Overview¶
Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation
Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation
Core Connector Core connectors are included with all Alation platform tiers (subject to each tier’s connector limits) and are fully supported by Alation.
Overview¶
You can install and upgrade the connector using one of the following methods, depending on your Alation deployment type:
On-premise instances: Download the latest connector package from the Alation Customer Portal (Customer Portal > Connectors), then upload and install it in Alation.
Alation Cloud Service: Install and upgrade the connector directly from your instance without downloading the package. Any connector available on the Alation Customer Portal (Customer Portal > Connectors) can be installed and upgraded this way. See Install Connectors (Cloud-Native Architecture). You can also download the connector package from the Alation Customer Portal and install or upgrade it manually by uploading the Zip file.
This connector should be used to catalog PostgreSQL as a data source on Alation on-prem and Alation Cloud Service instances. It extracts and catalogs such database objects as schemas, tables, columns, views, primary keys, foreign keys, indexes, functions, and function definition fields. After the metadata is extracted, it is represented in the data catalog as a hierarchy of catalog pages under the parent data source. Alation users can leverage the full catalog functionality to search for and find the extracted metadata, curate the corresponding catalog pages, create documentation about the data source, and exchange information about it.
Team¶
The following administrators are required to install this connector:
Alation administrator:
Ensures that Alation Connector Manager is installed and running or installs it.
Installs the connector
Creates and configures the PostgreSQL data source in the catalog
Performs initial extraction and prepares the data source for Alation users.
PostgreSQL administrator:
Creates a service account for Alation
Provides the JDBC URI to access metadata
Provides access to schemas to extract metadata.
Scope¶
The table below shows what features are covered by the connector. For version support information, refer to the support matrix for your specific release: Support Matrices.
Browser |
PostgreSQL (EC2) |
PostgreSQL (RDS) |
PostgreSQL (Enterprise) |
|---|---|---|---|
Core Capabilities |
|||
Automated Metadata Extraction (MDE) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Query-based MDE |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Search |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Catalog page curation |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Catalog sets |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Propagation of data quality flags |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Compose |
|||
On-prem Alation instances |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Alation Cloud Service instances* |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
* Compose for data sources connected via Alation Agent is supported from connector version 1.0.4.2169. |
|||
QLI |
|||
Query-based |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Filters |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Popularity |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Lineage |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Sampling and Profiling |
|||
Table sampling |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom query-based table sampling |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom query-based column profiling |
No |
No |
No |
Dynamic profiling |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Authentication |
|||
Basic (username and password) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SSL |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Kerberos |
No |
No |
No |
Keytab |
No |
No |
No |
LDAP |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
AWS Secrets Manager with Alation Agent |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
HashiCorp Vault (Dynamic Secrets)** |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Technical Metadata |
|||
Tables |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Attributes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Primary key |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Foreign key |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Views |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Schemas |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Source Comments |
Yes* |
Yes* |
Yes* |
Stored procedures |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Lineage |
|||
Lineage for stored procedures (Beta) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Lineage for function definition |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
* Source comments are extracted with some limitations. They are extracted for non-partitioned tables and columns but aren’t extracted for schemas and partition tables and their columns.
** Dynamic secrets support via the HashiCorp Vault database secrets engine is available from Alation version 2026.2.1.0 and connector version 2.1.0. For details, see Integrate with HashiCorp Vault.