Get started with the Data Connector - ION Manual

Documentation Index

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The Data Connector gives you a read-only Snowflake account that mirrors your ION data, so you can query it from Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Sigma, or any other BI tool.

Set up the Data Connector

Select Data Connector in the ION sidebar. The first person from your organization to complete onboarding becomes an admin and can add the rest of the team.

If you don’t see the Data Connector page, your organization hasn’t been onboarded yet. Contact your Customer Success Manager to enable it.

The Data Connector page has cards for opening your warehouse ( Go to Data Connector), managing who has access ( Manage users), and creating connections for BI tools ( BI service users).

Sign in to your account

Your Data Connector account is separate from your ION login. Your ION email and password, or your SSO sign-in, won’t work here.

• Username: your email address. To confirm the exact username, open Manage users on the Data Connector page.
• Password: set through the one-time link you receive when your account is created.

To open your warehouse, select Go to Data Connector. The Snowflake sign-in opens in a new tab.

Password resets happen on the Data Connector page in ION, not on the warehouse sign-in page. An admin resets it under Manage users. For the steps, see Manage Data Connector users.

Connect a BI tool

BI tools and scripts connect through a BI service user, which authenticates with a key pair instead of a password. You generate the key pair yourself and share only the public half, so your private key never leaves your machine.

Generate a key pair

Run these commands to create a private key (rsa_key.p8) and its matching public key (rsa_key.pub):

openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -nocrypt -out rsa_key.p8
openssl rsa -in rsa_key.p8 -pubout -out rsa_key.pub

Keep rsa_key.p8 private. Your BI tool needs it, and anyone who has it can read your data.

Create the BI service user

On the Data Connector page, select BI service users, then Add service user. Enter a Label to identify the connection, such as Tableau Production, paste the contents of rsa_key.pub into Public key (PEM), and select Create service user. ION shows the generated Username, such as SVC_TABLEAU_PRODUCTION. Note it for the next step. Creating a service user requires admin access. If you’re not an admin, ask one to create it for you.

Configure your BI tool

Open the Snowflake connector in your BI tool and choose key-pair authentication:

• Username: the service user’s username.
• Private key: your rsa_key.p8 file.
• Account, warehouse, and database: find these in your warehouse. Select Go to Data Connector to sign in. The account identifier is part of the warehouse URL.

The exact steps vary by tool:

• Power BI Snowflake connector
• Tableau Snowflake connection
• Looker Snowflake dialect
• Sigma Snowflake connection

To roll a key, select Rotate key on the service user and paste a new public key. The old key stops working right away, so update your BI tool with the matching new private key before you rotate. Once connected, you can browse the available tables directly from your BI tool’s data pane.

Build your first dashboard

The fastest way to build a useful dashboard is to start with a Data Product rather than the raw tables. Data Products are pre-joined, pre-aggregated views maintained by First Resonance. A good starting point for most teams:

1. In your BI tool, open the Snowflake connection and browse to the schema.
2. Find the computed tier, which holds the Data Products.
3. Drag in the Data Product that matches your question. For a quality dashboard, start with issue_details. For a production overview, start with full_bom. For part availability, start with part_quantities_by_inv_status.
4. Add filters for date range, team, or part as needed.
5. Build your chart or table from the columns available.

The Data Connector is read-only. Build measures and calculated fields in your BI tool. You can’t create tables or write data in the warehouse.

For the full list of Data Products and what each one contains, see Data Products. If no Data Product fits your question, you can query the raw or cleaned (_enriched) tables directly. See Available tables for the full catalog.