MSSQL Hybrid Runner | Collate SQL Server Integration Guide

• Remote Connection
• Requirements
• Metadata Ingestion
• Query Usage
• Data Profiler
• Data Quality
• Lineage
• dbt Integration
• Troubleshooting
• Reverse Metadata

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Requirements

-- Create a new user
-- More details https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/create-user-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver16
CREATE USER Mary WITH PASSWORD = '********';
-- Grant SELECT on table
GRANT SELECT TO Mary;

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View Definitions

-- Database-level: grant to the database user, in every database you ingest
GRANT VIEW DEFINITION TO Mary;
-- Or server-level: grant to the login (not the contained user) to cover all databases
GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO [login_name];

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Usage and Lineage Considerations

SELECT actual_state_desc, query_capture_mode_desc, size_based_cleanup_mode_desc
FROM sys.database_query_store_options;

ALTER DATABASE [YourDatabase] SET QUERY_STORE = ON
(
    QUERY_CAPTURE_MODE = ALL,
    CLEANUP_POLICY = ( STALE_QUERY_THRESHOLD_DAYS = 30 )
);

GRANT VIEW DATABASE STATE TO YourUser;
-- SQL Server 2022 and later: GRANT VIEW DATABASE PERFORMANCE STATE TO YourUser;

GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO YourUser;
-- SQL Server 2022 and later: GRANT VIEW SERVER PERFORMANCE STATE TO YourUser;

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For Remote Connection

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1. Confirm SQL Server Is Running

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2. Allow Remote Connection in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

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3. Configure Windows Firewall

1. On the Start menu, select Run.
2. Enter WF.msc, then select OK.
3. In Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, in the left pane, right-click Inbound Rules.
4. Select New Rule in the action pane.
5. In the Rule Type dialog box, select Port, then select Next.
6. In the Protocol and Ports dialog box, select TCP.
7. Select Specific local ports, then enter the port number of the Database Engine instance, such as 1433 for the default instance.
8. Select Next.
9. In the Action dialog box, select Allow the connection, then select Next.
10. In the Profile dialog box, select the profiles that describe the computer connection environment for when you want to connect to the Database Engine, then select Next.
11. In the Name dialog box, enter a name and description for this rule, then select Finish.

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Metadata Ingestion

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Step 1: Add New Service

1. Navigate to Settings > Services and select Database Services.
2. Click Add New Service.

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Step 2: Select a Service and Connector

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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 MSSQL services you are ingesting metadata from.
• Optional: Enter a Description for the service.

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Step 4: Configure Connection Options

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Select Ingestion Runner

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Enter Connection Details

• Connection
  • Database (required): The initial database to connect to. Metadata reading is restricted to this database unless Ingest All Databases is enabled. In that case, Collate uses this database as the entry point to discover and scan all databases.
  • Username: The user to connect to MSSQL. This user should have privileges to read all the metadata in MSSQL.
  • Host and Port: The fully qualified hostname and port number of your MSSQL deployment.
• Authentication (optional): Enter the Password to connect to MSSQL.
• Scope & Options (optional) Use these settings to tune what Collate ingests. Collate applies default values.
  • Driver: The Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver version for a pyodbc connection. The default is ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server.
  • Encrypt Connection: Requests Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for the MSSQL connection. How the setting applies depends on the connection scheme:
    • mssql+pyodbc honors it directly.
    • mssql+pytds encrypts only when you supply a certificate authority (CA) certificate in the SSL configuration. Otherwise, it logs a warning.
    • mssql+pymssql takes no TLS settings. FreeTDS, the library that mssql+pymssql uses to connect, decides encryption through its own configuration.
  • Trust Server Certificate: Trusts the server certificate without validation. Turn this off in production so Collate validates server certificates against the certificate authority. On mssql+pytds, Collate always validates the certificate chain against the supplied CA certificate and drops only the host name check.
  • Ingest All Databases: Ingests data from all databases in MSSQL, in addition to the database specified in Database. You can use the database filter pattern on top of this option.
  • Include Synonyms: Discovers SQL Server synonyms and records them as alternate names (aliases) on the table they resolve to. Collate also uses the aliases to resolve lineage. This option is off by default.
  

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Advanced Configuration

• Connection Scheme: Defines how to connect to MSSQL. Collate supports mssql+pytds (the default), mssql+pyodbc, and mssql+pymssql. If you use Windows Authentication from a Linux deployment, use mssql+pymssql.
• Validate SSL Client Config and CA Certificate: Provide the CA certificate that Collate uses to validate the server certificate. Click Upload key file to upload it.
• URI String: The connection URI, in case of a pyodbc connection.
• Connection Options (Optional): Additional connection options to send to the database during the connection. Add these details as key-value pairs.
• Connection Arguments (Optional): Additional connection arguments, such as security or protocol configs, to send during the connection. Add these details as key-value pairs.

password: secret:/my/database/password

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Test Connection

1. Click Test Connection to verify the credentials.
2. After the test succeeds, click Save.

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Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options

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How Filter Patterns Work

• Include: Add one or more comma-separated values. Each value uses one of the following match types. Collate ingests only assets whose names match at least one rule. Leave blank to include all assets.
• Exclude: Add one or more comma-separated values. Each value uses one of the following match types. Collate skips any asset whose name matches a rule. Leave blank to exclude nothing.

• 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.

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Filter Options

• Database: Controls which databases Collate ingests from the source.
• Schema: Controls which schemas within the ingested databases are included.
• Table: Controls which tables and views within the ingested schemas are included.
• Stored Procedure: Controls which stored procedures are included in metadata ingestion.

