OpenMetadata integrates with Airflow to orchestrate ingestion workflows. You can use Airflow to extract metadata and [deploy workflows] (/deployment/ingestion/openmetadata) directly. This guide explains how to run ingestion workflows in Airflow using three different operators:
Install the openmetadata-ingestion package in your Airflow environment. This approach works best if you have access to the Airflow host and can manage dependencies.
Function Setup: The python_callable argument in the PythonOperator executes the metadata_ingestion_workflow function, which instantiates the workflow and runs the ingestion process.
Drawback: This method requires pre-installed dependencies, which may not always be feasible. Consider using the DockerOperator or PythonVirtualenvOperator as alternatives.
For this operator, we can use the openmetadata/ingestion-base image. This is useful to prepare DAGs without any installation required on the environment, although it needs for the host to have access to the Docker commands.
from datetime import datetimefrom airflow import modelsfrom airflow.providers.docker.operators.docker import DockerOperatorconfig = """<your YAML configuration>"""with models.DAG( "ingestion-docker-operator", schedule_interval='*/5 * * * *', start_date=datetime(2021, 1, 1), catchup=False, tags=["OpenMetadata"],) as dag: DockerOperator( command="python main.py", image="openmetadata/ingestion-base:2.0.5", environment={"config": config, "pipelineType": "metadata"}, docker_url="unix://var/run/docker.sock", # To allow to start Docker. Needs chmod 666 permissions tty=True, auto_remove="True", network_mode="host", # To reach the OM server task_id="ingest", dag=dag, )
Make sure to tune out the DAG configurations (schedule_interval, start_date, etc.) as your use case requires.
If you encounter issues such as missing task instances or Airflow failing to locate a deployed DAG (e.g., Dag '<DAG_ID>' could not be found), this may be due to a timezone mismatch in your Airflow configuration. To resolve this, set the following in your airflow.cfg:
default_timezone = system
This ensures that Airflow uses the system timezone, which is particularly important when OpenMetadata and Airflow are running on the same server.
Image Version: Ensure the Docker image version matches your Collate server version (for example, openmetadata/ingestion-base:2.0.5).
Pipeline Types: Set the pipelineType to metadata, usage, lineage, profiler, or other supported values.
No Installation Required: The DockerOperator eliminates the need to install dependencies directly on the Airflow host.
Another important point here is making sure that the Airflow will be able to run Docker commands to create the task.
As our example was done with Airflow in Docker Compose, that meant setting docker_url="unix://var/run/docker.sock".The final important elements here are:
command="python main.py": This does not need to be modified, as we are shipping the main.py script in the
image, used to trigger the workflow.
environment={"config": config, "pipelineType": "metadata"}: Again, in most cases you will just need to update
the config string to point to the right connector.
Other supported values of pipelineType are usage, lineage, profiler, dataInsight, elasticSearchReindex, dbt, application or TestSuite. Pass the required flag
depending on the type of workflow you want to execute. Make sure that the YAML config reflects what ingredients
are required for your Workflow.
As stated in Airflow’s docs, install the virtualenv package on the Airflow host.If using a different Python version in the virtual environment (e.g., Python 3.9 while Airflow uses 3.7), install additional packages such as:
We have different classes for different types of workflows. The logic is always the same, but you will need
to change your import path. The rest of the method calls will remain the same.For example, for the Metadata workflow we’ll use: