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Connecting Alation to Prizm

Setting up the Alation integration involves three steps: authenticating to your Alation instance, selecting the target datasource, and configuring what Prizm pushes to Alation and pulls from it. Optionally, you can configure a sync schedule to automate catalog updates.

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Prerequisites

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Step 1: Prepare your Alation instance

Before connecting Prizm, an Alation administrator must complete two configuration steps in Alation. These are one-time changes that enable the Health tab and the custom field section Prizm writes to.

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Enable Data Health features

In Alation, navigate to Admin Settings → Feature Config and enable both of the following settings: Enable Data Health — displays the Health tab on catalog pages, populated via the public data health API. This is required for Prizm to export data quality checks into the Health tab. Enable Data Health 2022.4 Features — enables beta Data Health features. When enabled, OCF-ingested objects that are removed from the catalog produce Deleted data health values. Alert and Warning values propagate to downstream nodes in the lineage graph. The Health tab also becomes available on BIReport and BIDataSource catalog pages.

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Create the Prizm custom field

Prizm writes quality metrics to Alation using a dedicated Rich Text custom field in Alation. This field must be created and added to table and column templates before the integration will populate correctly.
1

Create the custom field

In Alation, navigate to Customize Catalog → Custom Fields tab. Under the Rich Texts section, click + to create a new Rich Text field. Name it PRIZM.
2

Add the field to table and column templates

Navigate to Customize Catalog → Customize Templates tab. For both the Table template and the Column template, add the PRIZM field to the template layout. This makes the field visible on all table and column catalog pages.
These Alation-side steps require Alation admin privileges. They only need to be completed once per Alation instance, regardless of how many datasources are connected to Prizm.

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Step 2: Open Integration settings

Navigate to Organization → Integration and click the + icon to open the Channels catalog. Select the Alation tile, then choose an authentication type in the Select Alation authentication type dialog: Username/Password or User ID & Refresh token. To change an existing integration instead, click the pencil icon on its row in the integration list.
Channels page listing the available integrations with All, Notification, Catalog, Collaboration and Vault filters

Organization → Integration → + opens the Channels catalog

Select Alation authentication type dialog offering Username/Password or User ID and Refresh token

Choose how Prizm authenticates to Alation

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Step 3: Enter authentication details

Prizm supports two authentication methods for Alation. Enter the Host URL of your Alation instance (e.g., https://yourcompany.alationcloud.com), the Username (email address of the Alation account), and the Password. When you save the integration using Username/Password, Prizm automatically generates a Refresh API Token and stores it internally. Subsequent API calls use this token rather than the password directly — the password is only used during the initial connection handshake.

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User ID / Refresh Token

Enter the Host URL, the numeric User ID of the Alation service account, and the Refresh Token. Use this method if you are managing token rotation externally or if your organization requires token-based authentication without storing passwords. To fetch credentials from a connected vault integration instead of typing them, select Enable Vault.
Alation Integration (Username / Password) form with Host, Enable Vault, Username and Password fields and the start of the PUSH section

Alation Integration form (Username / Password)

A dedicated service account is recommended for both authentication methods. The account must have write access to catalog pages on the target datasource for PUSH operations to succeed, and read access to domain and tag data for PULL operations.

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Step 4: Select the datasource

In the Datasource field, search for and select the Alation datasource that maps to the data source Prizm monitors. The datasource name must match the entry in your Alation catalog exactly.

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Step 5: Configure Push settings

The PUSH section controls what Prizm sends to Alation. Enable each object level and select the data types to push.
1

Configure Asset push

Enable Asset to push data to Alation table (asset) catalog pages. Select which data types to push:
  • Summary — overall quality summary and score for the asset
  • Alerts — active alert details for the asset
  • Issues — open issue details for the asset
  • Metrics — quality metric results for the asset
2

Configure Attribute push

Enable Attribute to push data to Alation column (attribute) catalog pages. Select which data types to push:
  • Summary — column-level quality summary and DQ Score
  • Alerts — active alert details for the column
  • Issues — open issue details for the column
  • Metrics — quality metric results for the column
3

Configure Domain push

Enable Domain to push domain-level metrics and semantic context to Alation. Select which data types to push:
  • Summary, Alerts, Issues, Metrics — same as Asset and Attribute levels
Additionally, choose the domain push mode with the Auto, Semantics and Custom checkboxes that appear under Metrics:
  • Auto — Prizm automatically maps assets to Alation domains based on existing domain assignments
  • Semantics — pushes semantic metadata alongside domain metrics
  • Custom — allows custom field mapping for domain-level pushes

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Step 6: Configure Pull settings

The PULL section controls what Prizm imports from Alation on each sync cycle.
  • Domains — imports Alation domain assignments into Prizm as domain metadata on the corresponding assets
  • Tags — imports Alation tags and applies them to the corresponding assets in Prizm
Pulled metadata appears on the Prizm semantics page for each object with source type labeled “Alation”.

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Step 7: Save and validate

Click Create Integration to save (the button is disabled until the required fields are filled; when you edit an existing integration it reads Update Integration). Prizm validates the connection and starts the first CATALOG_SYNC job based on your push and pull configuration.
Alation Integration form showing the Asset, Attribute and Domain push settings and the Domains and Tags pull options

PUSH and PULL settings

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Configuration reference

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Scheduling sync

By default, the Alation sync runs when triggered by asset or measure evaluation events in Prizm. You can configure a fixed sync schedule to run catalog updates at regular intervals independent of individual asset events. Schedule options: Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Month.
When a schedule is active, automatic per-asset and per-measure sync triggers are disabled. The integration instead runs a full push of all configured metrics on the schedule interval. Configure the schedule to run after your metric evaluation jobs complete to ensure the latest results are always reflected in Alation.
To view past sync runs and manage running jobs, navigate to the integration log from the integration list page.

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Validate Before Production

  1. Confirm the integration shows as valid and active on Organization → Integration.
  2. Run a first sync on a small datasource. Open the CATALOG_SYNC job in the integration log and confirm it completes with no failed tasks.
  3. In Alation, open a test table and check the Deprecation or Warning flags, the custom field section, and the Health tab. Open a column and check its DQ Score.
  4. If PULL is enabled, check that the Alation domains and tags appear on the Prizm semantics page with source type “Alation”.
  5. Confirm a failed or killed job can be restarted from the log, and that the sync schedule runs after your metric evaluation jobs.