Skip to main content

Data imports

Data imports enable you to upload user and user activity data to SaaS that is not collected by your other discovery sources. Once imported, this data is consolidated into indicators, charts, and tables on the SaaS pages. You can use Data imports to gain visibility on the usage of SaaS applications that are unsupported by the out of the box connectors, or to track user and user activity data from vendors that are supported out of the box, but do not provide API data on users or user activity.

Data imports let you upload CSV files in Settings to add information about Users or Activities for an application. Each file can have multiple records. For data from an Activities import to appear on the SaaS pages, there must be a corresponding Users configuration for the same vendor and application, with user identifiers that match those in the Activities CSV. For information on creating Data imports, see Manage Data imports.

Once you have created an import configuration, the CSV file is processed and saved in the Snow Atlas system. Data from import configurations is displayed in SaaS when the Data Update Job completes, or when you manually select Update data at the bottom of a page in SaaS. Users and activity data retrieved from an import configuration are represented by the Data import discovery type in SaaS. For information on discovery sources, see SaaS discovery.

You can update the data captured by a Data import by uploading modified or new CSV files for the import configuration, or by creating an API integration.

API integrations​

API integrations can help you automate the workflow involved to update data captured by a Data import. These integrations can be supported by automation scripts in your local environment that are designed to trigger the required API calls to upload data in a CSV, and then import that data into SaaS. The basic flow for an API integration is as follows:

  1. Request an upload URL to Azure blob storage from the Snow Atlas API. The response includes a pre-signed, time-sensitive URL to Azure blob storage and file ID.
  2. Upload the CSV to Azure blob storage using the pre-signed URL.
  3. Create a task to import the CSV data into SaaS by placing a request to the Snow Atlas API.

For more information on the required steps that can be automated with scripting, see Create API integrations.

To create API integrations, you require access to the Snow Atlas APIs. To get access, you must create an application registration that has the Perform CRUD import operations write permission for SaaS Management. This will generate client credentials that you can then use to obtain an access token for the Snow Atlas APIs. For more information, see Manage application registrations and Authentication with client credentials.