Integrating Megaport ONE with Snowflake on AWS

You can use Megaport ONE to create an AWS Direct Connect Layer 2 connection between your on-premises or colocation-based infrastructure and your Snowflake environment on AWS.

Before you begin, ensure that you have created a Port. After you create the Port, you can connect a Virtual Cross Connect (VXC) from the Port to the virtual gateway associated with the AWS VPC infrastructure. A VXC is a point-to-point Ethernet connection between an A-End (your Port) and a B-End (in this case, your AWS instance).

If you aren’t a Megaport ONE customer, you can create a 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or 100 Gbps Port in one of our global data centers/Points of Presence. If your company isn’t located in one of our PoPs, you can procure a last mile circuit to one of the sites to connect to Megaport ONE. Contact Megaport for more information.

Note

If you require a Port in a different location to physically separate this solution from other existing traffic traversing your Ports, we recommend that you create a new one before proceeding.

This figure shows a high level topology diagram of a solution integrating Megaport ONE with Snowflake Data Warehousing on AWS using a single connection.

Megaport ONE-Snowflake on AWS architecture

Setting up your Snowflake environment

To set up your Snowflake environment, you will:

Log in to Snowflake
Create Snowflake objects
Stage the data files
Copy data into the target table
Query the loaded data

For details on setting up Snowflake in an AWS environment, see Snowflake Prerequisites.

To ensure that data transfer between your Snowflake solution and your VPC remains secure, you can use AWS PrivateLink to connect the two environments. PrivateLink is an AWS service that lets you implement direct and secure connectivity between AWS VPCs. This allows your data to stay within the AWS infrastructure without being exposed to the internet which reduces some of the security risks related to having data traversing the internet.

Note

Enabling AWS PrivateLink can take up to two business days. For more information on enabling AWS PrivateLink for your Snowflake on AWS solution, see AWS PrivateLink & Snowflake.

Integrating Megaport ONE with Snowflake Data Warehousing on AWS

You can use the Megaport ONE Portal to create the VXC to the Snowflake on AWS environment.

In the Megaport ONE Portal, choose Networking > Services.
Select the Port you want to use.
If you haven’t already created a Port, see Creating a Port.
Click Actions and select Add Connection.
Specify the General details:
- Connection Type - Choose Cloud Virtual Cross Connect.
- Cloud Provider – Choose Amazon Web Services.
- AWS Connection Type – Choose Hosted Connection.
Select the AWS region and the interconnection point for your connection.
You can search for your preferred AWS port using the Region drop-down list, or enter a search term to filter results as you type. Click Clear Filters to reset the filters. Each destination port has either a blue or red icon to indicate its diversity zone. To achieve diversity, you need to create two connections with each one in a different zone.
Specify the AWS Configuration details:
- AWS Connection Name – This will be the name of your virtual interface that appears in the AWS console. For easy mapping, the name is pre-populated with the VXC name from the previous section.
- AWS Account ID – This is the ID of the account you want to connect. You can find this value in the management section of your AWS console.
Specify the VXC Configuration details:
- VXC Name – The name of your VXC to be shown in the Megaport ONE Portal. (Tip – match this to the AWS Connection Name in the next section for easy mapping.)
- Rate Limit – This is the speed of your connection in Mbps. Accepted values range from 1 Mbps to 5 Gbps in 1 Mbps increments. Note the sum of all hosted virtual VXCs to a service can exceed the Port capacity (1 or 10 Gbps, or 100 Gbps in some locations) but the total aggregate will never burst beyond the Port capacity.
- A-End VLAN – Optionally, specify an unused VLAN ID for this connection. This must be a unique VLAN ID on this Port and can range from 2 to 4093. If you specify a VLAN ID that is already in use, the system displays the next available VLAN number. The VLAN ID must be unique to proceed with the order. If you don’t specify a value, Megaport ONE will assign one.
  
  Alternatively, you can click Untag VLAN to remove the VLAN tagging for this connection. The untagged option limits you to only one VXC deployed on this Port. (The VLAN for the AWS side termination will be automatically allocated and will not impact your Megaport ONE details.)
Specify the Billing Details:
- Service Level Reference (optional) – Specify a unique identifying number for the VXC to be used for billing purposes, such as a cost center number or a unique customer ID. The service level reference number appears for each service under the Product section of the invoice. You can also edit this field for an existing service.
  
  Note
  
  Partner-managed accounts can apply a Partner Deal to a service.
- Promo Code – If you have a promo code, enter it and click Add Code.
  
  The monthly price updates dynamically based on your selections. (Note that some partner-managed accounts do not display the pricing details).
Click Create Connection to deploy the VXC.
Review the connection details and click Confirm to deploy the connection. The deployment can take several minutes.
After you have finished this configuration, you can configure additional VXCs.

Your work in the Megaport ONE Portal is complete. Next, you will connect the new VXC to your AWS environment.

To accept a Hosted Connection

In approximately 2 minutes, log in to your AWS account. The VXC you implemented will appear in your Direct Connect under Connections.
Click Create connection.
You will then need to connect to a Direct Connect Gateway. For details on connecting to various types of gateways, see Working with Direct Connect gateways - AWS Direct Connect.

Redundancy

To achieve redundancy for the connectivity portion of this solution, establish an additional VXC to a diverse edge router within the AWS environment. Follow the Integrating Megaport ONE with Snowflake Data Warehousing on AWS procedure from step 3, and choose the alternate Diversity Zone (identified by a blue dot) when choosing the AWS region.

Note

The Diversity Zones identified in the Megaport ONE Portal only refer to AWS edge router locations, and not to the Availability Zones within the AWS infrastructure.

Diversity zone

Complete the procedure, including the required steps within the AWS console.

This figure shows a high-level topology diagram of a solution integrating Megaport ONE with diverse connections into the Snowflake Data Warehousing on AWS infrastructure.

For additional physical redundancy for the connectivity, you can implement the VXCs on separate Ports:

Background information

Snowflake is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) data warehouse service that is purpose-built for the cloud. The infrastructure is built within the AWS cloud and allows for fast and simple implementation and integration with your AWS VPC environment and on-premise infrastructure. In a Snowflake on AWS environment, you can take advantage of benefits such as elasticity and scalability while only paying for the resources that you use. It provides metadata management, security of data, and an ANSI compliant engine on a resilient and redundant platform that allows you to store, query, and analyze all of your data in one place. Snowflake is available within the AWS Marketplace; it competes with services that are offered directly by AWS, but can offer more functionality at lower costs. We recommend that you review available options to determine which is best for your business requirements.

For more information on Snowflake, see these additional links:

Last update: 2023-05-16