About registering a data source

Warning Jobserver and all related Jobserver integrations reached their End of Life in commercial environments in October, 2024. In Collibra Platform for Government and Collibra Platform Self-Hosted environments, they will reach their End of Life on May 30, 2027.
For information on registering a data source via Edge, go to Registering and synchronizing a data source via Edge.

By registering a data source, you connect a data source to Collibra and make metadata of the data source available in Collibra.

You can register a data source via Edge or Jobserver.

Differences between registering a data source via Edge or Jobserver

The following table shows the differences between registering a data source via Edge or Jobserver.

Part of process

Register a data source via Edge

Register a data source via Jobserver

Permissions

The required permissions to register a data source via Edge or via Jobserver are the same except for the following permission:

You need a global role with the View Edge connections and capabilities global permission.

The required permissions to register a data source via Jobserver or via Edge are the same except for the following permission:

You need a resource role with the following resource permissions on the Schema community:

  • Asset > add
  • Attribute > add
  • Domain > add
  • Attachment > add

Registering a data source

Before you register a data source via Edge, you have to enable data source registration via Edge. You also need a JDBC connection to your data source and Edge capabilities with a JDBC Catalog JDBC ingestion capability template.
When you register a data source in Data Catalog, you can then select which database you want to add to the JDBC connection.

When you register a data source via Jobserver, you have to enter all database connection properties in the Register data source dialog box.

Refreshing or synchronizing

After registering a data source, a Database asset is created. The Database asset has a relation of the type "Technology asset groups / is grouped by Technology asset" to the System asset that was selected when registering the data source. On the Configuration tab page of the Database asset page, you can synchronize one or many schemas.

After registering a data source, a Schema asset is created. On the Configuration tab page of the Schema asset page, you can refresh a data source.

Profiling options

To be able to profile the data, you have to enable profiling and classification via Edge. After you have registered the data source, you can then select profiling options to create profiling data and data classes on a Database asset page. The metadata is profiled and classified automatically after synchronizing a schema or manually.

Also to show sample data for a data source, extra setup is needed.

At the end of the registration process, you can select profiling options to create data profiling and sample data. The profiling data is automatically created after the refresh process.

  • Data Profiling creates a summary of a data source in Data Catalog and determines the data type of columns in the data source. The summary mainly contains statistics and graphics to give the user an idea what the data is about.

    Data Profiling is available for registered JDBC data sources.

  • Sample data is a set of randomly collected data from a data source. The purpose of showing sample data is to provide examples of the data so you know what to expect when you use the asset.

Difference between registering a data source and importing data

When you register a data source, Data Catalog reads and processes metadata of data sources that are not governed in Collibra Platform. Collibra will create assets of the relevant types, such as Database, Table and Column.

Example You register a data source that contains your financial data in a SAP HANA database. Afterwards, you can use the Collibra to manage the data, for example manage access control through data sets and use traceability to see your data lineage.

When you import data, you create or edit assets or complex relations, with their characteristics, from a view. Collibra will create assets of the type specified in the imported XLSX or CSV file.

Example You import an XLSX file containing the most common business terms of your company. You can use Collibra to approve the terms and link them to more technical assets.

Asset naming convention

When you register a data source, Collibra follows a strict naming convention for the names of the new assets. Each asset has a display name and full name. You can freely edit the display name. However, you should never edit the full name, because Data Catalog may need it to refresh data sources. Editing the full name may cause unexpected results and break the synchronization process.

Warning Editing the full name of the Database and Schema assets may lead to errors during the refresh process.

For information on Edge naming conventions, go to naming conventions.