Manage Service Users

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Available from version 2025.1.4

Important

You are viewing documentation for Alation’s Classic User Experience.

Service users are used to integrate Alation with third-party tools such as Looker, Tableau, or other BI and data analytics platforms. These accounts differ from regular human user accounts and require key-based authentication rather than password-based login.

Note

Starting from July 2025, Snowflake will enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all password only logins, you must migrate all external integrations with Snowflake to key-pair authentication.

As a Server Admin, you can create service users associated with the Snowflake instance. This helps in setting up automated and secure access to Snowflake for ETL pipelines and analytics tools. This provides separation between individual users and machine or service accounts and is easier to maintain.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, consider the following points:

  • You must be a Server Admin.

  • Your instance must be configured with a valid Snowflake database, role, and warehouse.

  • Alation Analytics must be enabled and connected to Snowflake.

Create a Service User

  1. Navigate to Admin Settings > Platform Settings > Alation Analytics Settings.

    Navigate to Admin Settings > Alation Analytics.

  2. In the Service Users section, click +Create Service User.

  3. In the Create Service User dialog, enter a comment to describe the purpose of this user.

  4. Check Use a passphrase for private key to enhance security.

    Note

    This step is optional.

  5. Click Create User.

  6. In the Service User Details dialog, copy and save the private key for authentication purpose later.

  7. Click Download Key & Passphrase if you have checked to use a passphrase for the private key in the previous steps.

    Note

    This step is optional.

  8. Click Key Saved - Continue to complete the process.

Manage Details for a Service User

Use this section if you need to refresh the service user’s private key or generate a passphrase that wasn’t created during the initial setup.

Before you proceed, consider that this will invalidate the existing keys and break any existing integrations.

  1. Navigate to Admin Settings > Platform Settings > Alation Analytics Settings.

    Navigate to Admin Settings > Alation Analytics.

  2. In the Service Users section and Actions column, click the refresh icon.

  3. Update the Comment section to redefine the purpose of the service user.

  4. Check Use a passphrase for private key to enhance security.

    Note

    This step is optional.

  5. Click Save Changes to confirm the new details.

  6. Click Download Key & Passphrase if you have checked to use a passphrase for the private key in the previous steps.

    Note

    This step is optional.

  7. Click Key Saved - Continue to complete the process.

Delete a Service User

Before you proceed, consider that this will invalidate the existing keys and break any existing integrations.

  1. Navigate to Admin Settings > Platform Settings > Alation Analytics Settings.

    Navigate to Admin Settings > Alation Analytics.

  2. In the Service Users section and Actions column, click the delete icon.

  3. Click Delete to confirm the deletion.