Alation
  • Community
  • Alation University
  • API Documentation

Welcome to Alation

  • About Alation
    • Alation Portal
    • Alation Portal: Support Regions
  • Alation Cloud and On-Premise
  • Quick Start Guides
  • User Profile and Preferences
    • Manage Account Settings
    • Edit Your Preferences and Profile
  • Catalog Basics
    • Access, Roles, and Permissions
    • Roles Overview
    • Viewer Role
    • Customizable Homepage
    • Top Navigation Bar
    • Full-Page Search
    • Marketplaces
    • Catalog Pages
    • Soft Delete & Hard Delete
  • Conversations
    • Finding Conversations
    • Using Your Inbox
    • Posting a New Conversation
    • Interacting with Conversations
  • Domains
    • What Are Domains?
    • Managing Domains
    • Domains Search
  • Best Practices
    • Write Articles to Retain Institutional Knowledge
    • Curate Catalog Pages to Clarify Your Data
    • Use Trust Flags and Proceed with Confidence
    • Alation/Tableau Best Practices
  • Alation Glossary

Alation Cloud Service

  • Cloud Service Overview
    • Alation Cloud Service Offerings
    • Geographic Availability
    • Cloud Networking
    • Non-Production Environments in the Cloud
    • Cloud Service Security
    • Alation Cloud Roles and Responsibilities
    • Communicating with Alation
    • Migrating from On-Prem to Cloud
  • Configuration for Cloud
    • Alation’s IP Addresses for Allow Lists
    • Whitelist the Alation Cloud Service IP
    • Cloud Service Configuration Limitations
  • Alation Agent
    • Agent Release Notes
    • Install the Alation Agent
    • Connect the Agent to Data Sources
    • Manage Connectors
    • Work with the Agent’s Certificates
    • Upgrade the Agent
    • Update the Agent’s DNS Address Configuration
    • Delete and Reconnect the Agent in Alation
    • Uninstall and Reinstall the Agent Software
    • Start and Stop the Agent
    • Troubleshoot the Agent
    • Alation Agent Version History

Alation Integration

  • Alation Anywhere
    • Alation Anywhere for Slack
    • Alation Anywhere for Tableau
    • Alation Anywhere for Microsoft Teams
  • Alation Connected Sheets

