AWS Glue Connector | OpenMetadata Data Integration Guide

• Requirements
• How Glue Maps to OpenMetadata
• Iceberg Table Support
• Metadata Ingestion
• dbt Integration
• Troubleshooting

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Requirements

• glue:GetDatabases: Lists the Glue databases in the catalog.
• glue:GetTables: Lists the tables and views in each Glue database.
• glue:GetTable: Reads the column details of each Iceberg table. For more information, see Iceberg Table Support.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "glue:GetDatabases",
        "glue:GetTables",
        "glue:GetTable"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:glue:<AWS_REGION>:<ACCOUNT_ID>:catalog",
        "arn:aws:glue:<AWS_REGION>:<ACCOUNT_ID>:database/*",
        "arn:aws:glue:<AWS_REGION>:<ACCOUNT_ID>:table/*/*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

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How Glue Maps to OpenMetadata

• The connector creates one database with that name and stops using the Database to select catalogs, so leave that filter empty.
• Every Glue database the connector can see becomes a schema of that database, even when the Glue databases come from different catalogs. The ingestion run reports a warning when it sees more than one catalog.
• If two Glue databases from different catalogs share a name, one overwrites the other and its tables go missing.

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Filter Patterns

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Iceberg Table Support

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How Iceberg Tables Are Detected

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Current Columns Only

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Limitations

• If the glue:GetTable call fails, for example because the permission is missing, the connector logs a warning and uses the columns from glue:GetTables instead. Those columns can include non-current ones, and the ingestion run still reports success.
• The table_type check is case-sensitive. The connector ingests a table whose parameter isn’t exactly ICEBERG as a regular or external table.
• The connector doesn’t read Iceberg metadata files, so it doesn’t ingest snapshots or partition specs.

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Metadata Ingestion

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Step 1: Add New Service

1. Navigate to Settings > 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. OpenMetadata identifies services by their service name. Enter a name that distinguishes this deployment from other Glue 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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Enter Connection Details

• AWS Access Key ID & AWS Secret Access Key: When you interact with AWS, you specify your AWS security credentials to verify who you are and whether you have permission to access the resources that you are requesting. AWS uses the security credentials to authenticate and authorize your requests (docs). Access keys consist of two parts: An access key ID (for example, AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE), and a secret access key (for example, wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY). You must use both the access key ID and secret access key together to authenticate your requests. You can find further information on how to manage your access keys.
• AWS Region: Each AWS Region is a separate geographic area in which AWS clusters data centers (docs). As AWS can have instances in multiple regions, we need to know the region the service you want reach belongs to. Note that the AWS Region is the only required parameter when configuring a connection. When connecting to the services programmatically, there are different ways in which we can extract and use the rest of AWS configurations. You can find further information about configuring your credentials.
• AWS Session Token (optional): If you are using temporary credentials to access your services, you will need to inform the AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secrets Access Key. Also, these will include an AWS Session Token. You can find more information on Using temporary credentials with AWS resources.
• Endpoint URL (optional): To connect programmatically to an AWS service, you use an endpoint. An endpoint is the URL of the entry point for an AWS web service. The AWS SDKs and the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) automatically use the default endpoint for each service in an AWS Region. But you can specify an alternate endpoint for your API requests. Find more information on AWS service endpoints.
• Profile Name: A named profile is a collection of settings and credentials that you can apply to an AWS CLI command. When you specify a profile to run a command, the settings and credentials are used to run that command. Multiple named profiles can be stored in the config and credentials files. You can inform this field if you’d like to use a profile other than default. Find more information about Named profiles for the AWS CLI.
• Assume Role Arn: Typically, you use AssumeRole within your account or for cross-account access. In this field you’ll set the ARN (Amazon Resource Name) of the policy of the other account. A user who wants to access a role in a different account must also have permissions that are delegated from the account administrator. The administrator must attach a policy that allows the user to call AssumeRole for the ARN of the role in the other account. This is a required field if you’d like to AssumeRole. Find more information on AssumeRole.

• Assume Role Session Name: An identifier for the assumed role session. Use the role session name to uniquely identify a session when the same role is assumed by different principals or for different reasons. By default, we’ll use the name OpenMetadataSession. Find more information about the Role Session Name.
• Assume Role Source Identity: The source identity specified by the principal that is calling the AssumeRole operation. You can use source identity information in AWS CloudTrail logs to determine who took actions with a role. Find more information about Source Identity.
• Database Name (optional): The name of a single OpenMetadata database that holds all your Glue databases. If you leave it blank, the connector creates one database per catalog and names it after the catalog ID, which is your AWS account ID. Setting this field also changes how catalogs are mapped and filtered. For more information, see How Glue Maps to OpenMetadata.

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Test Connection

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Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options

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How Filter Patterns Work

• Include: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. OpenMetadata 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. OpenMetadata skips any asset whose name matches an expression. 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.

• Database: Controls which catalogs OpenMetadata ingests when Database Name is blank. Rules match the catalog ID, not Glue database names.
• Schema: Controls which Glue databases OpenMetadata ingests. Rules match the Glue database name.
• Table: Controls which tables and views OpenMetadata ingests. Rules match the Glue table name.

• 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

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Configure Metadata Agent and Schedule Ingestion

1. Navigate to Settings > Services and select the service type.
2. Click the service you have added.
3. Select the Agents tab and click Add Agent > Metadata. 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	—	Owner assigned to the service entity itself (the connector/service you’re setting up, not the data inside it).
     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, an entity with no owner of its own inherits one from the nearest parent that has one, checked in this order: table, then schema, then database, then service, then Default Owner. Turn off if you want only the owners set explicitly above to apply, with no fallback.
     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 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 OpenMetadata 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 about how the Default Owner, Service Owner, Database Owner, Database Schema Owner, Table Owner, and Enable Inheritance fields resolve an owner, see Hierarchical Owner Configuration.
   • Filter Patterns: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which databases, schemas, tables, and stored procedures this agent ingests. For more information about various filter options, see Step 6: Configure Ingestion Options.
   • 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 OpenMetadata 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 OpenMetadata 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 OpenMetadata user, assign that user as the asset’s owner. Never overwrites an owner an asset already has in OpenMetadata.
     Include Custom Properties	Off	Ingest source-specific metadata that doesn’t map to a standard OpenMetadata 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 OpenMetadata 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) always overwrite what’s currently in OpenMetadata, even if someone edited it there. Off: OpenMetadata only fills in fields that are still empty, so manual edits in OpenMetadata 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.

     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. Since 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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