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Why Migrate?

Snowflake Postgres gives you a fully managed, 100%-compatible PostgreSQL database with enterprise capabilities built in:

  • Zero code changes — Full PostgreSQL compatibility means your schemas, queries, stored procedures, and extensions work without modification.
  • Enterprise security — PrivateLink, VPC peering, customer-managed encryption keys, and Snowflake's unified access control.
  • Built-in high availability — Automated replication and failover with no manual configuration.
  • Managed operations — Automated backups (10-day retention), minor version upgrades, monitoring, and alerting are included.
  • Platform integration — Access Cortex AI, Streamlit, and the broader Snowflake ecosystem directly from your Postgres data via pg_lake.

Step 1: Assess Your Current Deployment

Before migrating, inventory your existing setup:

Postgres Version and Extensions

SELECT version();

SELECT extname, extversion
FROM pg_extension
ORDER BY extname;

Verify that your Postgres version and extensions are supported on Snowflake Postgres. Check the compatibility matrix for details.

Database Size and Storage

SELECT pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size(current_database())) AS db_size;

SELECT
    schemaname,
    tablename,
    pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(schemaname || '.' || tablename)) AS total_size
FROM pg_tables
WHERE schemaname NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema')
ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(schemaname || '.' || tablename) DESC
LIMIT 20;

Application Connections

Document every application, service, and tool that connects to your database:

  • Connection strings and hosts
  • ORMs and database drivers in use
  • Connection poolers (PgBouncer, pgpool)
  • Scheduled jobs and cron tasks
  • Monitoring and backup agents

Custom Configurations

Export your current configuration for reference:

SELECT name, setting, source
FROM pg_settings
WHERE source NOT IN ('default', 'override')
ORDER BY name;

Step 2: Provision Snowflake Postgres

Create your target instance in Snowsight:

Cloud Region

Select the cloud provider (AWS or Azure) and region closest to your application servers to minimize latency.

Instance Family and Size

Choose based on your assessment:

  • Match or exceed your current CPU and memory allocation.
  • Start with a comparable size — you can resize later without downtime.

Networking

Configure network access to match your security requirements:

  • Network policies — Restrict access to specific IP ranges.
  • PrivateLink — For private connectivity from your VPC.
  • VPC peering — For direct network connectivity without traversing the public internet.

Authentication

Set up users and roles to match your current access patterns. Snowflake Postgres supports standard Postgres authentication methods.

Step 3: Migrate Your Data

Logical Backup with pg_dump / pg_restore

For most databases, a logical backup is the simplest approach:

# Export from source
pg_dump -h <source-host> -U <source-user> -d <source-db> \
    --format=custom --compress=9 \
    -f backup.dump

# Import to Snowflake Postgres
pg_restore -h <snowflake-host> -U <snowflake-user> -d <target-db> \
    --no-owner --no-privileges \
    backup.dump

Large Tables with COPY

For very large tables, COPY can be faster than pg_dump:

# Export
psql -h <source-host> -U <source-user> -d <source-db> \
    -c "\COPY large_table TO 'large_table.csv' WITH CSV HEADER"

# Import
psql -h <snowflake-host> -U <snowflake-user> -d <target-db> \
    -c "\COPY large_table FROM 'large_table.csv' WITH CSV HEADER"

Validate Data Integrity

After migration, verify that all data transferred correctly:

-- Compare row counts
SELECT 'customers' AS table_name, COUNT(*) AS row_count FROM customers
UNION ALL
SELECT 'orders', COUNT(*) FROM orders
UNION ALL
SELECT 'products', COUNT(*) FROM products;

-- Verify constraints
SELECT conname, contype, conrelid::regclass
FROM pg_constraint
WHERE connamespace = 'public'::regnamespace;

-- Check indexes
SELECT indexname, tablename, indexdef
FROM pg_indexes
WHERE schemaname = 'public';

Compare these results against your source database to confirm a complete migration.

Step 4: Update Application Connections

Update Connection Strings

Replace your source database host with the Snowflake Postgres endpoint. The port (5432), database name, and SSL mode remain standard Postgres.

# Before
postgresql://user:pass@old-host.example.com:5432/mydb?sslmode=require

# After
postgresql://user:pass@<snowflake-instance-host>:5432/mydb?sslmode=require

Test with Your ORM

Run your application's ORM migrations and seed scripts against the new instance to verify compatibility:

# Django
python manage.py migrate --run-syncdb
python manage.py test

# Rails
bundle exec rails db:migrate
bundle exec rails test

# Node.js (Prisma)
npx prisma migrate deploy
npm test

Verify Queries and Transactions

  • Run your application's test suite against the Snowflake Postgres instance.
  • Check that prepared statements, advisory locks, and LISTEN/NOTIFY work as expected.
  • Validate transaction isolation behavior if your application relies on specific levels.

Step 5: Enable Snowflake Integration

Once your database is running on Snowflake Postgres, unlock platform features:

pg_lake

Install the pg_lake extension to sync Postgres tables to Snowflake for analytics and AI:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_lake;

Configure tables for continuous replication to the Snowflake data platform.

Data Pipelines

With your data in Snowflake via pg_lake, you can:

  • Join Postgres data with data from other Snowflake sources.
  • Build ELT pipelines using Snowflake Tasks and Streams.
  • Share data across your organization using Snowflake Data Sharing.

Cortex AI

Use Snowflake Cortex to run LLM functions directly on your synced Postgres data — summarization, classification, translation, and more — without moving data to external services.

Streamlit Dashboards

Build interactive applications on your Postgres data using Streamlit in Snowflake. No frontend framework or separate hosting required.

Conclusion

You have migrated your Postgres database to Snowflake with zero code changes and enabled platform integrations that were not available in your previous environment.

Related Resources

❄️ Snowflake Quickstart — Migrate Using Logical Replication

Step-by-step guide to migrating with minimal downtime using logical replication.

❄️ Snowflake Docs — Snowflake Postgres

Overview of Snowflake Postgres features and capabilities.

❄️ Snowflake Docs — Connecting to Snowflake Postgres

Connection methods and client configuration for Snowflake Postgres.

Updated 2026-07-08

This content is provided as is, and is not maintained on an ongoing basis. It may be out of date with current Snowflake instances