Snowflake OCF Connector: Install and Configure¶
Preliminaries¶
Firewall Configuration¶
Open the inbound TCP port 443 to the Snowflake server.
Driver¶
Refer to the Support Matrix for your Alation release to find out the version of the available driver for Snowflake.
Authentication¶
Create a Snowflake Service Account¶
Sample SQL to Create an Aaccount
CREATE USER alation WITH PASSWORD 'password';
Under your Snowflake account, set up a user account for Alation. Security and account administrators for Snowflake (users with the SECURITYADMIN or ACCOUNTADMIN roles) can create users.
You can also use an existing account.
Alation will use the service account for metadata extraction (MDE), profiling and sampling, and query log ingestion (QLI). It must be assigned a role that has enough privileges for these data jobs.
Snowflake connection requires a warehouse and a role. A Snowflake user may have multiple roles which give them different access. As a best practice, when setting up a user account in Snowflake for Alation, it is recommended to set a default role and default warehouse for this user.
Example:
Create role for the Alation service account:
USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN; CREATE ROLE <alation_role>;Create Alation service account user:
USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN; CREATE USER <alation_user> PASSWORD='*****' DEFAULT_ROLE = <alation_role> MUST_CHANGE_PASSWORD = TRUE;Add a default warehouse:
USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN; ALTER USER <alation_user> SET DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE=<warehouse_name>; GRANT ROLE <alation_role> TO USER <alation_user>;
Permissions for Metadata Extraction¶
Grant access to warehouse if MDE will be performed on a warehouse that is not the default warehouse of the Alation service account
USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN; GRANT USAGE ON WAREHOUSE <warehouse_name> TO ROLE <alation_role>;Grant access to the Snowflake database
USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN; GRANT IMPORTED PRIVILEGES on database "SNOWFLAKE" to <alation_role>;To extract primary key and foreign key the user requires the permission to INFORMATION_SCHEMA of that database
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE <database> TO <alation_role>; -- grants limited by specific database(s) -- grant access to all schemas in specific database GRANT USAGE ON ALL SCHEMAS IN DATABASE <database> TO <alation_role>; -- OR -- grants limited by specific schema(s) -- grant access to schemas in specific database GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <database.schema> TO <alation_role>; -- grant access to all tables in specific database GRANT REFERENCES ON ALL TABLES IN DATABASE <database> TO <alation_role>; -- OR -- grant access to all tables in specific schemas GRANT REFERENCES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA <database.schema> TO ROLE <alation_role>; -- grant access to all VIEWS in specific database GRANT REFERENCES ON ALL VIEWS IN DATABASE <database> TO <alation_role>; -- OR -- grant access to all VIEWS in specific schemas GRANT REFERENCES ON ALL VIEWS IN SCHEMA <database.schema> TO ROLE <alation_role>;CES ON ALL VIEWS IN SCHEMA <database.schema> TO ROLE <alation_role>;For external tables
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE <database> TO <alation_role>;
Permissions for Profiling¶
GRANT SELECT ON schema_name.table_name TO <alation_role>;
JDBC URI¶
When building the URI, include the following components:
Hostname:
For instances on AWS: <account_name>.<region_id>.snowflakecomputing.com
Example:
alation_partner.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.comFor instances on Azure: <account_name>.<region_id>.azure.snowflakecomputing.com
Example:
lj16805.east-us-2.azure.snowflakecomputing.comFor instances on GCP:<account_name>.<region_id>.gcp.snowflakecomputing.com
Example:
mj26341.europe-west2.gcp.snowflakecomputing.comPort - Provide the port number as 443.
Warehouse name - The currently active/running warehouse in your account for which the service account you are going to use in Alation has access privileges.
Role - This is an optional parameter. Provide the role of the service account user.
Database name - This is an optional parameter. The parameter name db is case insensitive but db_name value is case sensitive.
Note
If the Database Name is specified, then the metadata will be extracted for this specific database only.
If the Database Name is not provided, then the metadata will be extracted for all the databases that the user account has access to.
URI format¶
snowflake://<hostname>:<port>/?warehouse=<warehouse_name>&db=<db_name>&role=<role_name
Example:
snowflake://alation_partner.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.com:443/?warehouse=TEST&db=TEST_DB&role=admin
URI to Extract Policies¶
The Snowflake URI must include the default database name as shown below to extract the policies from a particular database. If not, all the policies will be extracted from the complete Snowflake data source. See Policy Center on how to extract and use policies in Alation.
snowflake://alation_partner.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.com:443/?warehouse=OXY_WH&db=PC_DB
Key Pair Authentication¶
Alation supports the key pair authentication method for the service account connection to Snowflake. To use key pair authentication, a number of key pair authentication-relevant parameters need to be included into the Snowflake URI provided in the Alation catalog.
