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Hybrid Environment (MSSQL on-prem and Snowflake)

  • July 25, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 34 views

Hello,

We have currently set up a hybrid environment for our TX deployments.  A DEV environment in on premise MSSQL database and test and prod in Snowflake.  I have already come across situations like hashing where the built in functionality is not usable in Snowflake and if you create a custom field with a hashing algorithm it is not possible to deploy from MSSQL to Snowflake becuase of the different language required to create the hash.  

I have also com across this when writing custom scripts.  In those cases so far i have been able to create code that works in both environments.

 

Is there any way to handle this more effeciently when running a hybrid set up like this?  We are trying to reduce unneccessary costs in Snowflake during development hence the hybrid set up.  I have read some things about Instance variables but it would be great if there is some kind of best practice in a set up like this.

Best answer by rory.smith

Hi,

as TimeXtender does not have its own script language that gets transcompiled to a target language, you generally cannot easily work this way. Even if you could do this, there are different behaviours associated with the same or similar function calls in different SQL dialects.

To be honest, I would be surprised if there was a large difference in cost between maintaining SQL Server on a VM vs. running a small Snowflake warehouse when you need it in the favour of SQL Server on a VM. Even if you ignore VM, OS maintenance, SQL license, SQL maintenance, you are adding complexity and therefore cost to your system.

You will also need to be aware that default sorting is different between SQL Server and Snowflake, String concatenation is different, date / time is handled differently, Snowflake is case sensitive, etc. This may require working around this differences with additional complexity as a result.

2 replies

rory.smith
TimeXtender Xpert
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  • TimeXtender Xpert
  • Answer
  • July 25, 2025

Hi,

as TimeXtender does not have its own script language that gets transcompiled to a target language, you generally cannot easily work this way. Even if you could do this, there are different behaviours associated with the same or similar function calls in different SQL dialects.

To be honest, I would be surprised if there was a large difference in cost between maintaining SQL Server on a VM vs. running a small Snowflake warehouse when you need it in the favour of SQL Server on a VM. Even if you ignore VM, OS maintenance, SQL license, SQL maintenance, you are adding complexity and therefore cost to your system.

You will also need to be aware that default sorting is different between SQL Server and Snowflake, String concatenation is different, date / time is handled differently, Snowflake is case sensitive, etc. This may require working around this differences with additional complexity as a result.


Christian Hauggaard
Community Manager
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Hi ​@MMM does Rory’s comment above answer your question? Please let us know if you have any follow up questions