• Scan Mode: Choose one of 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 filter out system-reserved names defined by the connector for that asset type.
• 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: 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

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Configure Metadata Agent and Schedule Ingestion

1. Navigate to Settings > Services and select the Databases service.
2. Select your service and 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 core parameters for metadata extraction. The following fields are available:

     Field	Default	Description
     Default Owner	—	Owner applied to any entity that has no owner from a more specific field below. Accepts a user or a team, by name or email.
     Service Owner	—	Not applied during ingestion. This field doesn’t affect the owners of databases, schemas, or tables.
     Database Owner	—	Owner assigned to every database this agent ingests. Accepts either one owner for all of them, or a mapping of specific owners per database.
     Database Schema Owner	—	Owner assigned to every schema this agent ingests. Accepts either one owner for all of them, or a mapping of specific owners per schema.
     Table Owner	—	Owner assigned to every table this agent ingests. Accepts either one owner for all of them, or a mapping of specific owners per table.
     Enable Inheritance	On	When on, a schema or table with no match of its own inherits the owner resolved for its parent. Default Owner still applies when nothing else resolves an owner.
     Query Log Duration	1	How many days of query logs to look back through when processing stored procedure results.
     Query Parsing Timeout Limit	300	How many seconds to spend parsing a single query before giving up on it and moving to the next. Raise this if large or complex queries are being skipped.
     Number of Threads	1	How many tables to ingest in parallel. Raising this can speed up ingestion on databases with many tables, at the cost of more load on the source.
     Incremental Extraction	Off	When on, a run extracts only entities that changed since the last successful run, instead of re-scanning everything every time. Faster on large, mostly-unchanged databases.
     Successful Pipeline Run Lookback Days	7	Only used when Incremental Extraction is on. How many days back to search for a prior successful run to use as the starting point for “what changed since then.”
     Safety Margin Days	1	Only used when Incremental Extraction is on. Extra days added before that starting point, as a buffer so changes that were still in flight when the last run finished aren’t missed.
     Extract JSON Schema	Off	Sample values in JSON columns to infer and ingest their schema, so the individual fields inside a JSON column are visible in Collate rather than just “JSON”. Requires SELECT permission on the sampled tables; if that permission is missing, the JSON column is still ingested, just without a detailed schema.
     JSON Schema Sample Size	10	Only used when Extract JSON Schema is on. Number of rows sampled per JSON column to infer its schema. A larger sample gives more accurate results but takes longer to run.

     For more information, see Hierarchical Owner Configuration.
   • Filter Patterns: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which databases, schemas, tables, and stored procedures this agent ingests. These follow the same filter options described in Step 5.
   • Scope & Behaviour: Control how the agent handles metadata during ingestion. Toggle each option on or off based on your needs:

     Toggle	Default	Description
     Include Tables	On	Ingest tables and their columns. Turn off to skip tables entirely, for example if this agent exists only to pull tags or stored procedures.
     Include Tags	On	Ingest tags already defined on tables/columns in the source system (for example, a classification tag applied in Snowflake) and bring them into Collate as tags on the same assets.
     Include Stored Procedures	On	Ingest stored procedures as their own assets, so they show up in the catalog and can be linked into lineage.
     Include DDL Statements	Off	Also ingest the raw CREATE TABLE / CREATE VIEW statement for each asset, so it’s viewable in Collate alongside the asset’s metadata.
     Include Owners	Off	When an ingested asset’s owner in the source system is an email that matches an existing Collate user, assign that user as the asset’s owner. Never overwrites an owner an asset already has in Collate.
     Include Custom Properties	Off	Ingest source-specific metadata that doesn’t map to a standard Collate field (for example, a database-specific attribute) into custom properties on the asset, if custom properties have been defined for that entity type.
     Mark Deleted Tables	On	If a table this agent previously ingested no longer exists in the source, soft-delete it in Collate too. Only affects tables within schemas this agent actually scans.
     Mark Deleted Stored Procedures	On	Same as Mark Deleted Tables, but for stored procedures.
     Mark Deleted Schemas	Off	If an entire schema this agent previously ingested no longer exists in the source, soft-delete the schema and everything in it.
     Mark Deleted Databases	Off	If an entire database this agent previously ingested no longer exists in the source, soft-delete the database and everything in it.
     Override Metadata	Off	On: values from the source (descriptions, tags, owners, display names) overwrite what’s currently in Collate, even if someone edited it there. A description or display name that the source doesn’t send never replaces an existing value, and existing table constraints are kept when the source sends none. Off: Collate only fills in fields that are still empty, so manual edits in Collate are preserved.
     Enable Debug Log	Off	Run this ingestion at DEBUG log verbosity instead of the normal level. Turn on when troubleshooting a failing or unexpected run; leave off otherwise, since debug logs are much larger.

     Note: Available toggles vary by connector. Stored procedure options only appear for connectors that support stored procedures.
     
   • Advanced Config: Driver-level options (connection arguments, scheme, and timeouts). Most connections never need these, and they vary by connector. This section also has one ingestion-scope toggle:

     Toggle	Default	Description
     Include Views	On	Ingest views in addition to tables. Turn off to skip views entirely. Because view lineage is derived from parsing each view’s SQL definition, turning this off also stops view-based lineage from being generated for this service.

     
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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Reverse Metadata

-- Update schema description
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1
               FROM {database}.sys.extended_properties
               WHERE name = N'MS_Description' And
               major_id = SCHEMA_ID('{schema}') AND
               minor_id = 0
     		)
BEGIN
    EXEC {database}.{schema}.sp_addextendedproperty
     @name = N'MS_Description',
     @value = N{description},
     @level0type = N'SCHEMA',
     @level0name = N'{schema}'
END
ELSE
BEGIN
    EXEC {database}.{schema}.sp_updateextendedproperty
     @name = N'MS_Description',
     @value = N{description},
     @level0type = N'SCHEMA',
     @level0name = N'{schema}'
END;

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Troubleshooting