Connecting Snowflake to Tableau Online - how to install ODBC driver?

1
votes

I am trying to connect Snowflake to Tableau Online, my question might seem stupid but I really don't know how to solve this.

The instructions are provided here but I struggle with the very first step,

Driver required

This connector requires a driver to talk to the database. You might already have the required driver installed on your computer. If the driver is not installed on your computer, Tableau displays a message in the connection dialog box with a link to the Driver Download page where you can find driver links and installation instructions.

This led me to a page asking me this

Tableau Desktop & Tableau Server: 9.3 - 2019.4 Follow these steps to get the Windows ODBC driver for Snowflake:

Sign in to your Snowflake instance. Select Help > Download > ODBC Driver. Select the ODBC driver for your operating system to download the latest version. For installation and configuration details, follow the Snowflake Documentation link on the ODBC Driver page.

I found the link to download the driver, but I am not using Tableau Desktop so I don't see how installing this on my laptop will help, how am I supposed to install this with Tableau Online?

I have tried to skip this step and add a Snowflake data source, but I have the following error message

Can’t connect to Snowflake

Detailed Error Message The username or password is not valid. Check the database name and credentials and try again.

Thank you!

2
tableau-apisnowflake-cloud-data-platform
Your online messages indicates you got your credentials wrong, not that you need a driver. I would assume the online version already has required drivers - Nick.McDermaid
You are right when you say that you shouldn't need the drivers on your laptop when using Tableau online. The documentation you've linked to is for the desktop version and It looks like the tableau online documentation links to the desktop url for some reason! There should just be an option to connect to Snowflake through the Tableau web interface... you shouldn't have to install anything. - Simon D

2 Answers

1
votes

Tableau has already installed the necessary ODBC driver. You need Tableau Desktop software on your computer to create (locally) the TDS or TWB. It is here that you need to install the ODBC software so you can connect your Tableau Desktop software to Snowflake. Once you have created the connection and created the TDS, then you can use your Tableau Online account to publish this to Online.

0
votes

If you are using the web authoring features of Tableau Online to create a new workbook or data source, then you don't need to download or install the drivers for Snowflake, as they are already installed in Tableau Online.