Catalog Source Configuration > dbt > Introduction to dbt catalog sources
  

Introduction to dbt catalog sources

You can use Metadata Command Center to extract metadata from a source system.
A source system is any system that contains data or metadata. For example, data build tool (dbt) is a source system from which you can extract metadata through a dbt catalog source with Metadata Command Center. A catalog source is an object that represents and contains metadata from the source system.
Before you extract metadata from a source system, you first create and register a catalog source that represents the source system.
When Metadata Command Center extracts metadata, Data Governance and Catalog displays the extracted metadata and its attributes as technical assets. You can then perform tasks such as analyzing the assets, viewing lineage, and creating links between those assets and their business context.
You can only extract metadata using this catalog source.

Extraction and view process

To extract metadata from a source system, configure the catalog source and run the extraction job in Metadata Command Center. Then view the results in Data Governance and Catalog.
The following image shows the process to extract metadata from a dbt source system:
The image shows the process of metadata extraction from a dbt source system that begins with prerequisites verification, continues with the creation of the catalog source, and ends with viewing the results and lineage.
After you verify prerequisites, perform the following tasks to extract metadata from dbt:
  1. 1Register a catalog source. Create a catalog source object, select dbt, and specify a value for the connection property.
  2. 2Configure the catalog source. Specify the runtime environment, configure the metadata extraction capability, and add filters for metadata extraction.
  3. 3Optionally, associate stakeholders. Associate users with technical assets, giving the users permission to perform actions determined by their roles.
  4. 4Run or schedule the catalog source job.
  5. 5Optionally, if the catalog source job generates referenced asset objects, you can assign a connection to referenced source system assets.
    6. You can view the lineage with object references without performing connection assignment. After connection assignment, you can view the objects.
  6. Run the catalog source again after you assign connections to referenced source system assets.
After you run the catalog source job, you view the results in Data Governance and Catalog.

About the dbt catalog source

You can use the dbt catalog source to extract metadata from a dbt source system.
dbt is a data transformation tool that enables data analysts and engineers to transform data in a cloud data analytics warehouse.

Extracted metadata

You can use the dbt catalog source to extract metadata from a dbt source system.

Objects extracted

Metadata Command Center extracts the following metadata from a dbt source system:
Note: Metadata Command Center only extracts metadata from models, seeds, and tests.