Migrate Native Sources to Open Connector Framework

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Overview

You can migrate a source that was previously cataloged using a native (built-in) connector to Open Connector Framework (OCF) if the corresponding OCF connector is available. The migration path is available for source types: RDBMS data sources and File System sources.

Important

You cannot migrate native BI sources to OCF connectors.

We recommend migrating to OCF to take advantage of the following benefits:

  • OCF connector releases are not tied to major Alation releases and follow their own schedules with frequent delivery of bug fixes and improvements.

  • Unlike native connectors or Custom DB, OCF connectors can be upgraded separately from the Alation application when a new connector version becomes available.

  • OCF connectors are more scalable, flexible, and performant compared to built-in connectors.

  • Maintenance or upgrades of OCF Connectors can be self-serviced from the user interface.

  • In the coming releases, built-in connectors will be gradually deprecated.

  • OCF connectors provide additional features compared to the corresponding native connectors:

    • Deep column profiling

    • Query-based MDE

    • Query-based QLI

  • Built-in connectors will be gradually deprecated. Follow Alation Community Blogs for the announcements.

Note

Migration to an OCF connector is irreversible.We recommend saving the settings of your source or taking screenshots of the Settings page before performing the migration.

Workflow

The migration steps depend on the source type. Use the corresponding instructions: