Configure Metadata Extraction

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Test Access and Fetch Workspaces

Before extraction, Alation tests the connection to confirm that the Sigma instance can be reached and metadata extraction can run successfully. Before fetching the workspaces for extraction, Alation tests if the service account has the required permissions to run metadata extractions.

  1. On the Settings page of your Sigma OCF BI source, go to the Metadata Extraction tab.

  2. In the Test Access and Fetch Workspaces section, click Run.

Upon successful completion, the retrieved list of workspaces appears in the Workspaces table under the Select Workspaces for Extraction section.

Select Workspaces for Extraction

Select the workspaces you want to extract instead of extracting all available ones. Selecting specific workspaces speeds up the process and reduces resource usage. By default, all the workspaces Alation fetches from the BI server source are selected for extraction. You can adjust the selection of workspaces by:

  • Selecting Workspaces Using Filters

  • Selecting Workspaces Manually

Note

If you do not select any workspace manually or using filters, Alation extracts all the workspaces when you run the metadata extraction.

Extraction

To configure metadata extraction (MDE) continue in the General Settings with the following steps:

  1. Under Extraction Settings, turn on Selective Extraction, if required. Selective extraction settings apply a filter to include or exclude a list of Sigma Workspaces.

    1. Click Get List of Sigma Workspaces to fetch the list of Sigma Workspaces.

    2. The status of the Get List of Sigma Workspaces action is logged in the Job History table at the bottom of the Settings page.

    3. Once the Sigma Workspace synchronization succeeds, a drop-down list of Sigma Workspaces will be enabled.

    4. Select one or more Sigma Workspaces to apply the filter.

    5. Check if you are using the desired filter option. Available filter options are described below:

Filter Option

Description

Extract all Sigma Workspaces except

Extract metadata from all projects except from the Sigma Workspaces selected.

Extract only these Sigma Workspaces

Extract metadata from only the selected Sigma Workspaces.

Select Workspaces Using Filters

If you want to apply extraction filters:

  1. On the Settings page of your Sigma OCF connector, open the Metadata Extraction tab.

  2. Under Select Workspaces for Extraction, turn on Enable Advanced Settings.

  3. From the Extract drop-down, choose a filter option:

    • Only selected workspaces — extract metadata only from the chosen workspaces (default).

    • All workspaces except selected — extract metadata from all workspaces except the chosen ones.

  4. (Optional) To remove workspaces from previous extractions that are no longer selected, enable Keep the catalog synchronized with the current selection.

  5. Create filters by choosing Workspaces, selecting a condition (Contains, Starts with, Ends with, Regex), and entering your keyword.

  6. You can add multiple filters using Add another filter.

  7. Click Apply Filters.

The Workspace table displays the workspaces that match your selection criteria.

Select Workspaces Manually

To manually select workspaces for extraction:

  1. On the Settings page of your Sigma OCF connector, open the Metadata Extraction tab.

  2. In the Select Workspaces for Extraction section, locate the Workspaces table.

  3. Select the checkboxes next to the workspaces you want to extract.

  4. To select all workspaces, click the checkbox in the table header.

  5. To deselect a workspace, clear its checkbox.

Run Extraction

  1. Click Run Extraction Now to extract metadata. The status of the extraction action is also logged in the Job History table at the bottom of the page.

If you wish to automatically update the metadata in the Catalog, under Automated and Manual Extraction, turn on Enable Automated Extraction and select the day and time when metadata must be extracted. The metadata extraction will be automatically scheduled for the selected day and time.

Important

Before you run extraction, verify that:

  • Sigma APIs have all the required access

  • Connector can access Sigma workspaces

Extraction Performance

Extraction time depends on the size of your Sigma environment. To optimize performance:

  • Use Selective Extraction (in Metadata Extraction tab) to limit extraction to specific workspaces.

  • Use Explicit Tags (in General Settings > Advanced Connector Features) to extract only tagged objects.

  • Increase the API Concurrency Level (in General Settings > Advanced Connector Features) for faster parallel extraction. Default: 3, max: 10.

  • Schedule extractions during off-peak hours to avoid impacting Sigma API performance.