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

SSL

NTLM

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

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

* — Lineage uses query logs from Compose.

** — Compose for data sources connected via Alation Agent is supported from connector version 1.1.6.2173.