SQL Server 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 SQL Server was developed by Alation and is available as a Zip file that can be uploaded and installed in the Alation application. The connector is compiled together with the required database driver, so no additional effort is needed to procure and install the driver.
To download the SQL Server 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 SQL Server and/or Azure SQL Managed Instance as a data source in Alation. The connector catalogs SQL Server objects such as tables, columns, views, primary keys, foreign keys, functions, and function definitions. It enables end-users to search and find SQL Server 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 SQL Server data source in the catalog.
SQL Server administrator
Creates a service account for Alation
Provides the JDBC URI to access metadata
Provides access to schemas to extract metadata
Assists in configuring query log ingestion (QLI).
Scope¶
The table below shows what features are covered by the connector. For version support information, refer to Support Matrix.
Feature |
SQL Server (EC2) |
SQL Server (RDS) |
SQL Server on Azure VM |
Azure SQL Managed Instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Authentication |
||||
Basic (username and password) |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Kerberos |
✔ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
SSL |
✔ |
✔ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
NTLM |
✔ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
Metadata Extraction (MDE) |
||||
Default MDE |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Query-based MDE |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Extracted metadata objects |
||||
Schemas |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Tables |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Views |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Columns |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Primary keys |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Foreign keys |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Functions |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Function Definitions |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Synonyms |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Source comments |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
Sampling and profiling |
||||
Table sampling |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Query-based table sampling |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Query-based column profiling |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Dynamic profiling |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Query Log Ingestion |
||||
Table-based QLI |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Query-based QLI |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
JOINs and filters |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Predicates |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Lineage |
||||
Auto-lineage |
✔ |
✔* |
✔ |
✔ |
Column-level lineage |
✔ |
✔* |
✔ |
✔ |
Compose |
||||
On-prem Alation |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Alation Cloud Service ** |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Basic authentication in Compose |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
SSO authentication in Compose |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
ㄨ |
* — Lineage uses query logs from Compose.
** — Compose for data sources connected via Alation Agent is supported from connector version 1.1.6.2173.