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.
Use this connector to catalog self-managed SQL Server deployments. It supports on-premises deployments and SQL Server instances running on customer-managed virtual machines, such as Azure VMs or Amazon EC2. For Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance, we recommend using the Azure SQL DB OCF Connector. The SQL Server OCF 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.
Use the instructions given in this guide to install and manage the connector.
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 |
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Basic (username and password) |
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Kerberos |
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SSL |
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NTLM |
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AWS Secrets Manager with Alation Agent |
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Metadata Extraction (MDE) |
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Default MDE |
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Query-based MDE |
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Extracted metadata objects |
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Schemas |
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Tables |
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Views |
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Columns |
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Primary keys |
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Foreign keys |
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Functions |
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Function Definitions |
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Synonyms |
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Source comments |
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Stored procedures |
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Sampling and profiling |
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Table sampling |
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Query-based table sampling |
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Query-based column profiling |
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Dynamic profiling |
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Query Log Ingestion |
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Table-based QLI |
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Query-based QLI |
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JOINs and filters |
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Predicates |
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Popularity |
|
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Lineage |
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Auto-lineage |
|
* |
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Column-level lineage |
|
* |
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Lineage for stored procedures (Beta) |
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Lineage for function definition |
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Compose |
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On-prem Alation |
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Alation Cloud Service ** |
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Basic authentication in Compose |
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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.
*** — OAuth Compose SSO with Microsoft Entra ID is supported from connector version 1.10.0 and Alation version 2026.7.0.0. For configuration steps, see Configure Compose.