Yes, you can access Snowflake immutable files on S3, but you need to have the appropriate permissions and follow the correct process to access them.
When you enable the Time Travel or Fail-safe feature in Snowflake, it creates a copy of the data in immutable files on S3. These files are stored in a special Snowflake-owned S3 bucket and are read-only.
To access the immutable files on S3, you need to have the appropriate IAM permissions. Specifically, you need to be authorized to access the Snowflake-owned S3 bucket where the immutable files are stored. The bucket name follows a specific naming convention that includes your Snowflake account name and region.
Once you have the appropriate permissions, you can access the immutable files on S3 using standard S3 API calls or tools like the AWS CLI or SDKs. You can also use Snowflake’s STAGE object to access the immutable files directly from Snowflake. Note that when accessing the immutable files on S3, you should treat them as read-only and avoid modifying or deleting them.
It’s important to note that the process for accessing the immutable files on S3 is different from accessing regular Snowflake tables. Immutable files are stored in a different location and have different access requirements, so you need to take extra care when working with them.
