The custom REST catalog integration allows Immuta to make a defined set of API calls to a Custom REST service you develop to retrieve metadata. The Custom REST service receives Immuta's calls, and then collects the relevant information and delivers it back to Immuta.
The diagram below highlights the main feature of Immuta's Custom REST Catalog integration.
Through a Custom REST Catalog, you can build and maintain your own solutions that provide metadata required to effectively use Immuta within your organization.
API Interface Specification Documentation: This page details the endpoints and data schemas of the API and contains example requests and responses.
Audience: Application Admins
Content Summary: This page outlines how to connect an external catalog from the App Settings page.
For details on prerequisites and external catalogs with Immuta, see the External Catalog Pre-Configuration Checklist.
Navigate to the App Settings page.
Scroll to 2 External Catalogs, and click Add Catalog.
Enter a Display Name and select Alation from the dropdown menu.
Complete the URL and API fields.
Opt to select Upload Certificates.
Upload the Certificate Authority, Certificate File, and Key File.
Opt to enable Strict SSL by selecting the checkbox.
Click the Test Connection button.
Once the connection is successful, click Save.
Navigate to the App Settings page.
Scroll to 2 External Catalogs, and click Add Catalog.
Enter the Display Name and select Collibra from the dropdown menu.
Enter the HTTP endpoint of the catalog in the URL field.
Complete the Username and Password fields. Note: This is the username and the password that Immuta can use to connect to the external catalog.
Opt to Require the data source name in Collibra to contain both the schema and table name by selecting the checkbox.
Complete the Asset Mappings modal to set which asset types in Collibra should align to Immuta's data sources and columns.
Complete the Attributes as Tags modal to specify which Collibra attributes you would like to pull in as tags in Immuta.
Opt to select Upload Certificates.
Upload the Certificate Authority, Certificate File, and Key File.
Opt to enable Strict SSL by selecting the checkbox.
Click the Test Connection button.
Once the connection is successful, click Save.
Integrating a Custom REST Catalog service with Immuta requires implementing a REST interface. For details about the necessary endpoints that must be serviced, see the Custom REST Catalog Interface Endpoints page.
Navigate to the App Settings page.
Scroll to 2 External Catalogs, and click Add Catalog.
Enter the Display Name and select Rest from the dropdown menu.
Select the Internal Plugin checkbox if the catalog has been uploaded to Immuta as a custom server plugin.
Complete the following fields:
Enter the HTTP endpoint of the catalog in the URL field.
Complete the Username and Password fields.
Enter the path of the Tags Endpoint.
Enter the path of the Data Source Endpoint.
Enter the path to the information page for a data source in the Data Source Link Template field.
Opt to enter the path to the information page for a column in the Column Link Template field.
Opt to upload a Catalog Image.
Opt to select Upload Certificates.
Upload the Certificate Authority, Certificate File, and Key File.
Opt to enable Strict SSL by selecting the checkbox.
Click the Test Connection button.
Click the Test Data Source Link.
Once both tests are successful, click Save.
Enable Snowflake tag ingestion with Snowflake integration
Snowflake tag ingestion can be enabled when configuring a Snowflake integration from the App Settings page. This tutorial is intended for users who want Snowflake object tags to be ingested into Immuta but do not want users to query data sources natively in Snowflake.
To configure Snowflake tag ingestion, which syncs Snowflake tags into Immuta, you must provide a Snowflake user who has, at minimum, the ability to set the following privileges:
GRANT IMPORTED PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE snowflake
GRANT APPLY TAG ON ACCOUNT
Navigate to the App Settings page.
Scroll to 2 External Catalogs, and click Add Catalog.
Enter a Display Name and select Snowflake from the dropdown menu.
Enter the Account.
Enter the Authentication information: Username, Password, Port, Default Warehouse, and Role.
Opt to enter the Proxy Host, Proxy Port, and Encrypted Key File Passphrase.
Opt to Upload Certificates.
Click the Test Connection button.
Click the Test Data Source Link.
Once both tests are successful, click Save.
For pre-existing data sources in Immuta, you can manually link them to external catalogs from the Data Source Overview tab.
Navigate to your data source and click Link in the Data Catalog section on the right side of the page.
Select your external catalog from the dropdown menu.
Click Link to confirm.
Audience: Application Admins and Governors
Content Summary: This page outlines prerequisites, an overview of the installation process, limitations, and external documentation for external catalog requirements. For a tutorial on connecting an external catalog, see the page.
