Amazon Redshift OCF Connector: Overview

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Overview

The OCF connector for Amazon Redshift was developed by Alation and is available as a Zip file that can be uploaded and installed in the Alation catalog.

To download the Amazon Redshift OCF connector package, go to the Alation Connector Hub available from the Customer Portal. Go to Customer Portal > Connectors > Alation Connector Hub. Only Alation users with access to the Customer Portal can access the Alation Connector Hub. If you don’t have access to the Customer Portal, contact Alation Support.

This connector should be used to catalog Amazon Redshift or Amazon Redshift Spectrum as a data source in Alation. The connector catalogs Amazon Redshift objects such as schemas tables, columns, views, primary keys, foreign keys, functions, and function definitions. It enables end-users to search and find the metadata objects from the Alation user interface.

Team

The following administrators are required to install this connector:

  • Alation administrator:

    • Installs the connector

    • Creates and configures the Amazon Redshift data source in the catalog

    • Installs Alation Connector Manager or ensures that it has been installed.

  • Amazon Redshift administrator:

    • Assists in configuring authentication

    • Provides the JDBC URI to access metadata

    • Provides information required for configuration on the Alation side.

Scope

The table below shows what features are covered by this connector.

Feature

Description

Amazon Redshift

Amazon Redshift Spectrum

Authentication

Basic authentication

Authentication with a service account on the database (username and password)

SSL

Database connection over SSL

Authentication with IAM user and role

STS authentication with an IAM user and IAM role

LDAP

Authentication with a database service account that is an LDAP account in an organization’s network

Metadata extraction (MDE)

Default MDE

Extraction of metadata based on default extraction queries in the connector code

Custom query-based MDE

Extraction of metadata based on extraction queries provided by a user

Extracted metadata objects

Data source

Data source object in Alation that is parent to extracted metadata

Schemas

List of schemas

Tables

List of tables

Columns

List of columns

Source comments

Source comments

Primary keys

Primary key information for extracted tables

Foreign keys

Foreign key information for extracted tables

Sampling and profiling

Table sampling

Retrieval of data samples from extracted tables

Custom query-based table sampling

Ability to use custom queries for sampling specific tables

Column sampling

Retrieval of data samples from extracted column based on default queries

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

Query log ingestion

Table-based QLI

Ingestion of query history based on a table or view that contains query history data

Query-based QLI

Ingestion of query history based on a custom query history extraction query

JOINs and filters

Calculation of JOIN and filter information based on ingested query history

Predicates

Ability to parse predicates in ingested queries

Lineage

Automatic lineage generation

Auto-calculation of lineage based on query history ingested from QLI, MDE, and Compose queries

Column-level lineage

Calculation of lineage data at the column level

Compose

On-prem Alation instances

Compose on on-prem Alation instances

Alation Cloud Service instances

Compose on Alation Cloud Service instances*

SSO for Compose

Authentication with an STS token for an AWS IAM role through the SSO login flow

* Compose with Agent is supported from connector version 1.1.0.3935.