Key pair authentication requires a preliminary configuration on Snowflake and on the Alation server before the Snowflake data source can be added to the catalog.
Configuration on the Snowflake Side¶
Generate and assign a key pair to the user account you created for Alation. Refer to Key Pair Authentication & Key Pair Rotation in Snowflake documentation for details.
Once the private key is generated, store the private key securely in your local machine as it needs to be uploaded in Alation while configuring the key pair authentication.
The following error is seen while connecting using a JDBC connection to Snowflake using Key Pair Authentication. The error is specific to versions like OpenSSL 1.1.1g version and running on Windows / Ubuntu.
Error:
Private key provided is invalid or not supported: rsa_key.p8: ObjectIdentifier() -- data isn't an object ID (tag = 48) nullorException in thread "main" java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException: 1.2.840.113549.1.5.13 SecretKeyFactory not availableWhen run from JDBC application.
To resolve this issue, use the following command to generate the private key:
openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -v1 PBE-SHA1-RC4-128 -out rsa_key.p8)
Configuration on the Alation Server Side¶
You will need to upload the private key file in the General Settings > Snowflake Key Pair Authentication section of your Snowflake OCF data source after adding this data source to the Catalog.
Note
Key Pair Authentication for individual user account connections from Compose is currently not supported.
Key Pair Authentication for Snowflake OAuth in Compose is currently not supported. Snowflake OAuth uses authentication based on the provided client ID and secret.
Configuration in Alation¶
STEP 1: Install the Connector¶
Important
Installation of the Snowflake OCF connector requires the Alation Connector Manager to be installed as a prerequisite.
If this has not been done on your instance, install the Connector Manager: Install Alation Connector Manager.
Make sure that the connector Zip file which you received from Alation is available on your local machine.
Install the connector on the Connectors Dashboard page: refer to Manage Connector Dashboard.
STEP 2: Create and Configure a New Snowflake Data Source¶
Log in to the Alation instance and add a new Snowflake source. Click on Apps > Sources > Add > Data Source.
Provide the Title for data source and click on Continue Setup.
From the Database Type dropdown, select Snowflake OCF Connector OCF Connector. You will be navigated to the Settings page of your new Snowflake OCF data source.
Access¶
On the Access tab, set the data source visibility as follows:
Public Data Source - The data source will be visible to all users of the catalog.
Private Data Source - The data source will be visible to the users allowed access to the data source by Data Source Admins.
Add new Data Source Admin users in the Data Source Admins section.
General Settings¶
Perform the configuration on the General Settings tab:
Specify Application Settings:
Parameter
Description
BI Connection Info
Not applicable
Disable Automatic Lineage Generation
Not applicable
Click Save.
Specify Connector Settings:
Parameter
Description
Data Source Connection
JDBC URI
Provide the JDBC URI constructed in JDBC URI.
Username
Provide the service account username.
Password
Provide the service account password.
Snowflake Key Pair Authentication
Enable Snowflake Key Pair Auth
Select this checkbox to enable the key pair authentication.
Username
Provide the user name of the service account that has the public key assigned to it.
Make sure that the username provided here is the same as the service account username provided in the Data Source Connection section.
Upload Private Key File
Click the Upload button to upload the private key file.
Private Key Passphrase
Provide the passphrase of the private key file.
Logging Information
Log Level
Select the Log Level to generate logs. The available log levels are based on the log4j framework.
Click Save.
Obfuscate Literals - Enable this toggle to hide the details of the queries in the catalog page that are ingested via QLI or executed in Compose. This toggle is disabled by default.
Under Test Connection, click Test to validate network connectivity.
Deleting the Data Source¶
You can delete your data source from the General Settings tab. Under Delete Data Source, click Delete to delete the data source connection.
Metadata Extraction¶
Note
There is 45 minutes to 3 hour latency time to update tables, columns, views, primary keys, foreign keys, functions, and procedures in ACCOUNT_USAGE views. So the new items created will be extracted during metadata extraction after the latency time. Refer to Account Usage — Snowflake Documentation for information about the latency time for each item.