Immuta supports the following external catalogs:
Users who want to use tagging capabilities outside of Immuta and pull tags from external table schemas can connect or as an external catalog. Once they have been connected, Immuta will ingest a data dictionary from the catalog that will apply data source and column tags directly onto data sources. These tags can then be used to write and drive policies.
If users have another catalog, or have customized their Collibra or Alation integrations, they can connection through the REST Catalog using the Immuta API.
Users can also connect a Snowflake account to allow Immuta to ingest Snowflake tags onto Snowflake data sources.
Best Practice: External Catalog
Use a single catalog; having more than one can lead to multiple truths and data leaks.
A catalog with tags that correspond to your Immuta data sources
A physical Data Dictionary with assets that correspond to your Immuta data sources
The username and password of a user with the Global role: Catalog or Catalog Author.
A catalog with tags that correspond to your Immuta data sources
The Immuta API
A Snowflake user who has, at minimum, the ability to set the following permissions:
GRANT IMPORTED PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE snowflake
GRANT APPLY TAG ON ACCOUNT
Snowflake Enterprise Edition or higher
Tags ingested from external catalogs cannot be edited within Immuta. To edit, delete, or add a tag from an external catalog to a data source or column, make the change in the external catalog.
The diagram below contrasts Immuta's provided catalog integration architecture with this Customer REST Catalog interface - which gives the customer tremendous control over the metadata being provided to Immuta.
The custom-developed service must be built to receive and handle calls to the REST endpoints specified below. Immuta will call these endpoints as detailed below when certain events occur and at various intervals. The required responses to complete the connection are also detailed.
Tags are attributes applied to data - either at the top, data source, level or at the individual column level.
Tags in Immuta take the form of a nested tree structure. There are "parents", "children", "grand-children", etc.:
The REST Catalog interface interprets a tag's relationship mapping from a string based on a standard "dot" (.) notation, like:
Tags returned must meet the following constraints:
They must be no longer than 500 characters. Longer tags will not throw an error but will be truncated silently at 500 characters.
They must be composed of letters, digits, underscores, dashes, and whitespace characters. A period (.) is used as a separator as described above. Other special characters are not supported.
A tag object has a single id property, which is used to uniquely identify the tag within the catalog. This id may be of either a string or integer type, and its value is completely up to the designer of the REST Catalog service. Common examples include: a standard integer value, a UUID, or perhaps a hash of the tag's string value (if it is unique within the system).
For this Customer REST Catalog interface, tags are represented in JSON like:
For example, the object below specifies 3 different tags:
Descriptions are strings that, like tags, can be applied to either a data source or an individual column. These strings support UTF-8, including special and various language characters.
Immuta can make requests to your REST Catalog service using any of the following authentication methods:
Username and password: Immuta requires basic authentication and will send requests with a username and a password in the Authorization HTTP header. In this case, the custom REST service will need to be able to parse a Basic Authorization Header and validate the credentials sent with it.
PKI Certificate: In addition to basic authentication, Immuta can also send requests using a CA certificate, a certificate, and a key. This allows client-side certificate validation for increased security.
Authentication and specific endpoints
When accessing the /dataSource and /tags endpoints, Immuta will use the configured username and password. If you choose to also protect the human-readable pages with authentication, users will be prompted to authenticate when they first visit those pages.
/tagsThe /tags endpoint is used to collect ALL the tags the catalog can provide. It is used by Immuta to populate Immuta's tags list in the Governance section. These tags can then be used for policy creation ahead of actual data sources being created that make use of them. This enables policies to immediately apply when data sources are registered with Immuta.
As with all external catalogs, tags ingested by Immuta from the REST catalog interface are not able to be modified locally within Immuta as this catalog becomes the "source of truth" for them. This results in the tags showing in Immuta with either a lock icon next to them, or without the delete button that would allow a user to manually remove them from an assigned data source or column.
The /tags endpoint receives a simple GET request from Immuta. No payload nor query parameters are required.
Example Request
The JSON format for this response object is:
Example Response
/dataSourceThe /dataSource endpoint does the vast majority of the work. It receives a POST request from Immuta, and returns the mapping of a data source and its columns to the applied tags and descriptions.
Immuta will try to fetch metadata for a data source in the system at various times:
During data source creation. During data source creation, Immuta will send metadata to the REST Catalog service, most notably the connection details of the data source, which includes the schema and table name. It is important that the Custom REST service implemented can parse this information and search its records for an appropriate record to return with an ID unique to this data source in its catalogMetadata object.
