Exasol allows you run SQL statements in snapshot mode to avoid transaction conflicts. The feature is useful for frequent queries to the system tables for metadata. Such queries may lead to delayed execution caused by transaction management. For example, BI Tools and other front-end systems need metadata from Exasol to display information about existing tables. If there is any information that cannot be retrieved through regular metadata calls on API level, you have to fall back to SQL queries on Exasol's system tables.