Crawl Anaplan

Extract metadata from Anaplan workspaces, models, and dimensions into Atlan's data catalog to enable data discovery and governance. This guide provides step-by-step instructions to set up a crawler workflow for Anaplan in Atlan.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Set up Anaplan permissions and created a user account
• Network access to your Anaplan host
• Admin access to Atlan

Create crawler workflow

1. In the top right of any screen in Atlan, navigate to +New and click New Workflow.
2. From the Marketplace page, click Anaplan.
3. In the right panel, click Setup Workflow.

Choose extraction method

Choose your extraction method and provide the connection details.

Direct

In Direct extraction, Atlan connects to Anaplan and crawls metadata directly.

Agent

In Agent extraction, Self-Deployed Runtime executes metadata extraction within your organization's environment.

1. Install Self-Deployed Runtime if you haven't already:
   • Install via Docker Compose
   • Install on Kubernetes
2. Select the Agent tab.
3. Store sensitive information in the secret store configured with the Self-Deployed Runtime and reference the secrets in the corresponding fields. For more information, see Configure secrets for workflow execution.
4. For details on individual fields, refer to the Direct extraction tab.
5. Click Next after completing the configuration.

Configure authentication

Basic authentication

1. Authentication: Select Basic as the authentication method.
2. Host: Enter your Anaplan host URL without the https:// and trailing / (for example, us1a.app.anaplan.com).
3. Username: Enter the Anaplan username for the account you created during setup.
4. Password: Enter the Anaplan password for the account.
5. Click Test Authentication to confirm connectivity to Anaplan.
6. Once authentication is successful, navigate to the bottom of the screen and click Next.

CA Certificate

1. Authentication: Select CA Certificate as the authentication method.
2. Host: Enter your Anaplan host URL without the https:// and trailing / (for example, us1a.app.anaplan.com).
3. Encoded Data: Enter the encodedData value generated during setup.
4. Encoded Signed Data: Enter the encodedSignedData value generated during setup.
5. CA Certificate File: Click Choose File and upload the CA certificate file in PEM format.
6. Click Test Authentication to confirm connectivity to Anaplan.
7. Once authentication is successful, navigate to the bottom of the screen and click Next.

Configure connection

1. Connection Name: Provide a name that represents your source environment. For example, you might use values like production, development, gold, or analytics.
2. Connection Admins: Modify the users or groups who can manage this connection. If you don't specify any user or group, no one can manage the connection - not even admins.
3. Navigate to the bottom of the screen and click Next to proceed.

Configure crawler

Before running the Anaplan crawler, you can further configure it.

Important

Include and Exclude filters still need list access for all the asset names to be displayed in the filters. Any name not visible in these filters is out of the scope of this crawler due to limited access.

On the Metadata Filters page, you can override the defaults for any of these options:

• Include Metadata: Select the workspaces you want to catalog in Atlan. If none are specified, all workspaces are included by default.
• Exclude Metadata: Select the workspaces you don't want to catalog in Atlan. If none are specified, no workspaces are excluded by default.

Agent mode filtering format

When using Agent extraction mode, the include and exclude filters use a regex pattern to match workspace names. Provide a Python-compatible regular expression string.

Examples:

• Include workspaces starting with "Prod": ^Prod.*
• Exclude test workspaces: ^test-
• Match multiple workspaces: .*_Workspace1|^Workspace2|Workspace3$

• Exclude Empty Modules: Lets you exclude modules that don't have a line item. Use this to prevent ingestion of line-separator modules, as recommended by Anaplan training documentation.
  • Yes: Ignores every module during extraction that doesn't have a line item.
  • No: Ingests every valid module, even if it doesn't have a line item.
• Ingest System Dimensions: Lets you ingest dimensions created by the Anaplan system separately under the Anaplan connection. Supported system dimensions are Time and Versions.
  • Yes, proxy: Ingests these dimensions directly under the connection as the System Dimension asset type. The System Dimension asset type won't hold any relationships and only exists under the Anaplan connection as proxy assets for metadata reference.
  • Yes, individually: Ingests each system dimension under each model along with its respective relationships as individual Dimensions.
  • No: Don't ingest system dimensions.

Run crawler

1. To check for any permissions or other configuration issues before running the crawler, click Preflight checks.
2. You can either:
   • To run the crawler once immediately, at the bottom of the screen, click the Run button.
   • To schedule the crawler to run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly, at the bottom of the screen, click the Schedule Run button.

Once the crawler completes, you can see the assets on Atlan's asset page! 🎉

See also

• What does Atlan crawl from Anaplan: Complete mapping of Anaplan assets and metadata fields to Atlan asset types and properties
• Preflight checks for Anaplan: Check for permissions and configuration issues before running the crawler
• How Atlan connects to Anaplan: Connection methods, protocols, and security