You can perform a default extraction or configure extraction based on custom queries.
Default extraction: This type of MDE is based on default SQL queries that are built in the connector code.
Query-based extraction: This type of MDE is based on custom SQL queries that can be provided by a Data Source Admin. See Query Based Extraction below.
Note
It is recommended not to use the Default Extraction if a Query-Based extraction method is used and vice-versa.
Note
Alation supports S3 storage and Azure storage for external tables and GCP is not supported.
Note
If the database name is mentioned in the JDBC URI, then the metadata will be extracted only from that database. If the database name is not mentioned in the JDBC URI, then all the data of the Snowflake instance will be extracted, which increases the extraction time.
Application Settings¶
Enable Raw Metadata Dump or Replay: The options in this drop list can be used to dump the extracted metadata into files in order to debug extraction issues before ingesting the metadata into Alation. This feature can be used during testing in case there are issues with MDE. It breaks extraction into two steps: first, the extracted metadata is dumped into files and can be viewed; and second, it can be ingested from the files into Alation. It is recommended to keep this feature enabled only if debugging is required.
Enable Raw Metadata Dump: Select this option to save the extracted metadata into a folder for debugging purposes. The dumped data will be saved in four files (attribute.dump, function.dump, schema.dump, table.dump) in the folder opt/alation/site/tmp/ inside Alation shell.
Enable Ingestion Replay: Select this option to ingest the metadata from the dump files into Alation.
Off - Disable the Raw Metadata Dump or Replay feature. Extracted metadata will be ingested into Alation.
Connector Settings¶
Query Based Extraction¶
Query-Based Extraction allows users to customize metadata extraction from the source down to the level of specific metadata types, such as tables, columns, views, and some others by using custom queries.
Tables, columns, and views, are enabled by default at the backend and users cannot disable them.
By default, the following additional metadata type is enabled:
Functions
Users can disable the metadata types that are not required by clearing the corresponding checkboxes.
Primary Keys and Foreign Keys are disabled by default. Users can enable their extraction if required. Primary Keys and Foreign Keys are extracted without custom queries if the checkbox are selected.
To use this feature, you will need to write custom queries to extract the metadata. Alation expects that these queries conform to a specific structure and use the expected reserved identifiers. The sections below provide the expected query structure for each metadata type.
Catalog¶
Make sure that your query has a column labeled as CATALOG in the SELECT statement.
Example:
SELECT
DATABASE_NAME AS CATALOG
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.DATABASES
WHERE
DELETED IS NULL AND DATABASE_NAME = '<catalog_name>'
ORDER BY
DATABASE_NAME
Schema¶
Make sure that your query has a column labeled as CATALOG, SCHEMA in the SELECT statement.
Example:
SELECT
CATALOG_NAME AS CATALOG,
SCHEMA_NAME AS SCHEMA
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.SCHEMATA
WHERE
DELETED IS NULL AND CONCAT(CATALOG_NAME,'.',SCHEMA_NAME) IN ('<catalog_name>.<schema_name>') AND CATALOG_NAME = '<catalog_name>'
ORDER BY
DATABASE_NAME
Table¶
Make sure that your query has columns labeled as CATALOG, SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, TABLE_TYPE, and REMARKS in the SELECT statement.
Example:
SELECT
TABLE_CATALOG AS CATALOG,
TABLE_SCHEMA AS SCHEMA,
TABLE_NAME,
TABLE_TYPE,
COMMENT AS REMARKS
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.TABLES
WHERE
DELETED IS NULL AND TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE' AND CONCAT(TABLE_CATALOG,'.',TABLE_SCHEMA) IN ('<catalog_name>.<schema_name>') AND TABLE_CATALOG = '<catalog_name>' AND TRIM(TABLE_NAME) !=''
ORDER BY
TABLE_CATALOG
View¶
Make sure that your query has columns labeled as DATABASE_NAME, SCHEMA_NAME, NAME, TEXT, IS_MATERIALIZED, and COMMENT in the SELECT statement.
