Is refreshing a secondary database blocked if an external table exists in the primary database?

• A. Yes
• B. No
• C. Only if external table is large
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (A)

When a secondary database is used as a replica of the primary, it mirrors objects from the primary in a way that keeps the two environments aligned. External tables are definitions that point to data stored outside Snowflake (for example in S3, Azure Blob, or Google Cloud Storage) and they rely on external data sources and credentials. If a secondary tries to refresh to match the primary while an external table exists on the primary, it would bring over the external table definition that depends on those external resources and access rights. Since the secondary may not have the same external data location, credentials, or permissions, recreating or refreshing that external table could lead to failures or broken references. To avoid creating an invalid or inaccessible object on the secondary, the refresh is blocked when an external table is present on the primary. If you need the secondary to reflect that external table, you’d need to ensure the secondary has equivalent external access set up or manually recreate the table there after addressing the external data source and permissions.