Getting started with your Collibra environment

As a system administrator, your initial setup of the Collibra environment is essential for ensuring security, performance, and long-term maintainability. This guide provides the foundational steps for accessing Collibra, securing critical accounts, managing users, integrating with external systems, and preparing for data ingestion. By following this guide, you can establish a scalable and secure Collibra environment to support your organization's data governance needs.

The Collibra landscape

Collibra Platform is the core web application where users interact with governed data. It supports the management of business glossaries, data catalogs, policies, and workflows and is accessed via a web browser.

Collibra Console is the administrative interface for managing system configurations, nodes, backups, and services. It is available through a separate URL, usually with a console- prefix.

Collibra also includes Edge platform, a secure, lightweight component that facilitates connecting to data sources that are behind firewalls, in restricted environments, or on-premises, without exposing the internal network directly to Collibra.

First-time access and initial setup

After a successful Collibra deployment, either provisioned as a service or self-hosted, you must access both Collibra Platform and Collibra Console. Use the password reset links from the Welcome to Collibra licensing email to immediately change the password of the out-of-the-box administrator account.

If the links in the Welcome to Collibra email have expired:

  1. Go to the Collibra or Collibra Console sign-in page.
  2. Click the Recover Your Username or Password or the Forgot your password or username? link.
  3. On the account recovery page, enter the email address of the person who originally received the Welcome to Collibra email.
  4. Click Submit or Recover to receive a new password reset link.

This step is critical for both Collibra and Collibra Console. Treat credentials with the highest level of security due to their root-level control over the Collibra environment.

For the environment to function correctly, ensure that the necessary ports are open for both Collibra and Collibra Console access, usually 4400 and 4402, and internal communication between components such as Jobserver and Edge. Configure internal DNS records for easier access and allow internal users to access Collibra URLs.

Securing administrator accounts

Securing the default administrator accounts is a critical step in the initial setup. You have already changed the default passwords for both Collibra and Collibra Console administrator accounts. Now, create individual administrator accounts with the Sysadmin global role for Collibra and ADMIN role for Collibra Console, using strong and unique passwords. Once the new accounts are tested and verified, disable or delete the default administrator accounts.

To enhance security, enforce strong password policies and conduct regular audits of administrative access to ensure that permissions are still appropriate. It is also essential to document emergency access procedures for situations where an administrator is unavailable.

Managing users and groups

Collibra uses a role-based access control (RBAC) model to manage permissions. Roles, such as Viewer, Business User, Data Steward, or Sysadmin, define sets of permissions, which are assigned to users either through groups or directly. Assigning permissions to groups instead of individual users simplifies management and ensures scalability.

For small deployments or temporary access, you can create users and groups manually. However, for enterprise environments, use automated provisioning:

  • SCIM enables automated user and group provisioning from modern identity providers such as Okta or Azure AD.
  • Integration with LDAP or a Single Sign-On provider allows Collibra to authenticate users against an existing directory and map groups to Collibra roles.

To maintain security and efficiency, periodically review user permissions and group memberships. Establish a clear process for de-provisioning users when roles change or users leave the organization.

Integrating with external systems

The integration capabilities of Collibra are key to unlocking its full potential. Using the Edge platform, you can securely and easily connect your data sources Collibra Platform. The Edge platform provides a scalable way to connect to data sources in restricted environments or cloud-native data sources through the use of sites.

  • Edge sites are deployed near the data sources and are typically based on your network boundaries.
  • Collibra Cloud sites are managed and deployed by Collibra, for a seamless integration experience.

Populating Collibra with data and metadata

Once you established integrations, you can begin populating Collibra with data and metadata.

During the initial setup, focus on ingesting technical metadata into existing elements of the metamodel, such as databases, tables, and columns. Collaborate with data governance teams to refine the metamodel over time to better capture business context.

Note The structure of metadata in Collibra is defined by its metamodel. Ingested information is usually categorized into existing metamodel elements, such as Business Term, System, Database, Table, or Columns assets.

What's next

Your responsibilities as a system administrator extend beyond the initial setup. Regularly monitor the Collibra environment using the Collibra Console monitoring capabilities, which provide insights into service status, node health, and resource utilization.

Plan for upgrades by understanding the Collibra release cycles and testing updates in a non-production environment before production. Maintain detailed documentation of all configurations, network settings, and security configurations to ensure seamless knowledge transfer between administrators.

Finally, monitor user growth and data ingestion volumes to anticipate scalability needs. Work with Collibra Support or your implementation partner to plan for scaling, as the environment grows.