Example:
SELECT
TABLE_CATALOG AS CATALOG,
TABLE_SCHEMA AS SCHEMA,
TABLE_NAME AS VIEW_NAME,
VIEW_DEFINITION AS VIEW_CREATE_STATEMENT,
'VIEW' AS VIEW_TYPE,
COMMENT AS REMARKS
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.VIEWS
WHERE
DELETED IS NULL AND CONCAT(TABLE_CATALOG,'.',TABLE_SCHEMA) IN ('<catalog_name>.<schema_name>') AND TABLE_CATALOG = '<catalog_name>'
ORDER BY
TABLE_CATALOG
Column¶
Make sure that your query has columns labeled as CATALOG, SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, TYPE_NAME, DATA_TYPE, COLUMN_NAME, ORDINAL_POSITION, IS_NULLABLE, REMARKS, and COLUMN_DEFAULT in the SELECT statement.
Example:
SELECT
TABLE_CATALOG AS CATALOG,
TABLE_SCHEMA AS SCHEMA,
TABLE_NAME,
DECODE(DATA_TYPE,'TEXT','VARCHAR' || '(' || CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH || ')','NUMBER',DATA_TYPE || '(' || NUMERIC_PRECISION ||','|| NUMERIC_SCALE || ')', DATA_TYPE) AS TYPE_NAME,
DATA_TYPE,
COLUMN_NAME,
ORDINAL_POSITION,
IS_NULLABLE,
COMMENT AS REMARKS,
COLUMN_DEFAULT
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.COLUMNS
WHERE
DELETED IS NULL AND CONCAT(TABLE_CATALOG,'.',TABLE_SCHEMA) IN ('<catalog_name>.<schema_name>') AND TABLE_CATALOG = '<catalog_name>' AND TRIM(COLUMN_NAME) NOT IN ('','SYS_MV_SOURCE_PARTITION') AND TRIM(TABLE_NAME) !=''
ORDER BY
TABLE_CATALOG
Primary Key¶
Make sure that your query has columns labeled as PK_DATABASE_NAME, PK_SCHEMA_NAME, PK_TABLE_NAME, and PK_COLUMN_NAME in the SELECT statement.
Example:
SHOW PRIMARY KEYS IN ACCOUNT
Foreign Key¶
Make sure that your query has columns labeled as PK_DATABASE_NAME, PK_SCHEMA_NAME, PK_TABLE_NAME, PK_COLUMN_NAME, FK_DATABSE_NAME, FK_SCHEMA_NAME, FK_TABLE_NAME, FK_COLUMN_NAME in the select list.
Example:
SHOW EXPORTED KEYS IN ACCOUNT
Function¶
Make sure that your query has columns labeled as CATALOG, SCHEMA, FUNCTION_NAME, and REMARKS in the select list.
Example:
SELECT
FUNCTION_CATALOG AS CATALOG,
FUNCTION_SCHEMA AS SCHEMA,
FUNCTION_NAME,
COMMENT AS REMARKS
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.FUNCTIONS
WHERE
DELETED IS NULL AND CONCAT(FUNCTION_CATALOG,'.',FUNCTION_SCHEMA) IN ('<catalog_name>.<schema_name>') AND FUNCTION_CATALOG = '<catalog_name>'
ORDER BY
FUNCTION_CATALOG
Selective Extraction¶
On the Metadata Extraction tab, you can select the Schemas to include or exclude from extraction. Selective extraction settings are used to apply a filter to include or exclude a list of schemas.
Enable the Selective Extraction toggle if you want only a subset of schemas to be extracted.
Click Get List of Schemas to first fetch the list of schemas. The status of the Get Schemas action will be logged in the Extraction Job Status table at the bottom of the Metadata Extraction page.
When Schema synchronization is complete, a drop-down list of the Schemas will become enabled.
Select one or more schemas as required.
Check if you are using the desired filter option. Available filter options are described below:
Filter Option
Description
Extract all Schemas except
Extract metadata from all Schemas except from the selected Schemas.
Extract only these Schemas
Extract metadata only from the selected Schemas.
Click Run Extraction Now to extract metadata. The status of the extraction action is also logged in the Job History table at the bottom of the page.
Automated Extraction¶
If you wish to automatically update the metadata extracted into the Catalog, under Automated and Manual Extraction, turn on the Enable Automated Extraction switch and select the day and time when metadata must be extracted. The metadata extraction will be automatically scheduled to run on the selected schedule.
Compose¶
On the Compose tab, an admin can enable the use of the Compose tool for this data source.
Enable or disable the Allow Export and Download toggle to export or download the results of this data source.
Enable the Enabled in Compose toggle to enable Compose for this data source.
Provide the JDBC URI in the Default Connection field which Compose will use as a default connection and Save.