Installation & Configuration

  • Install Alation
    • Preparing for Installation
    • System Requirements
    • Network Requirements
    • Installation Readiness
    • Installation Process
    • User Authentication with LDAP
    • Configure Authentication with SAML from Alation Shell
    • Configure Authentication with SAML from Admin Settings
    • Enable SCIM Integration for User and Group Management
    • Managing Token Authentication for SCIM Sync
    • Set Up SCIM Integration in Okta
    • Set Up SAML and SCIM Integration in PingFederate
    • Set Up SAML and SCIM Integration in Azure AD
    • Testing SCIM Configuration
    • View SCIM Configuration in alation_conf
    • Troubleshooting SCIM Configuration
    • Configure Authentication with OpenID Connect
    • Email Server Configuration
    • HTTPS
    • Installing on High Availability (HA) Pair
    • Sizing Guidelines Detail
    • How to Configure Alation to Use HTTP Proxy for All Web-bound Traffic
    • How to Change the Base URL
    • How to Update a License File
  • High Availability
    • Overview of High Availability
    • HA Requirements
    • Set Up High Availability
    • Revert the High Availability Pair to Standalone Mode
    • Failover to Secondary
    • Migrate from Legacy to Supported High Availability
    • Set up Replication on HA Pair (4.7 and Below)
  • Runbook for Administrators
    • Alation Runbook for Administrators
  • Update Alation
    • Update Alation to 2023.1
    • Update Alation to 2022.4
    • Re-Encrypt Existing Data
    • Update Alation to 2022.3
    • De-duplicate Mixed Case Usernames
    • Update Source Field for Dataflow Objects
    • Update Alation to 2022.2
    • Update Alation to 2022.1
    • Resetting ETL Checkpoint for User Data
    • Update Alation to 2021.4
    • Update Alation from 2021.4.x to 2021.4.4 or Later Patches
    • Validating the Value of Parameter elasticsearch.env.es_java_opts
    • Update Alation to 2021.3
    • Update Alation to 2021.2
    • Update Alation to 2021.1
    • Update Alation to 2020.4
    • Pre-Update Reindexing Script for 2020.4
    • Update Alation to 2020.3
    • Updating Alation to V R7 (5.12.x)
    • Elasticsearch Upgrade to 7.4 FAQ and Troubleshooting
    • Update Alation to V R6 (5.10.x)
    • Upgrade Internal PostgreSQL Instances from 9.3 to 9.6
    • Update Alation to V R5 (5.9.x)
    • Update Safety Best Practices
    • Release-specific Update Pre-checks
    • Manual Software Update for Standalone Systems
    • Update HA Pair Configuration (4.7 and above)
    • Update HA Pair with Cluster Splitting
    • Update Alation Connector Manager
  • Back Up and Restore
    • Backup V1 and Backup V2
      • Check Current Backup Tool
      • Enable or Disable Backup V2
      • Backup V1 in Versions 2021.4 or Newer
      • Backup V2 Process
      • Backup V1 Process
    • Configure Backups
      • Configure Incremental Backups
      • Set Up a Custom Backup Schedule
      • Copy Backup Files to a Remote Location
      • Define the Number of Backups to Retain
      • Old Backup Cleanup
      • Backup Configuration Parameters
    • Create Backups Manually
    • Find Backups
    • Monitor Backups
    • Manage Postgres Backups Separately
    • Restore from a Backup
      • Restore Alation
      • Restore Alation With a Separate Postgres Backup
      • Restore OCF Components
      • Restore Alation Analytics V2
      • Restoring Alation Analytics V1
  • Lineage V2
    • Enabling Lineage V2
  • Lineage V3
    • Enabling Lineage V3
    • Troubleshooting Lineage V3 Migration
    • Lineage V3 Feature Flag in alation_conf
  • Alation Analytics V2
    • Transition from Alation Analytics V1 to Alation Analytics V2
    • Enable and Install Alation Analytics V2
    • User Access to Alation Analytics V2
    • Whitelist Connections for Alation Analytics V2
    • Alation Analytics V2 Server Architecture
    • Update Alation Analytics V2
    • Alation Analytics V2 ETL
    • Maintain Alation Analytics V2
    • Clear the Data from the Alation Analytics V2 Database
    • Alation Analytics V2 Backup and Restore
    • Remove Alation Analytics V2 Data Source From the Catalog
    • Uninstall Alation Analytics V2
    • Remove Alation Analytics V1 Data Source From the Catalog
    • Alation Analytics V2 Database Model
    • Embed External Visualizations
    • Alation Analytics V2 Dashboard
    • Alation Analytics Top Contributors Report
  • Alation Container Service
    • Install Docker Using Alation Container Service

