If you’re wrangling cloud data and want your analytics to actually work, odds are you’re using Snowflake as your data warehouse. Maybe you’re also looking at Domo to build dashboards or automate reporting across your company. But connecting the two? It’s not always as “seamless” as the sales decks promise. This guide is for real-world data folks—analysts, analytics engineers, or IT pros—who want to set up a stable, useful workflow between Domo and Snowflake, without wasting hours on dead ends.
Below, I’ll walk you through how to actually connect Domo and Snowflake, what’s worth your time, and what to skip. You’ll get the real pros and cons, plus tips that’ll keep you (mostly) out of trouble.
Why Connect Domo and Snowflake?
Let’s keep it simple:
- Snowflake is where your clean, reliable data lives.
- Domo is where you want business users looking at that data, not in the warehouse itself.
Connecting them means you can:
- Build dashboards and reports in Domo using trusted data from Snowflake.
- Avoid duplicating data pipelines or rebuilding logic in two places.
- Keep sensitive or complex data transformations in Snowflake, where they belong.
But: Domo is not a data lake, and it’s not your nightly ETL tool. It’s for visualization and lightweight data prep. If you try to jam your whole data engineering workflow into Domo, you’ll regret it.
Step 1: Decide on Your Integration Pattern
There’s more than one way to hook up Domo and Snowflake. Here are your main options:
1. Domo’s Native Snowflake Connector
- What it does: Pulls data from Snowflake into Domo using SQL queries you define, on a schedule.
- Good for: Most use cases. Easy to set up, supports scheduled pulls, and keeps things maintainable.
- Not good for: Real-time syncs (it’s not streaming), giant data sets (think millions of rows daily), or complex incremental logic.
2. Domo Workbench
- What it does: A Windows app that can connect to Snowflake via ODBC/JDBC and push data into Domo.
- Good for: On-premises data, legacy networks, or when you need more control over the connection (but most folks don’t).
- Not good for: Cloud-native setups—use the native connector instead.
3. Custom API Integration
- What it does: You write scripts to pull from Snowflake and push to Domo via their APIs.
- Good for: Edge cases only. Maintenance headache, and usually unnecessary.
Honest take: Stick with the native connector unless you have a very specific reason not to.
Step 2: Prep Your Snowflake Environment
Before Domo can get anything from Snowflake, you need:
- A dedicated Snowflake user for Domo, with read-only access to the data you want to share.
- A role with the right privileges. Don’t give Domo the keys to the whole warehouse.
- A warehouse (compute resource) that won’t step on your production jobs.
Pro tip: Create a separate database or schema just for Domo reporting tables/views. It’ll save you headaches later, especially when someone inevitably asks, “Where did this number come from?”
Minimum Snowflake Permissions
For the Domo user, grant:
sql GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE your_database TO ROLE domo_role; GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA your_database.reporting TO ROLE domo_role; GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA your_database.reporting TO ROLE domo_role; GRANT SELECT ON ALL VIEWS IN SCHEMA your_database.reporting TO ROLE domo_role;
And make sure you grant future SELECT privileges too:
sql GRANT SELECT ON FUTURE TABLES IN SCHEMA your_database.reporting TO ROLE domo_role; GRANT SELECT ON FUTURE VIEWS IN SCHEMA your_database.reporting TO ROLE domo_role;
Step 3: Set Up the Domo-Snowflake Connection
Let’s get into the practical steps.
1. Find the Snowflake Connector in Domo
- Go to the “Data” or “Connectors” section in Domo.
- Search for “Snowflake.”
- Choose the native Snowflake connector (not ODBC, not Workbench, unless you know you need them).
2. Gather Your Connection Info
You’ll need:
- Snowflake Account URL: Usually looks like
xyz12345.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.com - Username and password: For your dedicated Domo user.
- Warehouse: The compute resource Domo should use.
- Database and schema: What you want Domo to see.
Heads-up: If you’re using SSO or MFA on Snowflake, you’ll need to set up an “external browser” or key pair authentication. It’s a little more involved but documented in Snowflake’s docs.
3. Enter Details and Test Connection
- Plug in your info in Domo.
- Click “Test Connection.”
- If it fails, double-check your firewall settings. Snowflake is cloud, but some orgs still block external traffic.
4. Choose Data to Import
- You’ll be prompted to write a SQL query, pick a table, or specify a view.
- Only bring in what you need—huge extracts will slow things down and cost you money.
Pro tip: Use views in Snowflake to pre-filter or join data before Domo sees it. That way, you keep business logic in Snowflake and avoid having to re-explain calculations to every Domo user.
Step 4: Schedule and Monitor Your Data Loads
Domo lets you schedule how often it pulls data—hourly, daily, whatever fits your needs.
- Don’t overschedule. More frequent loads mean more compute cost in Snowflake and in Domo.
- Watch your data size. Domo isn’t meant for huge fact tables. If you’re pulling millions of rows every hour, rethink your approach.
- Set up alerts. If a data load fails, make sure someone gets notified—otherwise, you’ll have stale dashboards and unhappy execs.
Real talk: Most business dashboards don’t need minute-by-minute data. Hourly or even daily usually does the job, unless you’re in a niche like e-commerce ops or fraud monitoring.
Step 5: Build Domo Visualizations (Without Losing Your Mind)
Once your data is flowing, you can:
- Create cards (Domo’s term for visualizations).
- Build dashboards.
- Set up alerts or scheduled reports.
Keep it simple:
- Do heavy data crunching in Snowflake, not Domo. Domo’s “Magic ETL” is fine for basic stuff, but it’s not built for gnarly SQL or big aggregations.
- Document where numbers come from. Nothing kills trust like unexplained metrics.
- Give business users clear, curated datasets—not your raw tables.
Step 6: Maintain and Troubleshoot
This setup isn’t “set and forget.” Here’s what to watch:
- Data drift: If your Snowflake schemas change, Domo loads will break. Communicate schema changes ahead of time.
- Monitor costs: Both Snowflake and Domo charge based on usage. If your bills spike, check your load schedules and data volumes.
- Access creep: Review who can see what in Domo. It’s easy for sensitive data to leak if you’re not careful.
What to ignore: Don’t bother with Domo’s “DataFlows” for anything more than basic joins or filters. If it’s complicated, do it in Snowflake.
Honest Pros and Cons
What Works Well
- Simplicity: The native connector is easy to set up and usually “just works.”
- Security: You control what Domo sees; no need to open up your entire warehouse.
- Performance: For most dashboarding needs, the integration is fast enough.
What Doesn’t
- Real-time needs: Domo isn’t built for true real-time analytics. There’s always some lag.
- Large-scale data: If you try to pull massive tables, you’ll hit speed and cost issues fast.
- Complex transformations: Domo can’t replace dbt or Snowflake’s engine for heavy data modeling.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
Integrating Domo with Snowflake doesn’t have to be a headache. Start with the basics: a clean, dedicated Snowflake user, the native Domo connector, and tight control over what you sync. Don’t overthink it or try to rebuild your data stack in Domo. Get a basic workflow running, show value, and tweak things as you go. The best data workflows are the ones you actually use—and can actually maintain.