Select Compose Connection Sharing option based on the description in the table:
Compose Connection Option
Description
Shared connections across tabs
This option lets users use the same connection across multiple Compose tabs.
Separate connection per tab
Users can use different connections for each Compose tab, which enables them to run multiple queries at the same time.
Select the Enable OAuth 2.0 in Compose checkbox to enable the OAuth in Compose. Once you enable this checkbox, it reveals a number of parameters for OAuth setup. Refer to Enable OAuth to configure the OAuth parameters.
Select a Data Uploader option based on the description below:
Data Uploader
Description
Use Global Setting (True)
Or
Use Global Setting (False)
Use the global setting option that is set in alation_conf using alation.data_uploader.enabled flag.
Users can upload data if the flag is set to true or if the flag is set to false, users cannot upload the data for any data source.
Enable for this data source
Use this option to enable the data upload for this data source and override the global setting if the global setting in alation_conf if it is set to false.
Disable for this data source
Use this option to disable the data upload for this data source and override the global setting in alation_conf if it is set to true.
Data Sampling¶
Connector Settings¶
Provide the JDBC URI in the Dynamic Sampling JDBC URI field which Data Sampling will use as a default connection and Save. This URI takes precedence over the JDBC URI configured in the Dynamic Sampling popup that appears on the catalog page.
Automated and Manual Sampling¶
Users can either perform manual sampling or enable automated sampling:
To perform manual sampling, make sure that the Enable Automated Sampling toggle is Off. Click the Sample button to do manual sampling.
Set the Enable Automated Sampling toggle to On to perform the automated sampling.
Set a schedule in the corresponding fields of the schedule section, specify values for week, day and time.
Select the number of tables to be sampled by selecting a value in the dropdown list. By default, all tables are sampled. When a specific number of tables is selected, unprofiled and popular tables are prioritized.
Click Sample.
Dynamic Sampling¶
Dynamic Sampling allows users to perform user-specific sampling and profiling. They will only be able to see the data they have access to on the database. Sample data will only be visible to the user who initiated sampling or profiling.
Automated sampling must be disabled to perform dynamic sampling.
Per-Object Parameters¶
Refer to Per-Object Parameters.
Query Log Ingestion¶
You can either create a table for Alation to pull the query logs from or use a custom query to query the logs from the Snowflake data source.
Connector Settings¶
Table-Based QLI¶
Use the query format below to create a new table and flush the query history from the Snowflake data source.
CREATE VIEW <View_Name> AS
SELECT user_name as “userName”,
CASE
WHEN SCHEMA_NAME IS NULL
THEN DATABASE_NAME ||'.'|| ''
ELSE DATABASE_NAME ||'.'|| SCHEMA_NAME
END as “defaultDatabases”,
TRIM(QUERY_TEXT) as “queryString”,
TRIM(SESSION_ID ||'/' || TO_CHAR(START_TIME,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.SSSSSSSSS') || '/' || USER_NAME) as “sessionID”,
ROUND(TOTAL_ELAPSED_TIME/1000,3) as “seconds”,
false as “cancelled”,
to_char(start_time,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.US') as “startTime”,
to_char(start_time,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.US') as “sessionStartTime”
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY;
In the Table Name field, provide the name of the table in which the query logs are available. The table name must be provided in the following format:
“schema.table/viewname”
Note
Make sure that the user has privileges to access the table/view.
Custom Query-Based QLI¶
When you cannot create a table or view, you can use a Custom QLI Query to perform QLI. Provide the expected query structure as shown below and click Save:
SELECT
user_name as “userName”,
CASE
WHEN SCHEMA_NAME IS NULL
THEN DATABASE_NAME ||'.'|| ''
ELSE DATABASE_NAME ||'.'|| SCHEMA_NAME
END as “defaultDatabases”,
TRIM(QUERY_TEXT) as “queryString”,
TRIM(SESSION_ID ||'/' || TO_CHAR(START_TIME,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.SSSSSSSSS') || '/' || USER_NAME) as “sessionID”,
ROUND(TOTAL_ELAPSED_TIME/1000,3) as “seconds”,
false as “cancelled”,
to_char(start_time,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.US') as “startTime”,
to_char(start_time,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.US') as “sessionStartTime”
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY WHERE START_TIME BETWEEN STARTTIME AND ENDTIME;
Or
SELECT
user_name as “userName”,
CASE
WHEN SCHEMA_NAME IS NULL
THEN DATABASE_NAME ||'.'|| ''
ELSE DATABASE_NAME ||'.'|| SCHEMA_NAME
END as “defaultDatabases”,
TRIM(QUERY_TEXT) as “queryString”,
TRIM(SESSION_ID ||'/' || TO_CHAR(START_TIME,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.SSSSSSSSS') || '/' || USER_NAME) as “sessionID”,
ROUND(TOTAL_ELAPSED_TIME/1000,3) as “seconds”,
false as “cancelled”,
to_char(start_time,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.US') as “startTime”,
to_char(start_time,'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS.US') as “sessionStartTime”
FROM
SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY; WHERE DATABASE_NAME = '<Database_Name>' AND USER_NAME = '<User_Name>' AND START_TIME BETWEEN STARTTIME AND ENDTIME;
Automated and Manual QLI¶
Users can either perform manual Query Log Ingestion or enable automated Query Log Ingestion:
To perform manual Query Log Ingestion, make sure that the Enable Automated Query Log Ingestion toggle is Off. Click the Import button to do manual Query Log Ingestion.