Sources

  • Catalog Sources
    • Types of Catalog Sources
    • Sources Page
    • Access Tab
    • Metadata Extraction
    • Query Log Ingestion
    • Deleting a Data Source
  • Virtual Data Sources
    • Virtual Data Source for NoSQL Databases
    • Adding a NoSQL Virtual Data Source
    • Avro Data Types Support
    • Viewing the Avro Schema Catalog Page
    • Viewing NoSQL Schemas in Virtual Data Sources
    • Schema Versioning for NoSQL Virtual Data Sources
    • Loading Metadata into a NoSQL Virtual Data Source
    • Populating a Virtual Data Source From a CSV File
  • Lineage
    • Dataflow Objects
    • Reading the Lineage Diagram
    • Lineage Impact Analysis
    • Manual Lineage Curation
    • Creating Lineage Data Manually
    • Modifying the Number of Nodes Displayed in Lineage Diagrams
  • API Resources
  • Working with Catalog Data
    • Extract Synonyms
    • Catalog Table Page Overview
    • Downloading a Data Dictionary
    • Importing a Data Dictionary from a CSV or TSV File
    • Importing a Data Dictionary from an ER or Studio File
    • Asynchronous Data Dictionary Download
    • Uploading Data
    • Viewing Field History
    • Struct Data Type in Hive Data Sources
    • Deprecation Propagation Feature
    • Add Endorsements, Warnings, and Deprecation Messages to Data
    • How Top User Expertise Is Calculated
    • Upvoting and Downvoting Top Users
    • Data Popularity
    • View Data Health
    • Table Lineage
    • Columns and Samples
  • Open Connector Framework
    • Open Connector Framework (OCF) Overview
    • Install Alation Connector Manager
    • Auto-Install Docker as Alation Connector Manager Dependency
    • Install Docker for Alation Versions 2020.3.x - 2021.1.x
    • Install OCF BI Connectors
    • Manage Connectors
    • Maintaining OCF Connectors
    • OCF Connector Catalog User Experience
    • Troubleshooting
    • Migration from Native to OCF Connectors
    • Configure Secrets for OCF Connector Settings
      • Integration with AWS Secrets Manager for Data Source Authentication Using OCF Connector
      • Integration with Azure Key Vault for Data Source Authentication Using OCF Connector
    • Configure Metadata Extraction for OCF Data Sources
    • Configure Sampling and Profiling for OCF Data Sources
    • Configure Compose for OCF Data Sources
    • Schema Path Pattern
    • Amazon Athena OCF Connector
      • OCF Connector for Amazon Athena: Overview
      • OCF Connector for Amazon Athena: Install and Configure
      • OCF Connector for Amazon Athena: Query Log Ingestion
      • OCF Connector for Amazon Athena: SSO with Compose
    • AWS Glue OCF Connector
      • AWS Glue OCF Connector: Overview
      • AWS Glue OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Amazon S3 OCF Connector
      • Amazon S3 Connector: Overview
      • Amazon S3 OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Terraform Configuration
      • Server-Side Encryptions
    • Azure Blob Storage OCF Connector
      • Azure Blob Storage OCF Connector: Overview
      • Azure Blob Storage OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Azure Databricks OCF Connector
      • Azure Databricks OCF Connector: Overview
      • Azure Databricks OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Azure SQL DB OCF Connector
      • Azure SQL DB OCF Connector: Overview
      • Azure SQL DB OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for Azure SQL DB
    • Azure Synapse Analytics OCF Connector
      • Azure Synapse Analytics OCF Connector: Overview
      • Azure Synapse OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for Azure Synapse Analytics
    • Databricks on AWS OCF Connector
      • Databricks on AWS OCF Connector: Overview
      • Databricks on AWS OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Databricks Unity Catalog OCF Connector
      • Databricks Unity Catalog OCF Connector: Overview
      • Databricks Unity Catalog OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Add-On OCF Connector for dbt
      • Add-On OCF Connector for dbt: Overview
      • Add-On OCF Connector for dbt: Install and Configure
    • Denodo OCF Connector
      • Denodo OCF Connector: Overview
      • Denodo OCF Connector: Install and configure
    • Google BigQuery OCF Connector
      • OCF Connector for Google BigQuery: Overview
      • OCF Connector for Google BigQuery: Install and Configure
    • Greenplum OCF Connector
      • Greenplum OCF Connector: Overview
      • Greenplum OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for Greenplum
    • Hive OCF Connector
      • Hive OCF Connector: Overview
      • Hive OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • IBM Db2 Database OCF Connector
      • Db2 OCF Connector: Overview
      • Db2 OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for IBM Db2 Database
    • Impala on CDH OCF Connector
      • Impala on CDH OCF Connector: Overview
      • Impala on CDH OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Impala on CDP OCF Connector
      • OCF Connector for Impala on CDP: Overview
      • OCF Connector for Impala on CDP: Install and Configure
    • Informatica PowerCenter OCF Connector
      • Informatica PowerCenter Connector: Overview
      • Informatica PowerCenter Connector: Install and Configure
    • MySQL OCF Connector
      • MySQL Connector: Overview
      • MySQL Connector: Install and Configure
    • Looker OCF Connector
      • Looker Connector: Overview
      • Looker Connector: Install and Configure
    • Oracle OCF Connector
      • Oracle Connector: Overview
      • Oracle Connector: Install and Configure
      • Oracle Connector: Configure QLI for Oracle on AWS RDS
    • PostgreSQL OCF Connector
      • PostgreSQL Connector: Overview
      • PostgreSQL Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for PostgreSQL
    • PowerBI OCF Connector
      • Power BI Connector: Overview
      • Power BI Connector: Install and Configure
    • Power BI Scanner on Azure OCF Connector
      • Power BI Scanner on Azure Connector: Overview
      • Power BI Scanner on Azure Connector: Install and Configure
    • QlikSense OCF Connector
      • Qlik Sense Enterprise Connector: Overview
      • Qlik Sense Enterprise Connector: Install and Configure
    • Amazon Redshift OCF Connector
      • Amazon Redshift OCF Connector: Overview
      • Amazon Redshift OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for Amazon Redshift
    • SAP ASE (Sybase ASE) OCF Connector
      • SAP ASE OCF Connector: Overview
      • SAP ASE OCF Connector: Install and configure
      • Extraction Queries for SAP ASE
    • SAP BusinessObjects OCF Connector
      • SAP BusinessObjects Connector: Overview
      • SAP BusinessObjects Connector: Install and Configure
    • SAP BW OCF Connector
      • SAP BW Connector: Overview
      • SAP BW Connector: Install and Configure
    • SAP ECC OCF Connector
      • SAP ECC OCF Connector: Overview
      • SAP ECC OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • SAP HANA OCF Connector
      • SAP HANA OCF Connector: Overview
      • SAP HANA OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for SAP HANA
    • SAP IQ OCF Connector
      • SAP IQ OCF Connector: Overview
      • SAP IQ OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for SAP IQ
    • Snowflake OCF Connector
      • Snowflake Connector: Overview
      • Snowflake OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • SQL Server OCF Connector
      • SQL Server Connector: Overview
      • SQL Server Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for SQL Server
      • SQL Server Connector: Query Log Ingestion
      • SQL Server RDS: Query Log Ingestion
      • Query Log Ingestion for Azure SQL Managed Instance
    • SSRS OCF Connector
      • SSRS OCF Connector: Overview
      • SSRS OCF Connector: Install and Configure
    • Tableau OCF Connector
      • Tableau OCF Connector: Overview
      • Tableau OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Configure Lineage for OCF Tableau BI Source
      • Tableau OCF Connector: Migration from Tableau Native Connector to OCF
    • Teradata OCF Connector
      • Teradata OCF Connector: Overview
      • Teradata OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for Teradata
    • Vertica OCF Connector
      • Vertica OCF Connector: Overview
      • Vertica OCF Connector: Install and Configure
      • Extraction Queries for Vertica

