Quickstart: Snowflake

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During the public preview, we advise you not to use sensitive or production data with Virtual Graph.

This page presents the general workflow of virtualizing an example dataset from Snowflake into Neo4j Aura with Virtual Graph.

Requirements

Preparing Snowflake

Create an SSO key pair

Run the following to create a key pair of a public and a private key.

openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -out snowkey.p8 -nocrypt
openssl rsa -in snowkey.p8 -pubout -out snowkey.pub

Add the public key to Snowflake

In Snowflake:

  1. Navigate to Project → Workspaces and create a new SQL file

  2. Paste the following SQL query to the newly created tab "Untitled.sql" and run the query:

    CREATE USER <VIRTUAL_GRAPH_SERVICE_ACCOUNT> SET RSA_PUBLIC_KEY = '-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
<YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY>
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----'

    <YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY> is the public key data from the file snowkey.pub.

Virtual Graph only ever requires read access. You can and should restrict the <VIRTUAL_GRAPH_SERVICE_ACCOUNT> user to read privileges. It is worthwhile to consider additional access limitations, for example, limit the user to certain database tables. Virtual Graph does not account for that - any user with access to Virtual Graph has access to everything the graph has access to.

Set a default warehouse

  1. Select your user icon from the bottom of the left-side navigation and proceed to Settings → Preferences.

  2. Under Snowflake defaults, make sure that Default role is set to PUBLIC and Default warehouse to DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE.

Creating a Virtual Graph

In the Aura console:

  1. Select Instances from the left-side navigation.

  2. Select the Virtual Graphs tab and proceed with Create virtual graph.

  3. In the Configure Virtual Graph step, select a name, a cloud provider and a memory volume for your Virtual Graph.

Connect Snowflake as the data source

  1. Use Add new data source and select Snowflake.

  2. Complete the form.

    1. Assign your data source a name.

    2. To look up your Host in Snowflake, select your user icon from the bottom of the left-side navigation and then Connect a tool to Snowflake. Your host is the Account/Server URL.

    3. Set "Movies" as your Database and "V2" as your Schema.

    4. Enter your Snowflake user name and paste the Private Key from the file snowkey.p8 created in Create an SSO key pair.

  3. Proceed with Next and wait for your connection to be verified, then Confirm.

Select a graph model

  1. Under Select graph model, proceed with Create new graph model.

  2. When the model has been prepared, select Generate from schema.

Inspect and complete your graph model

The inferred schema likely doesn’t fully reflect the tables from your Snowflake data source.

For instance, A model generated from schema with errors shows a generated model that is missing two relationships (FOLLOWS and ACTED_IN). This is also indicated by the missing dots for the fields under FOLLOWERS and MOVIE_ACTORS in the Data source panel. The existing node and relationship labels may not be suitable either: the example model uses PEOPLE and MOVIES instead of Person and Movie as well as the same type for all relationships. The relationship directions are reversed and should go from Person nodes to Movie nodes instead. Finally, selecting the nodes and relationships may reveal that IDs or fields are missing.

The following steps are required to fix the model:

  1. Select the nodes and relationships and change the Label or Relationship type accordingly.

  2. Make sure that all fields are set for nodes and relationships. Map from table → Select all infers them when you have selected a table for the node or relationship.

  3. Select relationships with wrong direction and reverse it with the Reverse relationship direction button in the tool bar on the bottom of the model panel.

  4. For missing relationships:

    1. Select the node or nodes you want to connect.

    2. Add a new relationship with the Add new relationship button (two circles, a connected line and a plus).

    3. Assign a Relationship type.

    4. Select the appropriate table under Properties and add missing properties.

    5. Add From and To references under Node ID mapping.

    6. Assign IDs as necessary.

  5. Field names can be edited, and data types assigned.

Relationship types and node labels must be unique, see Entity type uniqueness.

Your model should look like A corrected model for MOVIES.

Finish with Create Virtual Graph and download the credential data.

Inspect your graph

Select Query from the left-side navigation and query your graph, for example with the following query:

MATCH (p:Person)-[r:ACTED_IN]->(m:Movie)
RETURN p, r, m LIMIT 10
Cypher query against a virtual graph
Figure 3. Cypher query against a virtual graph

You have successfully created a virtual graph.

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