Set the Enable Automated Query Log Ingestion toggle to On to perform the automated Query Log Ingestion.
Set a schedule in the corresponding fields of the schedule section, specify values for week, day and time.
Click Import.
Custom Settings¶
This configuration option is available if Profiling V2 is enabled.
To profile a column, Alation runs a default query if no custom query is specified for this column. Default queries for column profiling differ depending on the data type: numeric or non-numeric.
The default query supplied by Alation can be modified based on the user requirements and datasource type. The following default query template can be used to revert back to the default query from a custom query:
Numeric columns:
SELECT MIN({column_name}) AS MIN, MAX({column_name}) AS MAX, AVG({column_name}) AS MEAN, (COUNT(*) - COUNT({column_name})) AS "#NULL", (CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN ((COUNT(*) - COUNT({column_name})) * 100.0 / COUNT(*)) ELSE 0.0 END) AS "%NULL" FROM {schema_name}.{table_name};
Non numeric columns:
SELECT ((SUM(CASE WHEN {column_name} IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END))) AS "#NULL", (CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN ((((SUM(CASE WHEN {column_name} IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END))) * 100.0 / count(*)) ) ELSE 0.0 END ) AS "%NULL" FROM {schema_name}.{table_name};
Important
The profiling queries MUST contain {column_name}, {schema_name}, and {table_name}. Users must check the compatibility of the default query based on the datasource type and modify it if required.
The default profiling query calculates the Profiling stats that are displayed on the Overview tab of the Column catalog page. When you customize the query, you can also customize the statistics that should be calculated and displayed:
Lineage¶
Note
This feature requires the Snowflake Column Level Lineage parser add-on. Contact your customer success manager about purchasing this add-on.
Enable the Column Level Lineage¶
To enable the Column Level Lineage:
Go to Settings > Feature Configuration.
Turn on the toggle Automatically extracts Column Level Lineage for Snowflake data sources.
Click the Save changes button to save the changes.
In the Verify Feature Configuration Change dialog, click the Save Configuration button.
Column Level Lineage¶
When you enable the Column Level Lineage add-on, Alation will automatically generate column-level lineage data based on the existing metadata that was previously extracted with MDE, QLI, and the Compose query log.
Note
Once the feature flag is enabled, the column level lineage will be automatically generated only for the view definitions that are complete and already added to the table level lineage. Below are the examples of:
Complete view definition:
CREATE VIEW adbc_database_01.query_execution_main.table_view as select src.* from (select col1, col2, col3 from tpch.sf1.customer limit 10) src;Incomplete view definition:
select src.* from (select col1, col2, col3 from tpch.sf1.customer limit 10) src;
If you wish to add more data, perform some or all of the following actions:
Go to the Metadata Extraction tab and perform the Metadata Extraction.
Go to the Query Log Ingestion tab and perform Query Log Ingestion.
Use Compose to run queries that involve creating or updating column objects.
To view the column-level lineage data:
Go to the Lineage tab of the table that should have column-level lineage.
Expand the table or view name to see the columns of the table or view and its links to the dataflow object.
When you expand the target table or view object and click one of the columns, the column level lineage link for that particular column becomes highlighted.
Important
If the Column Level Lineage feature flag is turned off, column level lineage links that were generated previously are not removed. Only the future queries and query history will not be processed.
Troubleshooting¶
Refer to Troubleshooting.