Data Sources

  • Data Source Configuration
    • Prerequisites
    • Add Data Sources
    • Configuring a Data Source
    • Table Privacy Settings
    • Installing Certificates for Secure Data Source Connections
    • Configuring Kerberos for Data Source Authentication
    • Feature Flags For Data Sources
  • Adding Data Sources
    • AWS Glue without Hive
    • Azure Data Warehouse
    • Cassandra
    • Databricks on AWS
    • DB2 LUW
    • Greenplum
    • Impala
    • MongoDB
    • MemSQL
    • MySQL
    • Netezza
    • Oracle
    • PostgreSQL
    • Presto on Hive
    • Amazon Redshift
    • Salesforce
    • SAP Hana
    • SAS
    • Snowflake
    • Snowflake OAuth For Compose
    • SQL Server
    • Sybase IQ
    • Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE)
    • Teradata
    • Vertica
    • Kerberos Configuration (General)
    • Configure Alation DB
    • Appendix
  • Compose SSO for Amazon Data Sources
    • Compose SSO for Amazon Data Sources: Create Authentication Application
    • Compose SSO with Amazon Sources: Configure AWS IAM Plug-in
    • SSO Authentication for Amazon Athena Data Source
    • SSO Authentication for Amazon DynamoDB Data Source
    • SSO Authentication for Amazon Redshift Data Source
    • Troubleshoot SSO Authentication with Amazon Data Sources
  • Compose SSO for Azure Data Sources
    • Compose SSO for Azure Data Sources: Register an Application in Azure AD
    • Compose SSO for Azure Data Sources: Configure Compose SSO in Alation
    • OAuth Plugin CRUD Operations
  • Authentication for Extraction
    • Configure Extraction with AWS IAM Authentication
    • Troubleshoot the Configuration of MDE with IAM Authentication
    • Integration with Azure Key Vault for Data Source Authentication
  • Custom DB
    • Add Custom Drivers
    • CData Drivers
    • Driver Fixer
    • Add Custom DB to Alation
    • Metadata Extraction From Custom DB
    • Guidelines for Creating Queries for MDE
    • Sampling and Profiling
    • QLI From Custom DB
    • File-Based Query Log Ingestion
    • View-Based QLI
    • SQL Query QLI
    • Amazon Athena
    • Update Simba JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena to Support SSO
    • Amazon DynamoDB
    • Azure Cosmos DB
    • Azure Data Warehouse (Azure SQL DW)
    • Confluent Kafka
    • Databricks for Custom DB
    • Databricks Azure
    • Databricks Azure OAuth for Compose
    • Denodo
    • Elasticsearch
    • EMR SparkSQL
    • EMR Presto on Hive with AWS Glue as Metastore
    • GCP Databricks
    • GitHub
    • MariaDB
    • MarkLogic
    • MongoDB
    • MongoDB Atlas
    • NetSuite
    • Parquet (Amazon S3)
    • Salesforce
    • ServiceNow
    • Splunk
    • SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS)
    • Starburst Enterprise (Presto)
    • Starburst Enterprise (Trino)
    • Example Queries for Query-Based MDE
    • Example JSONs for File-Based QLI
    • Troubleshooting for CData Data Sources
  • Google BigQuery
    • Google BigQuery Prerequisites
    • Google BigQuery Setup in Alation
    • Google BigQuery FAQ
    • Troubleshooting
    • Additional Information
  • Hive
    • Hive Overview
    • Add Hive Data Sources to Alation
    • Configuration-Based Hive
    • Default Hive
    • Hive Data Source Settings
    • Migrating Existing Hive Data Sources to Configuration-Based Hive
    • Hive with AWS Glue Metastore
    • Hive 2 on EMR with QLI over Amazon S3
    • Hive Tez Query Log Ingestion Setup
    • Spark Support for Hive

