Snowflake is dedicated to providing a seamless, always up-to-date experience for users through rapid development and continual innovation. New releases are deployed each week, delivering service improvements, new features, enhancements, and fixes. These deployments occur transparently, ensuring no downtime or service disruption, and users always have access to the latest features.
Table of Contents
Open Table of Contents
Release Types
Full Release
Content: Full releases include new features, feature enhancements, updates, fixes, and behaviour changes.
Documentation: Each full release comes with updated release notes for the weekly cycle.
Deployment: Full releases can occur any day except typically not on Fridays to avoid issues during off-hours.
Patch Release
Content: Patch releases contain fixes only.
Timing: Patch releases are deployed as needed during or after the completion of the full release.
Cancellation: Patch releases may be canceled if the full release is significantly delayed or prolonged.
Behavior Changes (Monthly)
Behaviour changes are introduced monthly (except November and December) in one of the weekly full releases, typically the 3rd or 4th release of the month. These changes may impact customer code or workloads and are provided in bundles named as follows: YYYY_NN (e.g., 2022_06 for the 6th bundle in 2022).
Bundle Lifecycle
Testing Period (1st Month)
Status: Disabled by default.
Purpose: Allows testing in development or QA accounts without impacting production.
Opt-out Period (2nd Month)
Status: Enabled by default.
Purpose: Allows disabling the bundle in production accounts to make necessary adjustments.
After these periods, the bundle becomes “Generally Enabled” across all accounts. Temporary disablement of individual changes can be requested through Snowflake Support.
Behavior Change Documentation
- Behavior Change Log: Lists upcoming and recently implemented changes.
- Bundle Documentation: Describes each behaviour change.
- Unbundled Changes: Lists upcoming and recently implemented unbundled changes.
Conclusion
Snowflake’s commitment to seamless updates and continual innovation ensures that users always have access to the latest features and improvements without service disruption. Understanding the different types of releases and the behaviour change lifecycle helps organisations stay prepared and adapt smoothly to new updates.
Stay tuned for more articles on how Snowflake manages pre-release testing, validation, and early access to releases.