Data lineage is a visual representation of the flow of data across the systems in your organization. Lineage depicts how the data flows from the system of its origin to the system of its destination.
Data lineage views are available for technical assets in the catalog source. You can view lineage at the catalog source, data set, or data element level.
The lineage at the catalog source level shows how data flows from one catalog source to another. The lineage at the data set and the data element levels show how other technical assets such as files or tables contribute to the selected asset.
If linking catalog sources is available for your catalog source, you can use Metadata Command Center to generate data lineage based on rules or by generating automated lineage with CLAIRE. You can choose source and target catalog sources and objects to link and generate lineage.
To determine whether linking catalog sources is available for your catalog source, navigate to the Configuration tab of the Link Catalog Sources page. The catalog source must appear in the list of source and target catalog sources.
The catalog source level shows how data flows from one catalog source to another with the lineage aggregating data from the data set and data element levels.
To view data lineage at the catalog source level, open a technical asset, click the Lineage tab, and then verify that the level is set to Catalog Source Level.
The following image shows how the BODS_FIleSystem_1940target files of the File System source system get data from the OracleBODS_1917 source table of the Oracle source system using the BODS_Transform_CaseTx_1 model instance of the SAP BusinessObjects Data Services source system after connection assignment:
View lineage at the data set level
The data set level displays individual sets of data in the data flow.
To view lineage at the data set level, open a technical asset, click the Lineage tab, and then verify that the level is set to Data Set Level.
The following image shows the data set level lineage where the TARGET_TABLE target reference data set gets data from the SOURCE_TABLE source reference data set before connection assignment:
The following image shows data set level lineage where the TARGET_TABLE target table gets data from the SOURCE_TABLE source table after connection assignment:
After connection assignment, the referenced object icons change to specific object icons.
View lineage at the data element level
The data element level displays details of the data set level. At the data element level, you can see the input sources for expressions or commands and calculations or transformations on the data.
To view data lineage at the data element level, open a technical asset, click the Lineage tab, and then verify that the level is set to Data Element Level.
The following image shows the data element level lineage where the AGE reference data element of the TARGET_TABLE reference data set gets data from the AGE reference data element of the SOURCE_TABLE reference data set using the AGE calculation before connection assignment:
The following image shows the data element level lineage where the AGE column of the TARGET_TABLE table gets data from the AGE column of the SOURCE_TABLE table using the AGE calculation after connection assignment:
After connection assignment, the referenced object icons change to specific object icons.
