CODEWITHSUNDEEP
snowflake-cloud-data-platform
Marco Roy
Marco Roy

Reputation: 5295

Credit usage of repetitive warehouse suspension & resumption in Snowflake

I'm curious about the usage/credits/cost implications of resuming & suspending a warehouse multiple times within one minute (whether this happens manually or automatically).

The Snowflake documentation is slightly ambiguous regarding this edge case.

From Virtual Warehouse Credit Usage:

The credit numbers shown here are for a full hour of usage; however, credits are billed per-second, with a 60-second (i.e. 1-minute) minimum:

  • Each time a warehouse is started or resized to a larger size, the warehouse is billed for 1 minute’s worth of usage based on the hourly rate shown above.
  • Stopping and restarting a warehouse within the first minute does not change the amount billed; the minimum billing charge is 1 minute.

From How are Credits Charged for Warehouses?:

When warehouses are provisioned:

  • The minimum billing charge for provisioning a warehouse is 1 minute (i.e. 60 seconds).
  • There is no benefit to stopping a warehouse before the first 60-second period is over because the credits have already been billed for that period.
  • After the first 60 seconds, all subsequent billing for a running warehouse (until it is shut down). Three examples are provided below:
    • If a warehouse runs for 30 to 60 seconds, it is billed for 60 seconds.
    • If a warehouse runs for 61 seconds, it is billed for only 61 seconds.
    • If a warehouse runs for 61 seconds, shuts down, and then restarts and runs for less than 60 seconds, it is billed for 121 seconds (60 + 1 + 60).

What I'm looking for would be an example along the lines of:

I assume it is the latter, but I would like to know for sure.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 562

Answers (2)

Marco Roy
Marco Roy

Reputation: 5295

Just ran some tests, and the results are clear:

Each restart of a warehouse (no matter the context or when it was last suspended), will incur the 60 seconds minimum charge.

I tested with a Medium warehouse (4/60 credits per minute):

  • Resuming 6 times, minutes apart: 0.40 credits
  • Resuming 6 times within the same minute: 0.40 credits

Upvotes: 1

Simeon Pilgrim
Simeon Pilgrim

Reputation: 26078

create warehouse timetest2 WAREHOUSE_SIZE = XSMALL INITIALLY_SUSPENDED = TRUE;
use warehouse timetest2;

alter warehouse timetest2 RESUME;

select sum(random()) 
from table(generator(TIMELIMIT => 10));

alter warehouse timetest2 SUSPEND;

with the last three steps done twice, with 5 seconds of pause.

select start_time, 
    warehouse_name, 
    credits_used_compute, 
    round(credits_used_compute * 60,3) as minutes_billed
from table(information_schema.warehouse_metering_history(dateadd('hour',-1,current_timestamp)));
START_TIME WAREHOUSE_NAME CREDITS_USED_COMPUTE MINUTES_BILLED
2022-04-16 15:32:36.000 -0700 TIMETEST2 0.033333333 2
2022-04-16 15:32:36.000 -0700 TIMETEST 0.033333333 2

Done twice, just incase as the first was sloppy. It seems to bill per minute as noted.

Upvotes: 2

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