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Apache Atlas dashboard tour

The Apache Atlas dashboard provides a unified metadata management interface to perform entity searches, manage classifications, and visualize lineage graphs.

The Atlas user interface is a metadata dashboard with the following parts:

  • Search panel on the left.
  • Detail panel on the right where search results are displayed. You can drill into a specific entity to view its details. Each detail page contains a header section and a series of tabbed panels, all of which are oriented to the metadata for that entity type.
Figure 1. Filtered search results

Searching

The Search panel contains the following tabs for searching:
  • Search

    Select from existing lists of metadata types to narrow the search results. Switching to the Advanced search allows you to enter specific Atlas DSL search queries. Both Basic and Advanced searches can be saved for easy reuse in Favorite Searches.

  • Classifications

    Access predefined searches based on classifications

  • Glossary

    Search using predefined glossary terms

Figure 2. Search panel

Classifications

In the Classification option, selecting a classification displays all the entities that are marked with that classification. Locate a specific classification using the search box or browse the classification hierarchy that you defined during classification creation. The Classification tab displays all related assets, including processes.

Figure 3. Searching with classifications
Figure 4. Classification tab

Glossary

In the Glossary option, selecting a term displays all the entities that are marked with that term. Locate a specific term using the search box or browse terms by glossary. Use the category view to browse the hierarchy of your organization’s business glossary. Selecting a category displays its assigned terms in the display pane. When you select one of those terms, Atlas displays the associated entities.

When you run a search and Atlas returns results, you see a paged-list of entities that match the search criteria. From here, you can go back to the search options and further refine your search or use controls to change how the search results are presented.

Figure 5. Glossary tab

Search results

When Atlas returns search results, the user interface displays a paginated list of entities that match the search criteria. You can return to search options to further refine your search or use the available controls to change the search result presentation.

Figure 6. Search results
  1. View the search criteria set in the Search panel.
  2. By selecting the checkboxes, remove the following entity types from the result list:
    • Sub-entities
    • Sub-classifications
    • Entities marked as deleted (historical entities)
  3. Control which attributes of the entities are shown in the columns.
  4. Download the selected search results as a CSV file.
  5. By selecting the checkboxes, mark multiple entities for export or for applying classifications or terms.
  6. Add classifications by clicking the icon. By clicking the icon, view the rest of the classifications, that did not fit the screen.
  7. Add terms by clicking the icon. By clicking the icon, view the rest of the terms, that did not fit the screen.

Viewing entity details

When you click a link for an entity in the search results, Atlas opens an entity detail page that includes the metadata collected for the entity. The detail page organizes the entity content in tabs:

Starting with Cloudera Runtime 7.1.9 SP2, the first load of an entity detail page omits large embedded relationship payloads so the page opens faster and stays responsive for entities with very large relationship graphs. Relationship rows and schema rows load when you open the Relationships or Schema tab. Before 7.1.9 SP2, relationship data could be included in the initial response, which could slow or block the user interface for those entities.

Properties
The Properties tab includes the system metadata collected for this entity and any user-defined properties added. It also contains a list of labels applied to the entity. You can use values from any of the "string" data type properties to find this entity using free-text search.
Lineage
Atlas user interface displays a lineage graph for each entity. The graph appears in the Lineage tab in the entity details page. For data asset entities, the lineage graph shows when the entity was an input or an output from an operation. For process entities, the lineage graph shows all input and output entities used by or produced by the operation.
Relationships
This tab lists the other entities that are associated with this entity as relationships. Use it to navigate among entities. The special relationship types input and output include the entities that make up lineage. Starting with Cloudera Runtime 7.1.9 SP2, you can switch between Table mode (a card per relationship type) and Graph mode (the lineage-style graph). Each card shows a count, optional sort controls, an option to include deleted relationships, and loads related entities in pages as you scroll so large graphs stay usable.
Figure 7. Relationships shown in card mode
Figure 8. Relationships shown in graph mode
The graph nodes can be clicked to display the connected entities.
Before 7.1.9 SP2, the tab relied on relationship data from the initial entity response, which could fail to render for very large graphs. For example, a Hive table with more than 10,000 column relationships returned in one payload could stall or time out the browser.
Classifications
The Classifications tab shows the classifications associated with this entity (which are also shown in the top section of the detail page). It allows you to add, update, or remove classifications from the entity.
Audits
Atlas records the changes that occur to entity metadata. The changes are listed in the Audit tab in the entity details page. Audits show when Atlas updates the entity's metadata, including the following changes:
  • Classifications added or removed
  • Entity attributes updated
  • Labels added, updated, or removed
  • Relationships added, updated, or removed
  • Glossary terms added or removed
Schema
When the current entity is a table, the Schema tab appears and lists columns in the table. Use this tab to drill into a specific column or to add classifications to columns (no need to open the detail page for the column to add a classification). Starting with Cloudera Runtime 7.1.9 SP2, column rows load when you open this tab, using the same on-demand relationship loading pattern as the Relationships tab.
Figure 9. Entity details