Snowplow Connector

This section provides guides and references to use the Snowplow connector. Configure and schedule Snowplow metadata workflow from the Collate UI:

• Requirements
• Metadata Ingestion
• Troubleshooting

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Requirements

The Snowplow connector supports two deployment types:

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BDP (Business Data Platform) Deployment

For Snowplow BDP managed deployments, you need:

• Access to the Snowplow Console
• An API Key with read permissions for accessing pipeline configurations
• Your Organization ID from the Snowplow Console

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Community Deployment

For self-hosted Snowplow Community deployments, you need:

• Access to your Snowplow pipeline configuration files
• Read permissions on the configuration directory
• The file system path to your configuration files

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Metadata Ingestion

To ingest metadata from Snowplow, you need to create a service connection. The service connects Snowplow with Collate. Once you create a service, Collate automatically starts ingesting metadata.

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Step 1: Add New Service

1. In the left navigation, click Connections.
2. On the Connections page, click Add New Service.

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Step 2: Select a Service and Connector

From the service type dropdown, select Pipeline Services, then click the Snowplow connector tile.

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Step 3: Add Service Name and Description

• Enter a unique, descriptive Service Name. Collate identifies services by their service name. Enter a name that distinguishes this deployment from other Snowplow services you are ingesting metadata from.
• Optional: Enter a Description for the service.

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Step 4: Configure Connection Options

Specify where ingestion runs, provide your source credentials, and verify the connection.

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Select Ingestion Runner

Select an Ingestion Runner: the runner where the ingestion pipeline will execute.

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Enter Connection Details

Enter the connection details for Snowplow. The right-hand panel in the UI displays inline help for each field.

• Deployment Type: Select your Snowplow deployment type:
  • BDP: For Snowplow’s managed Business Data Platform
  • Community: For self-hosted Snowplow deployments The required configuration fields will change based on your deployment type selection.

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BDP Deployment Configuration

For BDP deployments, provide the following:

• Console URL: The base URL of your Snowplow Console where you access the UI (e.g., https://console.snowplow.io)
• API Key: Your Snowplow Console API Key with appropriate read permissions. To generate an API key:
  1. Log into your Snowplow Console
  2. Navigate to Account Settings
  3. Select the API Keys section
  4. Create a new API key with read permissions for pipeline configurations
• Organization ID: Your unique Snowplow BDP Organization ID. You can find this in:
  • Snowplow Console Account Settings
  • The URL when accessing your console (e.g., https://console.snowplow.io/organizations/{org-id})

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Community Deployment Configuration

For Community deployments, provide:

• Configuration Path: The file system path to your Snowplow pipeline configuration files. This should point to the directory containing your Snowplow configuration files such as:
  • Collector configurations
  • Enrichment configurations
  • Storage loader configurations
  • Pipeline orchestration files
  Example: /opt/snowplow/configs

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Additional Configuration

• Cloud Provider: Select the cloud provider where your Snowplow infrastructure is deployed:
  • AWS: Amazon Web Services (default)
  • GCP: Google Cloud Platform
  • Azure: Microsoft Azure
  This information helps optimize metadata extraction based on cloud-specific configurations.
• Pipeline Filter Pattern: Optionally provide a regular expression pattern to exclude certain pipelines from ingestion. Examples:
  • Exclude test pipelines: .*test.*
  • Exclude development pipelines: ^dev-.*
  • Exclude multiple patterns: (.*test.*|.*dev.*|.*staging.*)
  Leave empty to ingest all available pipelines.

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Test Connection

Once the credentials have been added, click on Test Connection and Save the changes.

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Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options

In the What to Ingest step, use filter patterns to control which assets Collate ingests from your pipeline service. Filter patterns use regular expressions applied to pipeline names.

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How Filter Patterns Work

• Include: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. Collate ingests only assets whose names match at least one expression. Leave blank to include all assets.
• Exclude: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. Collate skips any asset whose name matches an expression. Leave blank to exclude nothing.