BI Sources

  • Add BI Sources
    • How To Set BI Tool Feature Flags
    • Add a BI Server as a Source
    • Extract BI Server Metadata
    • MicroStrategy
    • SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS)
    • Custom BI Tools
    • Disable Automatic Lineage Generation FAQ
  • Add Tableau Server
    • Prerequisites for Adding a Tableau Source to Alation
    • Add Tableau Sources on GBM V2
    • Tableau Troubleshooting Tips
  • Working with BI Sources
    • Overview of Catalog Pages for Tableau Sources on the Generic BI Model
    • Tableau Permission Mirroring
    • Set Permissions for Tableau Objects Flags
    • GBM V2 APIs Overview
    • Types of BI Tools
    • Report Catalog Page
    • Finding Source Data Lineage
    • Importing Report Metadata

File System Sources

  • Add File Systems
    • Add a File System
    • Access to File Systems
    • Azure Blob Storage
    • Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS)
    • HDFS
    • Amazon S3
  • Virtual File Systems
    • Set up and Populate Virtual File Systems

Alation for Analysts

  • User Authentication for Data Sources
    • Working with Data Source Connections
    • Switching and Removing Data Source Accounts
    • Transient User Credentials
    • Authenticate to AWS Data Sources with SSO
  • Share and Access Queries
    • Share and Access Queries - 2023.1 and Later
      • Understand Query Access
      • Change Access to a Query
      • Share a Query
      • Change Visibility of Unpublished Queries
    • Share and Access Queries - 2022.4 and Earlier
      • Granting Access to Queries in Compose
      • Sharing Queries in Compose
      • Granting Access and Sharing Queries in the Catalog
      • Adding Query Authors in the Catalog
      • Requesting Access to Queries
      • Viewing Queries by Other Users
  • Write Queries
    • Data Browser
    • Compose Toolbar
    • Results Toolbar
    • Opening Queries in Compose
    • Writing Queries Faster and Embedding Code Snippets
    • Starting a New Query
    • Find Queries
    • Publish a Query
    • Differences between Publishing and Saving a Query
    • Understanding Query Warnings
    • Upload Old Queries
    • Take Turns Editing a Query
    • Delete (Discard) a Query
    • Custom DB Column Profile Preview
    • Keyboard Shortcuts
    • Quick Compose Navigation Tips
  • Develop Queries
    • Schedule Queries
    • Query Version History
    • Comparing Versions in Query Version History
    • Saving Queries and Types of Query Versions
    • Undoing a Restore from Query Version History
    • Cloning Queries
    • Previewing Your Data as You Work
    • Query Forms
      • Working with Query Forms in the Catalog
      • Cancel Query Form Execution
      • Query Forms and Parameters
      • Configure Multi-Select Filters For Query Forms
    • SmartSuggest and EagerSuggest
    • Reusing Filters and Joins
    • Run Options
    • Viewing Query Revision History
    • Query Groups
    • Excel Live Reports
  • Work with Query Results
    • Configure Query Result Row Limit
    • Configuring Query Result Size
    • Export Query Results To an XLSX File
    • Copy the Query SQL Code From the Results Pane
    • Query Results Cache
    • Export Results
    • View Query Results History
    • Building a Pivot Table
    • Share Query Results
    • Embedding Results in an Article
    • Scheduled Query Result Notification
    • Exporting Results to Plot.ly
    • Exporting Results to Tableau

