AlationSink

PROD

Available In

Ingestion Deployment

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 you want to install it manually in an already existing Airflow host, you can follow this guide.

If you don't want to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion container to configure the workflows via the UI, then you can check the following docs to run the Ingestion Framework in any orchestrator externally.

Configure and schedule Alation Sink metadata workflow from the OpenMetadata UI:

• Requirements
• Data Mapping and Assumptions
• Metadata Ingestion

Ingestion Deployment

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 you want to install it manually in an already existing Airflow host, you can follow this guide.

If you don't want to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion container to configure the workflows via the UI, then you can check the following docs to run the Ingestion Framework in any orchestrator externally.

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.

Requirements

The connector uses POST requests to write the data into Alation. Hence, an user credentials or an access token with Source Admin or Catalog Admin or Server Admin permissions will be required.

Follow the link here to create the access token.

Data Mapping and Assumptions

Following entities are supported and will be mapped to the from OpenMetadata to the entities in Alation.

Metadata Ingestion

Then, prepare the Alation Sink Service and configure the Ingestion:

1. Visit the Services Page

The first step is to ingest the metadata from your sources. To do that, you first need to create a Service connection first.

This Service will be the bridge between OpenMetadata and your source system.

Once a Service is created, it can be used to configure your ingestion workflows.

Select your Service Type and Add a New Service

2. Create a New Service

Click on Add New Service to start the Service creation.

Add a new Service from the Services page

3. Select the Service Type

Select AlationSink as the Service type and click Next.

Select your Service from the list

4. Name and Describe your Service

Provide a name and description for your Service.

Service Name

OpenMetadata uniquely identifies Services by their Service Name. Provide a name that distinguishes your deployment from other Services, including the other AlationSink Services that you might be ingesting metadata from.

Note that when the name is set, it cannot be changed.

Provide a Name and description for your Service

5. Configure the Service Connection

In this step, we will configure the connection settings required for AlationSink.

Please follow the instructions below to properly configure the Service to read from your sources. You will also find helper documentation on the right-hand side panel in the UI.

Configure the Service connection by filling the form

Connection Details

• Host and Port: Host and port of the Alation service.
• Authentication Types:
  1. Basic Authentication
  • Username: The name of the user whose credentials will be used to sign in.
  • Password: The password of the user.
  2. Access Token Authentication The access token created using the steps mentioned here can directly be entered. We'll use that directly to authenticate the Alation APIs
  • accessToken: Generated access token
• Project Name: Project name to create the refreshToken. Can be anything.
• Pagination Limit: Pagination limit used for Alation APIs pagination
• DataSource Links: Add a custom mapping between OpenMetadata databases and Alation DataSources. If this mapping is present the connector will only look for the datasource in Alation to create other entities inside it. It will not create the datasource in Alation and it'll need to be created beforehand.

The mapping needs to be of the format alation_datasource_id: openmetadata_database_fqn Here alation_datasource_id corresponds to the numerical id of the datasource in alation. And openmetadata_database_fqn corresponds to the fullyQualifiedName of the database in OpenMetadata.

Below is an example of the mapping:

6. Test the Connection

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

Test the connection and save the Service

7. Configure Metadata Ingestion

In this step we will configure the metadata ingestion pipeline, Please follow the instructions below

Configure Metadata Ingestion Page

8. Schedule the Ingestion and Deploy

Scheduling can be set up at an hourly, daily, weekly, or manual cadence. The timezone is in UTC. Select a Start Date to schedule for ingestion. It is optional to add an End Date.

Review your configuration settings. If they match what you intended, click Deploy to create the service and schedule metadata ingestion.

If something doesn't look right, click the Back button to return to the appropriate step and change the settings as needed.

After configuring the workflow, you can click on Deploy to create the pipeline.

Schedule the Ingestion Pipeline and Deploy

9. View the Ingestion Pipeline

Once the workflow has been successfully deployed, you can view the Ingestion Pipeline running from the Service Page.

View the Ingestion Pipeline from the Service Page

Troubleshooting

Workflow Deployment Error

If there were any errors during the workflow deployment process, the Ingestion Pipeline Entity will still be created, but no workflow will be present in the Ingestion container.

• You can then Edit the Ingestion Pipeline and Deploy it again.
• From the Connection tab, you can also Edit the Service if needed.