Rules match asset names using one of five expressions:

• contains: matches any name containing the value. For example, sales matches my_sales_data and sales_2024.
• starts with: matches names beginning with the value. For example, prod_ matches prod_db and prod_schema.
• ends with: matches names ending with the value. For example, _raw matches events_raw and logs_raw.
• is exactly: matches the exact name only. For example, analytics matches only analytics.
• matches regex: matches names using a regular expression. For example, ^prod_.*_v\d+$ matches prod_events_v1.

When both Include and Exclude are set, Exclude takes priority. Filter Options The Pipeline section includes the following filter options:

• Pipeline: Controls which pipelines (DAGs, jobs, or workflows) Collate ingests from the source.

Each section provides the following controls:

• Scan Mode: You can choose between the following scan modes:
  • Scan all: Ingests every asset of that type the connector can access. This is the default.
  • Only specific: Enables include rules so only assets matching at least one rule are ingested.
• Exclude system toggle: Use this toggle to automatically filter out system-reserved names defined by the connector — for example, Exclude system databases for the Databases section.
• Always exclude: Add permanent exclusion rules (shown in red). Assets matching these rules are never ingested, regardless of include rules.
• Preview: Shows a real-time summary of what will be in scope based on your current rules.
• Include rules (available only in Only specific mode): Click + Add to define a rule. Added rules appear as chips; an asset is included if it matches any rule.

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Step 6: Create & Deploy

Click Create & Deploy to deploy the agent and start the first metadata ingestion run. Collate saves the service configuration and immediately begins pulling metadata from the source. To monitor ingestion progress or view the service you just added, go to Connections in the left navigation and select your service.

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Configure Metadata Agent and Schedule Ingestion

The Metadata Agent extracts pipelines, tasks, and other structural metadata from your source and keeps your Collate catalog in sync. It powers discovery, lineage, and governance across your data assets. When you click Create & Deploy, Collate automatically deploys a Metadata Agent for this service and triggers the first ingestion run. View its status and run history from the Agents tab on the service detail page. To configure the additional Metadata Agent and schedule ingestion, follow these steps:

1. In the left navigation, click Connections and select your service.
2. Click the Agents tab.
3. Click Add Agent and select Metadata from the dropdown. For some services, the dropdown is not available and clicking Add Agent takes you directly to the agent configuration page.
4. On the Configure Ingestion page, do the following and click Next.
   • Name this Ingestion: Enter a unique recognizable name for this ingestion pipeline.
   • Agent Setup: Configure the core parameters for this agent. The following fields are available:

     Field	Default	Description
     Ownership Update Mode	replace	Set how owners from source metadata update Pipeline owners. In replace mode, resolved owners from the current source replace existing owners. In append mode, resolved owners are appended to active existing Pipeline owners.
     Db Service Names	—	List of database service names used for lineage resolution.
     Storage Service Names	—	List of storage service names used for lineage resolution.
     Messaging Service Names	—	List of messaging service names used for lineage resolution.
     Status Lookback Days	1	Number of days of pipeline run status history to ingest. Only runs within the last N days will be fetched.
     Include Lineage	On	Turn off to stop fetching lineage from pipelines.
     Mark Deleted Pipeline	On	Soft-delete pipelines in Collate when they are removed from the source. Associated entities like lineage are also deleted.
     Include UnDeployed Pipelines	On	Toggle whether un-deployed pipelines should be ingested. If set to false, only deployed pipelines will be ingested.

     
   • Filter Patterns: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which pipelines this agent ingests. These follow the same filter options described in Step 5.
   • Scope & Behaviour: Control what metadata to include and how to handle deletions. Toggle each option on or off based on your needs:

     Toggle	Default	Description
     Enable Debug Log	Off	Sets the ingestion log level to DEBUG. Useful for troubleshooting.
     Override Metadata	Off	When on, source values overwrite existing descriptions, tags, owners, and display names in Collate. When off, Collate only updates fields that have no existing value.
     Override Lineage	Off	When on, existing lineage is replaced with newly extracted lineage on each run.

     
5. On the Schedule Interval page, set when the agent runs:
   • Schedule: Choose a preset interval (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly) or enter a custom cron expression.
   • On-Demand: No automatic schedule; trigger the agent manually when needed.
   
6. Click Add to deploy the agent.

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Troubleshooting