Microsoft Azure Synapse Data Warehouse Sources > Introduction to Microsoft Azure Synapse Data Warehouse catalog sources
  

Introduction to Microsoft Azure Synapse Data Warehouse 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, Microsoft Azure Synapse Data Warehouse is a source system from which you can extract metadata through a Microsoft Azure Synapse Data Warehouse catalog source. 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. Then you configure capabilities for the catalog source. A capability is a task that Metadata Command Center can perform, such as metadata extraction, lineage discovery, data profiling, data classification, or glossary association.
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.
The following table describes the capabilities of the catalog source:
Capability
Description
Advanced Programming Language Parsing
Advanced Programming Language Parsing parses the source system code in addition to extracting objects from the source system.
Incremental metadata extraction
An incremental metadata extraction extracts only the changed and new objects since the last catalog source job run. Incremental metadata extraction doesn’t remove deleted objects from the catalog and doesn’t extract metadata of code-based objects if applicable.
Serverless Runtime Environment
A serverless runtime environment is an advanced serverless deployment solution that doesn't require downloading, installing, configuring, or maintaining a Secure Agent or Secure Agent group. You can use a serverless runtime environment in the same way that you use a Secure Agent when you configure a catalog source.
Lineage Discovery
Builds the complete lineage of a catalog source by recommending endpoint catalog source objects to assign to reference catalog source connections. When you run the catalog source job, Metadata Command Center assigns the reference catalog source connections to CLAIRE recommended endpoint catalog source objects. You can then view the list of CLAIRE recommendations and accept or reject them.
Data Profiling and Quality
  • - Data Profiling. Assesses source metadata and analyzes the collected statistics to discover content and structure, such as value distribution, patterns, and data types.
  • - Data Quality. Measures the reliability of the data and enables data usage.
Data Observability
Identifies anomalies in the characteristics of the data that you profile.
Data Classification
Data classification is the process of identifying and organizing data into relevant categories based on the functional meaning of the data. Classifying data can help your organization manage risks, compliance, and data security.
Relationship Discovery
You can associate terms that are in the glossary with technical assets to provide user-friendly business names to technical assets. Glossary Association automatically associates glossary terms with technical assets or recommends glossary terms that you can manually associate with technical assets in Data Governance and Catalog.
Glossary Association
You can associate terms that are in the glossary with technical assets to provide user-friendly business names to technical assets. Glossary Association automatically associates glossary terms with technical assets or recommends glossary terms that you can manually associate with technical assets in Data Governance and Catalog.