Alation is a Data Catalog with an API for logging data health information. This catalog includes datasources, schema, and tables, and can integrate with corresponding data assets in Lightup workspaces. Before you can add an Alation catalog to Lightup you must prepare in Alation.

Prepare in Alation

If you haven't already, enable Data Health.
Create a refresh token. Note that the token will expire, interrupting your access to Alation, but you can change the expiration time.
Make note of your Alation user ID: it's the integer part of the URL for your User Account Profile in Alation.
Keep both pieces of information handy - they are required inputs for integrating Alation.

Add Alation to your Lightup instance

Complete the steps to Add a Data Catalog, and at step 3 select Alation.

In the Add Alation Integration modal, provide values for:
- Title Add a name for the integration
- Host Enter the URL of your Alation data catalog
- User ID This field might be autopopulated in the modal. Make sure the value of this field matches the User ID of the account you're connecting to in Alation. Value must be an integer.
- User Refresh Token This field might be autopopulated in the modal. Make sure the value of this field matches the Alation Refresh Token that you generated in the preceding procedure.
Optionally, adjust the Incident Window. The incident window provides a lookback timeframe for incidents. Once a datasource is connected, if an incident occurred during the incident window, it is reported to Alation.
Select Send Test Message to verify your connection.
Select Add to finish.

Enable catalog support for a datasource

After your Alation catalog setup is complete, you still need to enable the integration for any datasources you want to integrate with the catalog. For steps, see enable data catalog integration.

Alation Data Health updates

Data Health information from Lightup is updated asynchronously to Alation every two hours.

Review DQ Health

After you enable Alation, you can review DQ Health in Alation.