SAP IQ OCF Connector: Overview¶
Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation
Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation
The OCF connector for SAP IQ (Sybase IQ) was developed by Alation and is available as a Zip file that can be uploaded and installed in the Alation application. The connector is compiled together with the database driver, so no additional effort is needed to procure and install the driver.
To download the SAP IQ OCF connector package, go to the Alation Connector Hub available from the Customer Portal. Go to Customer Portal > Connectors > Alation Connector Hub. Only Alation users with access to the Customer Portal can access the Alation Connector Hub. If you don’t have access to the Customer Portal, contact Alation Support.
This connector should be used to catalog the SAP IQ database as a data source on Alation on-prem and Cloud Service instances. It extracts and catalogs such database objects as schemas, tables, views, columns, primary keys, foreign keys, functions, and function definitions. 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¶
You may need the assistance of your SAP IQ administrator to configure this data source.
SAP IQ administrator
Creates a service account for Alation
Provides the JDBC URI to access metadata
Provides access to schemas to extract metadata
Configures query log ingestion on the SAP IQ side.
Alation administrator
Installs the connector
Creates and configures an SAP IQ data source in the Alation data catalog.
Scope¶
The table below describes which metadata objects are extracted by this connector and which operations are supported.
Feature |
Scope |
Availability |
|---|---|---|
Authentication |
||
Basic authentication |
Authentication with a service account created on the database that uses a username and password |
Yes |
LDAP |
Authentication with a database service account that is an LDAP account in an organization’s network |
No |
SSL |
Database connection over SSL |
Yes |
Kerberos |
Support for Kerberos authentication |
No |
Keytab |
Support for Kerberos with keytabs |
No |
Metadata Extraction (MDE) |
||
Default MDE |
Extraction of metadata based on default extraction queries in the connector code |
Yes |
Custom query-based MDE |
Extraction of metadata based on extraction queries provided by a user |
Yes |
Popularity |
Indicator of the popularity (intensity of use) of a data object, such as a table or a column |
Yes |
Extracted metadata objects |
||
Data Source |
Data source object in Alation that is parent to extracted metadata |
Yes |
Schemas |
List of schemas |
Yes |
Tables |
List of tables |
Yes |
Columns |
List of columns |
Yes |
Column data types |
Column data types |
Yes |
Views |
List of views |
Yes |
Source comments |
Source comments |
No |
Primary keys |
Primary key information for extracted tables |
Yes |
Foreign keys |
Foreign key information for extracted tables |
Yes |
Functions |
Function metadata |
Yes |
Function definitions |
Function definition metadata |
Yes |
Sampling and Profiling |
||
Table sampling |
Retrieval of data samples from extracted tables |
Yes |
Column sampling |
Retrieval of data samples from extracted columns |
Yes |
Deep column profiling |
Profiling of columns with the calculation of value distribution stats |
Yes |
Dynamic profiling |
Ability for individual users to connect with their own database accounts to retrieve table and column samples and profiles |
Yes |
Custom query-based table sampling |
Ability to use custom queries for sampling specific tables |
Yes |
Custom query-based column sampling |
Ability to use custom queries for profiling specific columns |
Yes |
Query Log Ingestion (QLI) |
||
Table-based QLI |
Ingestion of query history based on a table or view that contains query history data |
Yes |
Query-based QLI |
Ingestion of query history based on a custom query history extraction query |
Yes |
JOINs and filters |
Calculation of JOIN and filter information based on ingested query history |
Yes |
Predicates |
Ability to parse predicates in ingested queries |
Yes |
Lineage |
||
Automatic lineage generation |
Auto-calculation of lineage based on query history ingested from QLI, MDE, and Compose queries |
Yes |
Compose |
||
Customer-managed (on-prem) Alation instances |
Compose on on-prem Alation instances |
Yes |
Alation Cloud Service instances |
Depending on your network configuration, you may be using Alation Agent to connect to your data source. Compose for data sources connected via Alation Agent is supported from connector version 1.2.1.3623. |
Yes |
SSO authentication in Compose |
Authentication in Compose using an SSO flow through an IdP application |
No |