Configure Compose

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Enhanced Connector Enhanced connectors add extended capabilities and require a separate entitlement in addition to your Alation platform license.

Alation Compose allows users to write and execute SQL queries against MaxCompute data sources directly from the Alation interface.

Prerequisites

Before configuring Compose:

• The MaxCompute data source must be configured and connected successfully.

• The RAM user must have permissions to execute queries in MaxCompute. The following permissions are required:

  • odps:Read - Read access to projects and tables

  • odps:List - List access to project resources

  • odps:CreateInstance - Permission to submit SQL jobs

  At the project level, grant the RAM user one of the following roles: Admin, Super_Administrator, or role_project_reader. Alternatively, grant specific permissions:

  GRANT Read, CreateInstance ON PROJECT <project_name> TO USER <ram_user>;
  

  For more information, see the Prerequisites page.

• Network connectivity must be available from the connector host to the MaxCompute JDBC endpoint (service.<region>.maxcompute.aliyun.com) on port 80 (HTTP). Replace <region> with your Alibaba Cloud region. For a complete list of network requirements, see the Prerequisites page.

Configure JDBC URI

To enable Compose for MaxCompute:

1. On the MaxCompute data source Settings page, go to the Compose tab.

   

2. Configure the JDBC URI with the following format:

   

   jdbc:odps:http://service.<region>.maxcompute.aliyun.com/api?project=<project_name>
   

   Note

   The jdbc: prefix is optional. The connector automatically prepends it if missing.

   Replace the following placeholders:

   • <region>: Your Alibaba Cloud region (for example, cn-hangzhou, us-east-1)

   • <project_name>: The MaxCompute project name to connect to

   Example:

   jdbc:odps:http://service.us-east-1.maxcompute.aliyun.com/api?project=my_project
   

3. Click Save.

Authentication

Compose uses per-user Access Key authentication. Each user must provide their own Alibaba Cloud Access Key credentials in the Compose Connection Settings.

Note

Service account credentials configured in the General Settings tab are NOT used for Compose. There is no fallback—if user credentials are missing or invalid, the connection fails.

The user must have the required permissions for query execution as described in the Prerequisites section above.

Configure the Compose connection credentials:

1. Navigate to the Compose tab in the data source settings.

2. Under Connection Settings, each user enters their own credentials:

   Parameter	Description
   Username	Your Access Key ID (not Alibaba Cloud email).
   Password	Your Access Key Secret.

3. Click Save.

Running Queries

After configuring Compose:

1. Navigate to the MaxCompute data source catalog page.

2. Click Compose to open the SQL editor.

   

3. Click Connection Settings and select or create a connection. Enter your credentials and click Connect to establish a connection.

4. Write your SQL query and click Run to execute.

   

5. View the query results in the results panel.

   

Additional Compose Options

The JDBC URI sets the default project context for query execution. However, users can query tables in other projects by using fully qualified names (project_name.table_name) in their queries, as long as their Access Key has the required permissions (odps:Read, odps:CreateInstance) on the target project.

The MaxCompute connector supports the following standard Compose features:

Option	Description
Export	Export query results to CSV or other formats. See Export and Download Query Results.
Sharing & Access	Share query results with other users or groups. See Share and Access Queries - 2023.1 and Later.
Publish	Publish queries to make them available in the catalog. See Publish a Query.
Schedule Settings	Schedule queries to run automatically at specified intervals. See Schedule Queries.
Connection Settings	Configure and manage Compose connections. See User Authentication For Data Sources.

Troubleshooting

Connection Failed

• Verify the JDBC URI format is correct.

• Ensure the project name exists and the RAM user has access.

• Check network connectivity to the MaxCompute JDBC endpoint (port 80).

Query Timeout

• Optimize your query to reduce execution time.

• Check MaxCompute quota and resource availability.

• Consider using smaller data samples for testing.