ADA-C01 Question 204
Single answerIdentify when a given account identifier needs to be usedA Snowflake administrator is updating internal runbooks for a company that operates in multiple regions and cloud platforms. During a migration project, several teams ask which account identifier they must provide for different tasks. Which task specifically requires using the account locator (or an organization-qualified account name that resolves to the same account identity), rather than relying only on the friendly account name shown in Snowsight?
- A
Constructing a SQL statement to switch to a different virtual warehouse within the same account
- B
Creating a database replication or failover configuration that targets another Snowflake account
- C
Granting a role to a user in the current account using GRANT ROLE
- D
Tagging a warehouse with cost-center metadata for chargeback reporting
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The key concept is that Snowflake uses different account identifiers for different purposes. Many day-to-day SQL operations are scoped to the current session and account, so they only require object names such as warehouse, role, database, schema, user, or tag names. However, when configuring account-to-account features, the target account must be identified unambiguously. A common real-world example is setting up database replication or failover groups, where Snowflake requires an account identifier that uniquely resolves the target account, such as the account locator or the organization-qualified account name. This is especially important in enterprises with multiple accounts across regions and cloud providers, where a friendly account name alone may be ambiguous or insufficient. This aligns with Snowflake guidance for account identifiers and cross-account administration tasks, including replication/failover configuration and account URL/account identity usage.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Switching warehouses uses the warehouse object name within the current account context, for example USE WAREHOUSE
. This does not require any account identifier such as an account locator or organization-qualified account name. - B. Correct.
Correct. Cross-account features such as replication and failover/failover groups require an account-level identifier that uniquely identifies the target account. In practice, Snowflake documentation references using identifiers such as the account locator or organization-qualified account name, because a simple friendly display name is not sufficient to uniquely identify the destination account across regions/clouds.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. GRANT ROLE operates on security principals inside the current account and uses role and user names defined in that account. No separate account identifier is needed unless a cross-account integration or account-level feature is being configured, which is not the case here.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Applying tags to a warehouse is an object-level metadata operation inside the current account. The administrator needs the warehouse and tag names, not the account locator.