When a user manually links the data source. Data sources that either fail to auto-link, or that were created prior to the Custom REST catalog being configured, can still be manually linked. To do so, a data source owner can provide the ID of the asset as defined by the Custom REST Catalog via the Immuta UI. In order for this to work, the Custom REST Catalog service must support matching data source assets by unique ID.
During various refreshes. Once linked, Immuta will periodically call the /dataSource endpoint to ensure information is up to date.
Immuta's POST requests to the /dataSource endpoint will consist of a payload containing many of the elements outlined below:
This object must be parsed by the in Custom REST Catalog order to determine the specific data source metadata being requested.
For the most part, Immuta will provide the id of the data source as part of the catalogMetadata. This should be used as the primary metadata lookup value.
When a data source is being created, such an id will not yet be known to Immuta. Immuta will instead send handlerInfo information as part of the request.
When an id is not specified, the schema and table name elements should be parsed in an attempt to identify the desired catalog entry and provide an appropriate id. If such a lookup is successful and an id is returned to Immuta in the catalogMetadata section, Immuta will establish an automatic link between the the new data source and the catalog entry, and future references will use that id.
Example Request
The returned JSON object should have a format very similar to
Example Response
/dataSource/page/{id}This endpoint returns a human-readable information page from the REST catalog for the data source associated with {id}. Immuta provides this as a mechanism for allowing the REST catalog to provide additional information about the data source that may not be directly ingested by or visible within Immuta. This link is accessed in the Immuta UI when a user clicks the catalog logo associated with the data source.
Immuta will send a GET request to the /dataSource/page/{id} endpoint, where {id} will be:
Example Request
The Custom REST Catalog can either provide such a page directly, or can redirect the user to any resource where the appropriate page would be provided - for example a backing full service catalog such as Collibra, if this Custom REST catalog is simply being used to support a custom data model.
Example Response
/column/{id}This endpoint returns the catalog's human-readable information page for the column associated with {id}. Immuta provides this as a mechanism for allowing the REST catalog to provide additional information about the specific column that may not be directly ingested by or visible within Immuta.
Immuta will send a GET request to the /column/{id} endpoint, where {id} will be:
Example Request
The Custom REST Catalog can either provide such a page directly, or can redirect the user to any resource where the appropriate page would be provided - for example a backing full service catalog such as Collibra, if this Custom REST catalog is simply being used to support a custom data model.
Example Response
When changes are made to the external catalog,
When changes are made to the external catalog,
For more details about using a custom REST catalog with Immuta, see the .
When changes are made to the external catalog,
When changes are made to the tags in Snowflake,
You can configure multiple external catalogs within a single tenant of Immuta, but only one external catalog can be .
For more information on tags and how they are created, managed, and displayed within Immuta, see our .
The Custom REST service must respond with an object that maps all tag name strings to associated ids. The fully-qualifies the location of the tag in the tree structure as detailed previously, and the id is a globally unique identifier assigned by the REST catalog to that tag.
| Attribute | Data Type | Description |
|---|
The schema for the /dataSource response uses the same tag object structure from the , along with the following set of metadata keys for both data sources and columns.
| Attribute | Data Type | Description |
|---|
| Attribute | Data Type | Description |
|---|
| Attribute | Data Type | Description |
|---|
| dictionary | Object holding the data source's catalog metadata. |
| string or integer | The unique identifier of the data source in the catalog. |
| string | The name of the data source in the catalog. |
| dictionary | Object holding the data source's connection details. |
| string | The data source’s schema name in the source system. |
| string | The data source’s table name in the source system. |
| string | The data source’s connection schema in the source storage system. |
| integer | The data source’s connection port in the source storage system. |
| string | The data source’s connection schema in the source storage system, if applicable. |
| dictionary | Object holding general data source information from Immuta. This can be viewed with debugging, but is not usually required for catalog purposes. |
| dictionary | Object holding the data source's catalog metadata. |
| string or integer | The unique identifier of the data source in the catalog. |
| string | The name of the data source in the catalog. |
| string | A description of the data source. |
|
| Object containing the data source-level tags. |
| dictionary | Object containing the column names of the data source as its keys. |
| dictionary | Object containing a single column's metadata. |
| string or integer | The unique identifier of the column in the catalog. |
| string | A description of the column. |
|
| Object containing the column-level tags as keys. |
| URL Parameter, integer or string | The unique identifier of the data source in the remote catalog system. |
| URL Parameter, integer or string | The unique identifier of the column in the remote catalog system. |
