Troubleshooting

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.

API Endpoints

The connector uses the following APIs. Use tools like Postman or curl to verify you can successfully call these endpoints from the connector host.

MaxCompute OpenAPI (Metadata Extraction):

  • GET /api/v1/projects - List projects

  • GET /api/v1/projects/{projectName} - Get project details

  • GET /api/v1/projects/{projectName}/tables - List tables

  • GET /api/v1/projects/{projectName}/tables/{tableName} - Get table info

  • GET /api/v1/projects/{projectName}/functions - List functions

DataWorks Public API (Lineage Extraction):

  • POST ListProjects - List DataWorks projects

  • POST ListDataSources - List data sources in a project

  • POST ListTables - List tables in Data Map

  • POST ListColumns - List columns for a table

  • POST ListLineages - Get lineage relationships

  • POST GetTaskInstance - Get task instance details (script content, status, owner)

  • POST ListNodes - List scheduling nodes (script name, path, cron)

Common Issues and Solutions

Connection Failures

Problem

Failed to connect to MaxCompute service

Solution

  1. Verify Access Key ID and Access Key Secret are correct.

  2. Check that the RAM user has the required permissions.

  3. Ensure the region setting matches your MaxCompute deployment.

  4. Verify network connectivity to Alibaba Cloud endpoints.

  5. Check if firewall rules allow outbound HTTPS connections.

Authentication Errors

Problem

Authentication failed or permission denied

Solution

  1. Verify the Access Key credentials are active and not expired.

  2. Check that the RAM user has the required policies attached:

    • AliyunMaxComputeFullAccess for metadata extraction

    • AliyunDataWorksFullAccess for lineage extraction

  3. Ensure the RAM user has access to the specific MaxCompute projects.

Missing Lineage

Problem

Lineage extraction returns no relationships

Solution

  1. Verify DataWorks permissions for the RAM user.

  2. Check if DataWorks Data Map is enabled for the workspace.

  3. Ensure tables have actual data lineage relationships in your environment.

  4. Verify MaxCompute projects are registered as data sources in DataWorks.

  5. Check if Enable Column Lineage is active (if column lineage is expected).

API Rate Limiting

Problem

Extraction fails with rate limit or throttling errors

Solution

  1. Enable API Rate Limiting in General Settings to cap API calls at 40 QPS.

  2. Reduce the Parallel Thread Count if parallel processing is enabled.

  3. Schedule extractions during off-peak hours.

  4. Contact Alibaba Cloud to increase your DataWorks API quota (Enterprise edition supports 50 QPS).

Slow Extraction Performance

Problem

Metadata extraction is slow or times out

Solution

  1. Enable Parallel Processing and set an appropriate thread count (4-10).

  2. Use Table Name Filter (Contains) to reduce the scope of extraction.

  3. Deactivate Enable Column Lineage if not required.

  4. Check network latency to Alibaba Cloud endpoints.

  5. Consider extracting projects in batches using project selection.

Extraction Job Status

The extraction job status table logs the following statuses:

Status

Description

Did Not Start

The extraction did not start due to configuration or other issues.

Succeeded

The extraction completed successfully.

Partial Success

The extraction completed with warnings. Some objects were skipped.

Skipped

The job was skipped because a previous extraction job was not completed.

Failed

The extraction failed with errors.

Collecting Diagnostic Information

When contacting support, collect the following information:

  1. Connector logs (set log level to DEBUG for detailed information)

  2. Extraction job history and error messages

  3. MaxCompute project and table counts

  4. Alibaba Cloud region and account information (without credentials)

  5. Network connectivity test results to Alibaba Cloud endpoints