Introduction to Microsoft Purview catalog sources

A source system is any system that contains data or metadata. For example, Microsoft Purview is a source system from which you can extract metadata through a Microsoft Purview 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. 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.

Capability	Description
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.