0 / 0
Importing metadata

Importing metadata

You can import technical metadata associated with the data assets in your organization into a project or a catalog to inventory, evaluate, and catalog these assets.

Technical metadata in this context describes the structure of data objects. This metadata helps users decide whether the data is appropriate for the task at hand, whether they can trust the data, and how to work with the data.

Required service
IBM Knowledge Catalog
Data format
Tables from relational and nonrelational data sources
Files from file-based connections to the data sources
Other formats
Cobol copybooks
Data size
Any
Supported connections
You can import assets from the data sources listed in Supported data sources for metadata import and metadata enrichment.
Required permissions
To create, manage, and run a metadata import, you must have the Admin or the Editor role in the project.
To import metadata into a catalog, you must also have the Admin or the Editor role in the catalog to which you want to import.

For a data asset such as a table or a view imported from a database, technical metadata includes the following information:

  • Table name
  • Table view description
  • Column information such as name, type, length, and description
  • Data source information (connection information) such as server hostname or IP, and the parent database and schema of the table

This list is not exhaustive. Also, when you import metadata from an unstructured data source such as a Box folder, a different set of metadata is imported. It includes, for example, file name, file type, size, access permissions, owner, creation date, last access date, parent folder, and other information.

The metadata that you import can later be enriched with other information to help users find data faster and use it with confidence. Such information includes, for example, terms that define the meaning of the data, rules that document ownership or determine quality standards, or reviews.

When you import metadata, you add data assets to a project or a catalog. If you import the assets to a project, they are not visible in any catalog until you publish them. After you share them to a catalog, other catalog users can work with these assets.

In addition to data assets, you can import Cobol copybooks into projects and catalogs. Cobol copybooks describe the data structure of a COBOL program. You can import them to projects and catalogs. Such assets cannot be downloaded, profiled, enriched through metadata enrichment, or used in Data Refinery.

If your project is marked as sensitive, you can import assets only to that project and you can't publish the assets.

Next steps

Learn more

Parent topic: Curating data

Generative AI search and answer
These answers are generated by a large language model in watsonx.ai based on content from the product documentation. Learn more