Critical Lineage

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Critical Lineage is the part of the Critical Data Manager (CDM) you use to trace how a Critical Data Element (CDE) flows into the reports, filings, and dashboards where it’s consumed. It builds on Alation’s existing auto-generated lineage. Where that auto-generated lineage doesn’t reach, for example, uncataloged systems, third-party feeds, or spreadsheets, you extend it manually through the Application Registry and EUC Registry. Together, these registries and your auto-generated lineage form a single, defensible source of truth for answering audit and regulatory questions about a CDE’s origin.

Important

This topic covers the Application Registry, the EUC Registry, and the Application Registry’s Lineage tab (app-level lineage). App-level lineage shows connections between applications only. The fuller Critical Lineage experience, including placeholders, AI-assisted resolution, and column-level lineage, is available on the Data Consumption page and isn’t covered in this topic yet.

In this topic:

Key Concepts

Application

A system in your data ecosystem that participates in a Data Consumption’s (DC’s) lineage, such as a source system, an integration, a file storage system, a data platform, a reporting tool, or a third-party system. An application can be Automated, meaning it’s linked to a cataloged data source, or Manual, meaning you register and maintain it yourself because it isn’t cataloged.

Application Registry

The registry where you track applications that participate in Critical Lineage. Each entry records the application’s role, its connector status, its domain, and its owner and steward.

End User Computing (EUC)

A file, such as a spreadsheet, flat file, database extract, or email, that end users rely on to calculate or compile critical data outside of a cataloged system.

EUC Registry

The registry where you track EUC files that participate in Critical Lineage. Each entry records the file’s type, its source application, its domain, its owner and steward, and the number of Physical Data Elements (PDEs) linked to the file.

Placeholder

A flag on an application indicating that a lineage relationship exists but you haven’t fully resolved it to a specific cataloged column or table yet. The application’s detail panel lists any unresolved placeholders. You resolve placeholders using Critical Lineage on the Data Consumption page.

Prerequisites

Everyone with access to Critical Data Manager can view entries in the Application Registry and EUC Registry. Creating, editing, and deleting entries requires one of the following roles:

  • Server Admin

  • Catalog Admin

  • Source Admin

Users with the Steward or Composer role can view registry entries but can’t create, edit, or delete them.

Important

The Critical Data Manager (CDM) is an add-on capability that requires additional license entitlement. Contact your Alation Account Manager for information about enabling it in your environment.

Manage the Application Registry

Access the Application Registry

To access the Application Registry:

  1. In Critical Data Manager, click the hamburger menu in the upper-left corner to expand the navigation panel.

  2. Click Applications. The Application Registry page opens, showing the total number of registered applications and how many are automated versus manual.

Register an Application

Import applications from your catalog, or register one manually.

To import applications from your catalog:

  1. In the Application Registry, click Import from Catalog.

  2. In the search field, search for the data sources you want to register as applications.

  3. Select the checkbox next to each source (data source, BI source or file system source) you want to import. Optionally, select EUC Registry or Data Consumption Registry to add them as container nodes in the lineage chart.

  4. Click Import.

To register an application manually:

  1. In the Application Registry, click Register Application.

  2. In the Application Name field, enter a name for the application.

  3. In the Application Role field, select one of the following: Source System, Integration, File Storage, Data Platform, Reporting, 3rd Party, EUC, or Other.

  4. Optionally, click Add under Domain to assign the application to one or more domains.

  5. Optionally, click Add under App Owner to assign an owner, and click Add under Steward to assign a steward.

  6. Click Register Application.

View and Manage an Application

To view an application’s details:

  1. In the Application Registry, click the name of an application. A detail panel opens on the right side of the page.

  2. Review the following information:

    • Name: The application’s name.

    • Role: The application’s assigned role.

    • Connector: The cataloged data source linked to the application, if any.

    • Domain: The domain or domains assigned to the application.

    • Ownership: The application’s App Owner and Steward.

    • Connections: The application’s Upstream and Downstream connections to other applications.

    • Unresolved Placeholders: Any placeholders on the application that you still need to resolve.

    • Related Data Consumptions: Any Data Consumptions connected to the application.

To delete an application, click the three-dot menu next to the application in the Application Registry table, then click Delete. You can’t delete an application that has unresolved placeholders; resolve them first using Critical Lineage on the Data Consumption page.

Manage the EUC Registry

Access the EUC Registry

To access the EUC Registry:

  1. In Critical Data Manager, click the hamburger menu in the upper-left corner to expand the navigation panel.

  2. Click End User Computing. The EUC Registry page opens, showing the total number of registered files.

Register an EUC File

To register an EUC file:

  1. In the EUC Registry, click Register EUC File.

  2. In the File Name field, enter a name for the file.

  3. In the File Type field, select one of the following: Spreadsheet, Flat File, Database, Email, or Other.

  4. Optionally, click Add under Domain to assign the file to one or more domains.

  5. Optionally, click Add under App Owner to assign an owner, and click Add under Steward to assign a steward.

  6. Optionally, in the Location field, enter the file path, such as a shared drive location.

  7. Click Register File.

View EUC File Details

To view an EUC file’s details:

  1. In the EUC Registry, click the name of a file. A detail panel opens on the right side of the page.

  2. Review the following information:

    • File Details: The file’s File Type, Last Modified date, Domain, and Location.

    • Ownership: The file’s App Owner and Steward.

    • Related Data Consumptions: Any Data Consumptions connected to the file.

  3. Click View in Catalog to open the file’s corresponding catalog page.

View the Lineage Chart

The Application Registry includes a Lineage tab that opens a lineage chart of your registered applications and their connections to cataloged data sources. EUC files and Data Consumptions don’t appear individually on this chart. Instead, the chart shows two container nodes, EUC Registry and Data Consumption Registry, that represent those registries at a higher level.

To view the lineage chart:

  1. In the Application Registry, click the Lineage tab.

  2. Click an application or a container node to select it. A detail panel opens with the node’s connections.

  3. Optionally, connect or disconnect applications to update their upstream and downstream connections.

Limitations

  • The Application Registry’s Lineage tab shows applications and the EUC Registry and Data Consumption Registry container nodes only. It doesn’t show placeholders, column-level lineage, or AI-assisted resolution. Those capabilities are part of Critical Lineage on the Data Consumption page.

  • Exporting a lineage trace as an audit artifact isn’t part of the Application Registry’s Lineage tab.