Compute Pools

Introduction

Compute Pools in Snowflake are account-level collections of virtual machine nodes. These pools automatically scale between configurable minimum and maximum node limits based on demand. They function as the foundational infrastructure for containerized data applications within Snowflake’s ecosystem, similar to virtual warehouses.

The Snowflake emulator provides a CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) interface for Compute Pools, allowing you to mock the creation and management of Compute Pools in your local environment.

Getting started

This guide is designed for users new to Compute Pools and assumes basic knowledge of SQL and Snowflake. Start your Snowflake emulator and connect to it using an SQL client in order to execute the queries further below.

In this guide, you will create a Compute Pool, display the Compute Pool details, alter the Compute Pool configuration, and drop the Compute Pool.

Create a Compute Pool

You can create a Compute Pool using the CREATE COMPUTE POOL statement. In this example, you can create a Compute Pool called my_compute_pool:

CREATE COMPUTE POOL my_compute_pool
MIN_NODES = 1
MAX_NODES = 1
INSTANCE_FAMILY = CPU_X64_XS;

Describe Compute Pool

You can view detailed information about a Compute Pool using the DESCRIBE COMPUTE POOL statement:

DESCRIBE COMPUTE POOL my_compute_pool;

The output should be:

name           |state   |min_nodes|max_nodes|instance_family|num_services|num_jobs|auto_suspend_secs|auto_resume|active_nodes|idle_nodes|target_nodes|created_on             |resumed_on             |updated_on             |owner |comment|is_exclusive|application|error_code|status_message                             |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------------+------------+--------+-----------------+-----------+------------+----------+------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+------+-------+------------+-----------+----------+-------------------------------------------+
MY_COMPUTE_POOL|STARTING|        1|        1|CPU_X64_XS     |           0|       0|             3600|true       |           0|         0|           1|1970-01-01 05:30:00.000|1970-01-01 05:30:00.000|1970-01-01 05:30:00.000|PUBLIC|       |false       |           |          |Compute pool is starting for last 0 minutes|

Show Compute Pools

You can display the Compute Pools using the SHOW COMPUTE POOLS statement:

SHOW COMPUTE POOLS LIKE 'my_compute_pool';

The output should be:

name           |state   |min_nodes|max_nodes|instance_family|num_services|num_jobs|auto_suspend_secs|auto_resume|active_nodes|idle_nodes|target_nodes|created_on             |resumed_on             |updated_on             |owner |comment|is_exclusive|application|
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------------+------------+--------+-----------------+-----------+------------+----------+------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+------+-------+------------+-----------+
MY_COMPUTE_POOL|STARTING|        1|        1|CPU_X64_XS     |           0|       0|             3600|true       |           0|         0|           1|1970-01-01 05:30:00.000|1970-01-01 05:30:00.000|1970-01-01 05:30:00.000|PUBLIC|       |false       |           |

Alter Compute Pool

You can modify the configuration of an existing Compute Pool using the ALTER COMPUTE POOL statement. In this example, you can increase the maximum number of nodes:

ALTER COMPUTE POOL my_compute_pool SET MAX_NODES = 2;

You can verify the change by describing the Compute Pool again:

DESCRIBE COMPUTE POOL my_compute_pool;

Drop Compute Pool

You can drop the Compute Pool using the DROP COMPUTE POOL statement:

DROP COMPUTE POOL my_compute_pool;