Overview

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

The connector for Azure Cosmos DB is available for download from the Connector Hub on the Alation Customer Portal. Follow instructions in this documentation to install or manage the connector.

Alation uses the Azure Cosmos DB connector to catalog metadata from various data sources in Azure Cosmos DB. Use this connector to Azure catalog Cosmos DB as a data source on Alation on-premise and Cloud Service instances. It extracts and catalogs such database objects as schemas, tables, and columns. After the metadata is extracted, it is represented in the data catalog as a hierarchy of catalog pages under the parent data source. Alation users can leverage the full catalog functionality to search for and find the extracted metadata and curate the corresponding catalog pages.

Team

You may need the assistance of your database administrator to configure this data source.

  • Azure Cosmos DB administrator:

    • Creates a service account for Alation.

    • Assigns permissions to anonymous users.

    • Provides the connection information and the JDBC URI.

  • Alation Server Admin:

    • Ensures that Alation Connector Manager is installed and running or installs it.

    • Installs the connector.

    • Creates and configures the Cosmos DB data source in the catalog.

    • Performs initial extraction and prepares the data source for Alation users.

Scope

The table below lists the features supported by the connector.

Feature

Scope

Availability

Authentication

Basic (username and password)

Authentication with a service account created on the database using username and password

Account Key

Authentication using Account Key

Azure Service Principal

Authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using a client secret

SSL

Connection over the TLS protocol

LDAP

Authentication with the LDAP protocol

OAuth

Authentication with the OAuth 2.0 protocol

SSO

Authentication using an SSO flow through an IdP application

Metadata extraction (MDE)

Default MDE

Extraction of metadata on the JDBC driver methods in the connector code

Query-based MDE

Extraction of metadata based on custom extraction queries provided by a user

Popularity

Indicator of the popularity (intensity of use) of a data object, such as a table or a column

Extracted metadata objects

Data Source

Data source object in Alation that is parent to the extracted metadata

Schemas

List of schemas

Tables

List of tables

Columns

List of columns

Column data types

Column data types

Views

List of views

Not applicable

Source comments

Source comments

Not applicable

Primary keys

Primary key information for extracted tables

Foreign keys

Foreign key information for extracted tables

Not applicable

Functions

Extraction of function metadata

Not applicable

Function Definitions

Extraction of function definition metadata

Not applicable

Sampling and Profiling

Table sampling

Retrieval of data samples from extracted tables

Column sampling

Retrieval of data samples from extracted columns

Custom query-based table sampling

Ability to use custom queries for sampling specific tables

Custom query-based column sampling

Ability to use custom queries for profiling specific columns

Deep column profiling

Profiling of columns with the calculation of value distribution stats

Dynamic profiling

Ability for individual users to connect with their own database accounts to retrieve table and column samples and profiles

Query Log Ingestion (QLI) - Not supported

Lineage - Not supported

Compose - Not supported

Object Mapping

Azure Cosmos DB Object

Alation Object

Container

Table

Document

Rows or Records within Table