Alation Connector for Azure Data Explorer BI OCF

The Azure Data Explorer BI OCF Connector, developed by Logan Data, enables Alation users to automatically extract and catalog Azure Data Explorer (ADX) BI objects, bringing Connections, Clusters, Data Sources, Tables, KQL Queries, Tiles, Tile Objects, and Dashboards into Alation's unified data intelligence platform.

Azure Data Explorer is Microsoft Azure's high-performance analytics service that empowers organisations to build interactive dashboards, embed analytics in web applications, and enable non-technical users to explore large datasets without writing SQL or KQL. This BI connector bridges ADX's rich dashboard and analytics layer with Alation's catalog, giving Business Analysts, Data Analysts, Business Stewards, and Business Leadership the ability to find, trust, and navigate ADX reports and dashboards from a single governed interface.

Built on Alation's Open Connector Framework (OCF) with a containerized SDK, the connector uses Azure Resource Manager APIs for cluster and connection metadata and Kusto REST/management APIs for KQL query, tile, and dashboard object extraction.

Object mapping - what gets extracted and how it appears in Alation:

• Connection mapped to Alation Source: with owner, creation time, modification time, description, and permissions
• Cluster mapped to Alation Folder: with owner, creation time, modification time, description, and permissions
• Table / Query (KQL) mapped to Alation Data Source: all data source objects cataloged
• Tile mapped to Alation Report: with name, type, and the parent folder it belongs to
• Tile Objects mapped to Alation Measures and Dimensions: field name, category (measure or dimension), and the KQL expression used to build the measure
• Dashboard mapped to Alation Dashboard: with name, type, and parent folder

Lineage capabilities:

• Report lineage (intra-system): trace data flow from Dashboards to Tables and KQL Query Views within ADX, giving users full visibility into how dashboards are built
• Cross-system lineage: connect ADX Data Sources to external database tables already cataloged in Alation (e.g. Azure SQL, Snowflake) for end-to-end lineage across the stack
• Column-level lineage (impact analysis): trace individual Report Columns back to their underlying Data Source fields, showing exactly which database columns feed each visualization tile

Authentication and security:

• Azure Trusted Authentication (recommended): Azure Entra ID OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow, Microsoft's recommended approach for ADX service connectivity
• Basic authentication: username and password for environments that require it
• Permission mirroring: ADX group-based access permissions are replicated into Alation, ensuring users see only the dashboards and reports they are authorized to access in ADX

Additional catalog features:

• Popularity scores: ADX object usage statistics surfaced on each catalog page to help users identify the most-used and most-trusted dashboards and queries
• Report previews: dashboard image thumbnails displayed on Report and Dashboard catalog pages for quick visual identification
• Navigation links: one-click link from any Alation catalog object directly to the corresponding object in the ADX Web UI (https://dataexplorer.azure.com/dashboards/ <dashboard_id>)
• Selective extraction: apply Cluster-level filters to scope catalog updates
• Full extraction: catalog all ADX clusters and their BI objects in a single run

Compatibility: Alation On-Premise and Alation Cloud Service. Azure subscription with Kusto cluster access and Azure Entra ID service principal required.