Qlik Sense Enterprise Connector: Install and Configure

Follow the steps in this topic to perform the required configuration for the Qlik Sense Enterprise connector on the Qlik Sense Enterprise side and in Alation.

Firewall Configuration

Open the outbound TCP port 4747 to the Qlik Sense Engine Service (QES).

Authentication Requirements

The following certificates are required in Alation to configure the Qlik Sense Enterprise as a BI data source.

  • client.pfx

  • root.cer

Refer to Export Certificates through the QMC to export the certificates to your local machine.

Configuration in Alation

STEP 1: Install the Connector

Important

Installation of a Qlik Sense OCF connector requires Alation Connector Manager to be installed as a prerequisite.

  1. If this has not been done on your instance, install the Connector Manager: Install Alation Connector Manager.

  2. Make sure that the connector Zip file which you received from Alation is available on your local machine.

  3. Install the connector from the Connectors Dashboard: refer to Manage Connector Dashboard.

STEP 2: Create and Configure a New BI Server Source

This configuration requires the role of the Server Admin.

Add a New BI Server Source

  1. Log in to the Alation instance and add a new BI Server source: Apps > Sources > Add > BI Server. The Register a Business Intelligence Server screen will open.

  2. From the Select a Business Intelligence Server type list, select Qlik Sense BI Data source connector name.

    Note

    The connector name appears in this list only after it is installed.

    ../../../_images/Qliksense_02.png

  3. Provide the Title and a Description (optional) for your Qlik Sense Enterprise BI data source.

    ../../../_images/Qliksense_03.png

  4. Click Add. You will be navigated to your new BI Server source Settings page.

Configure the Qlik Sense Enterprise BI Source

Perform the configuration on the Settings page.

  1. Configure Access:

    You can configure the visibility of a BI source and its child objects such as Folders and Reports on the Access tab of the settings page.

    Configure BI Source Visibility

    Applies from release 2023.3.5

    On the Access tab, follow these steps to set the BI source visibility:

    1. Select one of the following options for setting privacy level:

      • Public BI Server—The BI source will be visible to all users of the catalog.

      • Private BI Server—The BI Source will be visible to users who have been granted the BI Server Admin or Viewer permissions. It will be hidden for all other users.

    2. Add one or more BI Server Admins or Viewers in the User Access section if required.

    For more information on access to BI sources, see Configure Access to OCF BI Sources.

    Configure BI Folder and Report Visibility

    Applies from release 2024.1.4

    On the Settings under a BI Folder or Report, follow these steps to set visibility:

    1. Check the option Enable explicit permission to change access permission defined at the parent level object.

      This enables and allows permissions at the object level. By default, the access permissions are inherited from the parent level and are not editable.

    2. Select one of the following options to set a privacy level:

    • Public—The BI folder or report will be visible to all users of the catalog.

    ../../../_images/BI_Folder_Access.png

    • Private—The BI folder or report will be visible to users that have been granted the BI Server Admin or Viewer permissions. It will be hidden for all other users.

    ../../../_images/BI_Report_Access.png

    1. Add one or more BI Server Admins or Viewers in the User Access section if required.

    For more information on how to enable the feature and configure access to a folder or report, see Configure Access to OCF BI Folders and Reports.

  2. Configure General Settings:

    Note

    This section describes configuring settings for credentials and connection information stored in the Alation database. If your organization has configured Azure KeyVault or AWS Secrets Manager to hold such information, the user interface for the General Settings page will change to include the following icons to the right of most options:

    ../../../_images/VaultOrDB.png

    By default, the database icon is selected, as shown. In the vault case, instead of the actual credential information, you enter the ID of the secret. See Configure Secrets for OCF Connector Settings for details.

    ../../../_images/Qliksense_04.png

Leave the fields under the Application Settings section as is. None of these fields applies to the Qlik Sense connector.

  1. Specify Connector Settings:

    ../../../_images/Qliksense_05.png

    Parameter

    Description

    Host

    Enter the URL to access Qlik Sense Enterprise.

    Certificate

    Click Upload to upload the client.pfx certificate from your local machine.

    Root Certificate

    Click Upload to upload the root.cer certificate from your local machine.

    Certificate Password

    Provide the password of the certificates that is used during exporting the certificates.

    Validate DNS Server Name

    Deselect the checkbox to skip the DNS server name validation. The checkbox will be selected by default.

    Log Level

    Select the Log Level to generate logs. The available log levels are based on the log4j framework.

  2. Click Save.

  3. Under Test Connection, click Test to validate network connectivity. An error message will appear.

    ../../../_images/Qliksense_06.png

  4. Under Extraction Settings, turn on Selective Extraction, if required. Selective extraction settings are used to apply a filter to include or exclude a list of projects.

    ../../../_images/Qliksense_07.png

    1. Click Get List of Projects to first fetch the list of projects (Folders in Qlik Sense) from Qlik Sense Enterprise.

    2. The status of the Get Projects action is logged in the Job History table at the bottom of the Settings page.

    3. Once the folder synchronization is successful, a drop-down list of projects will become enabled. Select one or more projects to apply the filter.

    4. Check if you are using the desired filter option. Available filter options are described below:

    Filter Option

    Description

    Extract all Folders except

    Extract metadata from all Folders except from the workspaces selected.

    Extract only these Folders

    Extract metadata only from the selected Folders.

    1. 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.

  5. If you wish to automatically update the metadata in the Catalog, under Automated and Manual Extraction, turn on Enable Automated Extraction and select the day and time when metadata must be extracted. The metadata extraction will be automatically scheduled to run at the selected day and time.

Troubleshooting

Refer to Troubleshooting.