Alation for Data Stewards

  • Governance App
    • Data Governance Page
  • Policy Center
    • Using Policy Center
    • Working with Data Policies
    • Working with Policies
    • Curating Policies
    • Policy Groups
    • Policy Center Permissions
  • Workflow Center
    • Configuring Workflow Center
    • Managing Workflows
    • Suggesting Changes
  • Governance Dashboard
    • Using the Governance Dashboard
    • Configuring the Governance Dashboard
  • Stewardship Workbench
    • Configuring Stewardship Workbench
    • Using Stewardship Workbench
    • Bulk Update Custom Fields
    • Bulk Update Stewards
    • Bulk Update People Sets
  • Analytics Stewardship
    • Stewardship Dashboard
    • Curation Progress
    • Working with the Catalog Activity Report
    • Data Objects Without Stewards
    • Using the Titles and Descriptions Chart
  • Glossary
    • Work with Glossaries
    • Glossary Permissions
    • Migrate Articles to Glossary Terms
    • Bulk Create or Edit Glossary Terms
  • Articles and Tags
    • Work with Articles
    • Autosave for Articles
    • Enrolling Articles into Agile Approval
    • Bulk Create or Edit Articles
    • Inserting an Excel Table into an Article
    • How to Use Tags
  • Article Groups
    • Create an Article Group
    • Work with Article Groups
    • Run Lexicon to Suggest Words
    • Work with Suggested Words
    • Frequently Asked Questions about Suggested Words
  • Customize Your Data Catalog
    • Understanding Catalog Templates
    • Creating Custom Fields for Catalog Pages
    • Applying Custom Fields to Templates
    • Custom Field Permissions
    • Creating Object Set Back References
    • Edit Object Templates
    • Editing Object Template Layout
    • Build Term Type Templates
    • Build Custom Templates for Articles
    • Using Custom Article Templates
    • Create Articles and Article Template Custom Fields
  • Data Documentation
    • Create and View Catalog Sets
    • Conditional Catalog Sets
    • Bulk-Editing Conditional Catalog Set Members
    • Manual Catalog Sets
    • Value Title Lookup
    • Creating and Using Catalog Sets
    • Frequently Asked Questions about Catalog Sets
  • Auto-titling and Lexicon
    • Robot Heads
    • Run Lexicon - First Time
    • Auto-Titling
    • Work with the Lexicon - 2020.4 and Later
    • Run the Lexicon Job Manually
    • Frequently Asked Questions about Lexicon
    • Configure Lexicon Manually and Upload Lexicon
    • Titling Your Data
  • Snowflake Tags

Alation for Server Administrators

  • Customizable Homepage
    • Role-Based Homepages - 2022.3 and Later
    • Customize Homepage - 2020.3 to 2022.2
  • Administrator Settings
    • Manage Users
    • User Profiles Tab: Bulk User Account Creation
    • Authentication Tab
    • Authentication Configuration Methods for External Systems
    • Manage Access to Alation Using LDAP Filters
    • Manage Groups
    • SCIM Groups
    • Group Profile Page
    • Configure LDAP Groups
    • Use Custom Groups to Assign User Roles
    • Email Server Tab
    • License
    • Manage Encryption Keys
    • Feature Configuration
    • Compose Settings Tab
    • Disable Public Sharing of Query Results in Compose
    • Allow or Disable Query Export
    • Software Updates Tab
    • Reporting Usage
    • Logging Tab: Sending Encrypted Logs
    • Misc Tab
    • Add Your Company’s Branding
    • Add Alert Banners to the Homepage
    • Manage Scheduled Queries
    • Monitor Component Health
    • Monitor Tasks
  • Additional Configuration
    • Using alation_conf
    • Obfuscate Literals in View SQL
    • Enable Alation Analytics Top Contributors Report
    • Editing /etc/hosts
    • Enable Table Privacy
    • Deferred Query Execution
    • Managing Space: Monitor Postgres Table Size
    • Managing Space: Purge Query Results
    • Disable Data Exports and Downloads
    • Disable the Username Migration
    • Disable or Enable User Credentials Storage
    • Configure the API Tokens Management Feature
    • Configure Service Cloud Access for Designated Admins
    • Configure Access to the Internal Help Desk
    • Enable Permission for Data Source Admin to Add Sources
    • Enable Pagination for Lineage
    • Enable Debug Mode for Capturing the Detailed Level Logs (Custom DB)
    • Enable the Lexicon Search
    • Enable or Disable Marketplaces
    • Enable Removability of Object-defined Fields
    • Enable or Disable Search Autocomplete
    • Set Search Ranking by Object Type
    • Set Search Ranking for the Endorsement and Deprecation Flags
    • Set Password for Internal PostgreSQL Instances
    • Set stewardship.curation_progress.ingestion.batch_size Parameter
    • Set bulk_insert_sql_str_length_limit Parameter
    • Beta Azure Metadata Extraction
    • Multi-Catalog Support for Data Sources Like Presto
    • Enable Cassandra Data Source
    • Use a Custom Attribute map for SAML Configuration
    • Wrap Text Fields in Quotes for Export and Download
    • Reset LDAP Bind Password Using CLI
    • Enable or Disable Query Scheduling
    • Updating Object Mentions
    • Control Left-Hand Navigation Bar Behavior
    • Disable Role Selection for SSO-Enabled Data Sources
    • Extract the Complete View Definition for Google BigQuery
  • Runbook for Administrators
    • Your Runbook
    • Alation Architecture
    • Alation Actions
    • Monitoring Alation
  • Alation API
  • How-tos
    • How to Find Data Source ID
    • How to Set Up LDAP Group Sync with SAML Authentication
    • How to Configure a List of Allowed File Types for Article Attachments
    • How to Scan Postgres For Corrupted Indexes
    • How to Exclude Postgres Backup from Alation Backup
    • How to Clean up Postgres 9.3 Data
    • How to Free Memory
    • How to Mount Data Volumes on New Virtual Instances
    • How to Enable X-Frame-Options Settings
    • How to Restart Celery-Beat to Trigger the First ETL for Analytics
    • How to Convert Usernames
    • How to Connect to the Customer Portal
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  • Troubleshooting
    • Logs Overview
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    • Fix Job Schedules after 2022.3 Upgrade
    • Duplicate User Found
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    • Data Policies are Not Extracted into Policy Center
    • Troubleshooting Alation Analytics V2 Upgrade to 2021.4
    • Elasticsearch Is Not Starting After Update to 2021.4.4
    • RPM Installation Error During Update
    • Error 500 After Updating
    • Default Server Health Alerts
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    • How to Reindex Tables after Backup Restore
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Release Information

  • Release Notes
    • Release Notes 2023.1 (General Availability)
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  • End Of Support
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Archived Documentation

  • About the Documentation Archive
  • Administration and Update Archive
    • Alation Sandbox
      • Overview of the Alation Sandbox Program
      • Install Alation Sandbox
      • Configure Access to Backups on Amazon S3
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      • What’s New in Alation V
  • Usage and Customization Archive
    • Alation Analytics V1
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      • Specific Object Fields
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      • Curation progress (Titles and Descriptions Only)
      • All Tableau Workbook Attributes
      • Alation Analytics V1 Shows Deleted Tables and Columns as Existing
    • Customizable Homepage
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    • Design Homepages to Make a Good First Impression
    • Hats in Alation
    • Using Advanced Search
    • How to Search
    • Searching and Filtering
    • Add Tableau Sources on Legacy Framework
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    • Alation User Survey
    • Creating a New Glossary
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Alation User Guide
Docs > Usage and Customization Archive > Using Advanced Search

Using Advanced Search¶

With Advanced Search, you can find data using both natural language and multiple filters which serve to narrow the focus down to specific aspects of your catalog objects. For example, you can search for articles having the word query where the Subject Matter Expert  field value is John Wane and the  Tagged With  field value is Finance .

