLAKE_ODBC]
          Driver = /opt/snowflake/snowflakeodbc/lib/universal/libSnowflake.dylib
          Description = Internal Snowflake
          uid = <>
          server = <>.snowflakecomputing.com
          database = <>
          schema = <>
          warehouse = <>
          role = <>
          tracing = 6

  1. Edit the sample entry to match your snowflake database. In the simplest form, this will include the driver (location of the driver), a name(in this case it’s ‘SNOWFLAKE_ODBC’), and the server (the url for your database). The other options will be the default parameters if nothing is specified in the ODBC connect string.

  2. Save and quit using :wq

Step 8:Verify the ODBC DSN was created 

odbcinst -q -s

The output should list your ODBC DSN

Step 9: Test the Snowflake DSN

Run the following command, replacing each prompt with your Snowflake DSN’s parameters.

isql -v <SNOFLAKE_ODBC_DSN_NAME> <USERNAME> <PASSWORD>

The result will look similar to the following image: