Cloudera Navigator Data Management Overview

The section describes basic features of Cloudera Navigator data management.

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Cloudera Navigator Data Management UI

The Cloudera Navigator data management UI is the web-based UI that you use to:
  • Create and view audit reports
  • Search entity metadata, view entity lineage, and modify custom metadata
  • Define policies for modifying custom metadata and sending notifications when entities are extracted
  • View metadata analytics
  • Assign user roles to groups

Navigator auditing, metadata, lineage, policies, and analytics all support multi-cluster deployments that are managed by a single Cloudera Manager instance. So if you have five clusters, all centrally managed by a single Cloudera Manager, you'll see all this information within a single Navigator data management UI. In the metadata portion of the UI, Navigator also tracks the specific cluster the data comes from with the Cluster technical metadata property.

Starting and Logging into the Cloudera Navigator Data Management UI

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Enter the URL of the Navigator UI in a browser: http://Navigator_Metadata_Server_host:port/, where Navigator_Metadata_Server_host is the name of the host on which you are running the Navigator Metadata Server role and port is the port configured for the role. The default port of the Navigator Metadata Server is 7187. To change the port, follow the instructions in Configuring the Navigator Metadata Server Port.
    • Do one of the following:
      • Select Clusters > Cloudera Management Service > Cloudera Navigator.
      • Navigate from the Navigator Metadata Server role:
        1. Do one of the following:
          • Select Clusters > Cloudera Management Service > Cloudera Management Service.
          • On the Status tab of the Home > Status tab, in Cloudera Management Service table, click the Cloudera Management Service link.
        2. Click the Instances tab.
        3. Click the Navigator Metadata Server role.
        4. Click the Cloudera Navigator link.
  2. Log into Cloudera Navigator UI using the credentials assigned by your administrator.

Cloudera Navigator Data Management API

The Cloudera Navigator data management API provides access to the same features as the UI.

The API available at http://Navigator_Metadata_Server_host:port/api/v8, where Navigator_Metadata_Server_host is the name of the host on which you are running the Navigator Metadata Server role and port is the port configured for the role. The default port of the Navigator Metadata Server is 7187. To change the port, follow the instructions in Configuring the Navigator Metadata Server Port. The API supports HTTP Basic Authentication, accepting the same users and credentials as the UI.

To get a listing of the API calls invoked by the UI, see Downloading a Debug File.

Accessing API Documentation

For API documentation, select > API Documentation or go to Navigator_Metadata_Server_host:port/api-console/index.html. The Cloudera Navigator API documentation displays in a new window. The API is structured into resource categories. Click a category to display the resource endpoints.

To view an API tutorial, click the Tutorial link at the top of the API documentation or go to Navigator_Metadata_Server_host:port/api-console/tutorial.html

Capturing and Downloading API Calls

To capture API calls made from the Cloudera Navigator data management UI, enable debug mode. You can then download a file containing the captured calls and send it to Cloudera.

Enabling and Disabling Debug Mode

To enable debug mode:
  1. Start and log into the Cloudera Navigator data management component UI.
  2. In the top right, select username > Enable Debug Mode. A red box with the following message displays at the bottom right of the UI. 
    Debug mode enabled. Captured 0 calls.
  3. Reload the page so that all API calls are captured.
To disable debug mode, do one of the following:
  • In the top right, select username > Disable Debug Mode.
  • Click Disable in the red box at the bottom right of the UI.
The red box at the bottom right of the UI disappears.

Downloading a Debug File

In debug mode, the n in the string "Captured n calls." is incremented with the number of calls of the Cloudera Navigator data management API as you interact with the Cloudera Navigator data management UI. To download a file containing information about the API calls, click Download debug file. A file named api-data-Navigator_Metadata_Server_host-UTC timestamp.json is downloaded. For example: 
{
  "href": "http://Navigator Metadata Server hostname:port/?view=detailsView&id=7f44221738670c98baf0799aa6abd330&activeView=lineage&b=ImMka",
  "userAgent": ...
  "windowSize": ...
  },
  "timestamp": 1456795776671,
  "calls": [
    {
      "type": "POST",
      "url": "/api/v6/interactive/entities?limit=0&offset=0",
      "data":...,
      "page": "http://Navigator Metadata Server hostname:port/?view=resultsView&facets=%7B%22type%22%3A%5B%22database%22%5D%7D",
      "timestamp": 1456795762472
    },
    {
      "type": "GET",
      "url": "/api/v3/entities?query=type%3Asource",
      "status": 200,
      "responseText": ...,
      "page": "http://Navigator Metadata Server hostname:port/?view=resultsView&facets=%7B%22type%22%3A%5B%22database%22%5D%7D",
      "timestamp": 1456795763233
    },
...

Displaying Cloudera Navigator Data Management Documentation

To display Cloudera Navigator data management documentation:

  1. Start and log into the Cloudera Navigator data management component UI.
  2. Select > Help. The Cloudera Navigator data management online documentation displays in a new window.

Displaying the Cloudera Navigator Data Management Component Version

To display the version and build number for the Cloudera Navigator data management component:
  1. Start and log into the Cloudera Navigator data management component UI.
  2. Select > About.