To go to Advanced Search, click Search on the main toolbar and in the menu click Advanced Search:

../../_images/Search_menu.png

On the Advanced Search page, you can start with typing your search criteria in the Search field on top of the page or/and with selecting the type of catalog objects in the Search for row. You can search in:

  • Data

  • API Resource Objects

  • BI

  • File System Objects

  • Code

  • Text

  • People

../../_images/Search_01.png

When you select a type of catalog object, the page will update to show the catalog fields currently associated with the custom template for this object type. After you have refined your search by applying relevant filters, you will see a list of catalog objects which match your selected criteria on the left. You can click the objects in this list to view their catalog pages in the viewer area on the right:

../../_images/Search_02.png

To return to the initial Advanced Search page, click the data object filter then click Everything:

../../_images/Search_Everything.png

Selecting Filter Values¶

You can select multiple built-in fields and multiple custom field values in Advanced Search. They will be joined with AND logic:

../../_images/Search_06.png

When you select filters one by one, the search results will instantly update to match all currently selected criteria.

Note

In releases before V R6, you can select multiple built-in fields and only one custom field. In Alation UI, there is no way to differentiate built-in fields from the custom fields. When you select one additional custom field, the previously selected custom field will be automatically reset. However, the selected built-in fields will hold their values.

To reset a filter, click its name and in the dropdown that opens, click Clear:

../../_images/Search_05.png

Known Limitations¶

  • Rich text custom fields that have restricted viewing permissions will not be returned in the search results

  • For multi-picker fields, only one of the values for that field can be selected in each search

Displaying Hidden Objects¶

Available from release V R6 (5.10.x)

In your Advanced Search results, you can choose to surface the objects that are marked non-browsable by Data Source Admins.

Note

A non-browsable object is a data object that is hidden from the catalog and as a result cannot be discovered by browsing the data objects or using the quick search of the left-hand navigation panel.

Data Source Admins can make objects non-browsable by clearing their Make Browsable settings on the Per-Object Parameters tab of the parent data source Settings page.

By default, the hidden objects will stay hidden. To reveal them in advanced search, select the Show hidden objects checkbox on the top right:

../../_images/Search_03.png

With this checkbox selected, the non-browsable objects in the catalog will be surfaced in the search results.

Exporting Your Search Results¶

Available from release V R6 (5.10.x)

You can download your advanced search results as a CSV file. Search download is limited to 10,000 rows.

To export the result set,

On the Advanced Search page, click the Export button then confirm the export. After the confirmation, an email with the export download link will be sent to the email address provided in your user profile:

../../_images/Search_04.png

The output CSV file will be available for download for the next three days but will be automatically deleted after this time.

Note that only 1 search export can be in progress at one time. This means you will be able to trigger a second export only after the first one is completed. If this happens, Alation will give you a warning that the first export is still in progress. Try again later and exports should complete rather quickly.

How long does it take for the catalog changes to be reflected in search?¶

The changes to the catalog objects are reflected in search with a short delay. Such changes as:

  • New values for custom fields

  • Changes using catalog sets

  • Changes to object properties (for example, Make Browsable property) -

will be surfaced in search only after the search index is updated. Search index update is an automatic process that usually takes less than 10 minutes but may take up to 30 minutes to complete if a large number of objects are affected by changes. That is why the search results only surface the new data after a time: this is the time required for the search index update to complete.

Related Topics¶

Searching and Finding Information in Alation

Applying Custom Fields to Templates

Creating Custom Fields for Catalog Pages

Troubleshooting Advanced Search  (applies to V R6 5.10.x)

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Hats in Alation
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How to Search
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On this page

  • Using Advanced Search
    • Selecting Filter Values
      • Known Limitations
    • Displaying Hidden Objects
    • Exporting Your Search Results
    • How long does it take for the catalog changes to be reflected in search?
    • Related Topics
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