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Alation

Alation

PROD
In this section, we provide guides and references to use the Alation connector. Configure and schedule Alation metadata and profiler workflows from the OpenMetadata UI:

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How to Run the Connector Externally

To run the Ingestion via the UI you’ll need to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion Container, which comes shipped with custom Airflow plugins to handle the workflow deployment. If, instead, you want to manage your workflows externally on your preferred orchestrator, you can check the following docs to run the Ingestion Framework anywhere.

External Schedulers

Get more information about running the Ingestion Framework Externally

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Requirements

Follow the official documentation to generate a API Access Token from here

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Data Mapping and Assumptions

Following entities are supported and will be mapped to the OpenMetadata entities as shown below.
Alation EntityOpenMetadata Entity
Data Source (OCF and Native)Database Service
Data Source (OCF and Native)Database
SchemaSchema
TableTable
ColumnsColumns
Custom FieldsCustom Properties
TagsTags
BI ServersDashboard Services
Dashboard DataSourceDashboard DataModel
FolderDashboard
ReportChart
Users/GroupsUsers/Teams
Domains/SubdomainsDomains/Subdomains
Knowledge ArticlesKnowledge Center Articles
  • Since Alation does not have a concept of Service entity, the Data Sources (OCF and Native) will be mapped to Database Service and Database in OpenMetadata. Hence for each Data Source in Alation there will one Database Service and Database present in OpenMetadata.
  • Custom fields will have a 1:1 mapping for all the entities except for Columns since OpenMetadata does not support custom properties for columns.
  • Alation has two fields for descriptions i.e. descriptions and comments. These fields will be combined under one field description in OpenMetadata for all the entities.

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Python Requirements

To run the Alation ingestion, you will need to install: 
pip3 install "openmetadata-ingestion[alation]"

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Metadata Ingestion

All connectors are defined as JSON Schemas. Here you can find the structure to create a connection to Alation. In order to create and run a Metadata Ingestion workflow, we will follow the steps to create a YAML configuration able to connect to the source, process the Entities if needed, and reach the OpenMetadata server. The workflow is modeled around the following JSON Schema

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1. Define the YAML Config

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2. Run with the CLI

First, we will need to save the YAML file. Afterward, and with all requirements installed, we can run: 
metadata ingest -c <path-to-yaml>
Note that from connector to connector, this recipe will always be the same. By updating the YAML configuration, you will be able to extract metadata from different sources.