Configure Lineage

By default, the lineage data for Looker objects is calculated at the table-to-BI-report level, enabling users to trace lineage from a specific table in an RDBMS data source to a specific view in Looker.

Cross-System Lineage

Cross-System Lineage is to generate lineage between this Looker BI source and any supported data source by this connector. To generate the cross-system Lineage, specify the host name and the port number of this BI source on the RDBMS connector’s General Settings > Application Settings > BI Connection Info field in the format mentioned below:

Host_Name:Port_Number

Example: adb-8443049157651279.19.azuredatabricks.net:443

../../../_images/powerb17.png

Note

This image is from the supported data source General Settings page.

Column-level Lineage

Applies from version 2024.1.5

From Looker connector version 2.1.0 and Alation version 2024.1.5, you can additionally enable lineage at the column level. Users will be able to see lineage links from table columns in the underlying RDBMS data source to BI report fields in Looker views.

The column-level lineage is fully supported for the following RDBMS data sources:

  • Amazon Redshift

  • MySQL

  • Microsoft SQL Server

  • Oracle

  • PostgreSQL

  • Snowflake

Note

The column-level lineage will be partially supported (only direct matches between the RDBMS column names and Explore column names) for RDBMS data source Google BigQuery (GBQ) and Databricks from Alation version 2024.3.0.1.

Both the RDBMS data source and the Looker instance must be cataloged in Alation for lineage between them to become available. For example, if your Looker instance is connected to a Redshift database as a source of data for visualizations, both Redshift and Looker must be cataloged in Alation as sources:

  • Redshift—as a data source

  • Looker—as a BI source

Enable Column-Level Lineage

Applies from version 2024.1.5

Enable the column-level lineage for RDBMS sources from which explores and reports are created.

Column-level lineage can be activated by a Server Admin in Admin Settings > Feature Configuration.

To enable column-level lineage:

  1. Log in to Alation as a Server Admin.

  2. Under the gears icon at the top right corner, open the Admin Settings page.

  3. Go to Server Admin > Feature Configuration.

  4. Search for the toggle option for the specific data source and activate.

    For example: Automatically extracts Column Level Lineage for Redshift data sources.

  5. To apply the configuration, click Save changes at the top of the page.