Looker

Atlan supports integration with Looker, which allows you to integrate your Looker assets 📊 with your Atlan workspace.
Looker Assets inside Atlan
💭 TL;DR
You can set up a Looker integration with your Atlan workspace in four easy steps:
1.
Select the source, aka Looker 😉
2.
Provide your credentials ✍️
3.
Set up your configuration 🗄️
4.
Schedule automatic updates 🕑
📜 Prerequisites for Looker integration
Before you get started, you'll need some information to help establish a connection between Atlan and your Looker account.
API Host URL
Base URL (optional, but necessary if you have a different API Host URL and Base URL)
Client ID and Client Secret
Port
🔑 Looker user permissions
To crawl all the Looker assets a custom role needs to be created having the permissions for Explore and See Sql along with viewer role.
A Viewer role can be used to create the API key to crawl the assets in Atlan, but this will be able to crawl only the widgets and the dashboards. Looker requires special privileges to be given to be able to crawl explores, SQLs of the widgets and create lineage.
Steps to create a custom role
1.
Go to your Looker instance, and open the Admin tab.
2.
Select "Roles" from the drop-down list.
3.
Click on "New Permission Set", and give a name to the permission set.
4.
Tick the permissions below, and save the permission set. Upon saving, you'll be redirected to the Roles page.
5.
The following permissions are required if you want your Looks, Dashboards, and Explores crawled in Atlan:
access_data
see_lookml_dashboards
see_looks
see_user_dashboards
explore (optional, needed if Looker Explores has to be crawled)
6.
The following permissions are also required to create lineage between the data source and Looker assets:
see_lookml
develop
see_datagroups
see_sql
How to choose permissions in Looker
Permission Set
Permission Set
1.
Click on "New Role", and give it a name.
2.
Select the Permission Set created earlier.
3.
Select all the Model Sets you want to give access to.
4.
Select a user to apply the role on, and generate the API key.
Roles Example
​Read more on Permission Sets here.​
🚀 A step-by-step guide to integrate Looker
Once you have the prerequisite information listed above, follow the steps below 👇 to establish a connection and integrate Atlan with Looker.
STEP 1: Select the source
1.
Log into your Atlan workspace.
2.
Click the "+ New Integration" button on the top right corner of the home screen. You will see a dialogue box with the list of sources available on your workspace.
3.
Select "Looker" from the list of options, and click "Next".
Select Looker integration
STEP 2: Provide credentials
1.
You will get an option to either select "Existing Credentials" (on the left) or "Create a New Credential".
2.
To set up a new connection, click on the "Create Credential" and fill in your Looker credentials. Here are sample values:
API Host URL: https://example.cloud.api.looker.com/​
Base URL: https://example.cloud.looker.com/ (leave it blank if the API Host URL is the same as the Base URL)
Instance Name: example.cloud.api.looker (if the API Host URL is https://example.cloud.api.looker.com/)
Port: 443 or 19999
Client ID: KJFSH******DSKDH
Client Secret: KHFSKH_**_SDSHJ
Advanced Config: Check Incoming Data Sources Connection Info to add connection details of the data source (eg. Redshift, Snowflake) connected to LookMLs in Looker. (This is optional, but needed to create lineage.)
There can be multiple connections depending on your Looker instance connections.
Connection Name: The name should be the same as given in the Looker Connection Details (e.g. snowlooker).
Data Source: Snowflake, Redshift, etc.
Connection's Hostname: Host URL (e.g. clusterName.ap-south-1.redshift.vendor.com)
Source Database
Source Schema (optional)
3.
Once you have filled in all the details, click on "Next".
Looker Credentials Setup
Looker Credentials Advanced Config
STEP 3: Set up the configuration
1.
Select the folders you want to crawl.
2.
Select whether you want to crawl the preview for looks and dashboards.
3.
Choose whether to run the crawler once, or schedule it for a daily, weekly, or monthly run. You will be asked to specify the time zone for the run.
4.
Click on "Create".
Select folder configuration
Congratulations! Your integration with Looker is now successful 🎉
🧙‍♀️ Remember: Selecting "Crawl image preview for crawled looks and dashboards" will affect the crawling time.
🏁 Monitoring your Looker integration
Once the integration setup is completed, you will be redirected to the "Monitor" tab for your Looker asset, where you can monitor the progress of your integration.
🙋 FAQ
What is each permission used for?
access\_data: The topmost permission, which is required to get other permissions like see_look.
see\_lookml\_dashboards: Allows Atlan to see and crawl the LookML Dashboard.
see\_looks: Allows Atlan to see and crawl Looks.
see\_user\_dashboards: Allows Atlan to see and crawl user-defined dashboards.
explore: Allows Atlan to see and fetch from the Explore page.
see\_lookml: Allows Atlan to see LookML to get model information.
develop: Allows Atlan to see connection_name in the model information. This is required for the connection_name mapping with model sets and is used in lineage generation.
see\_datagroups: Allows Atlan to see all connection_name and is used in lineage generation.
see\_sql: Allows Atlan to fetch the SQL of a query or Look, which is primarily used in lineage generation.
What is connection_name?
The connection_name is similar to Connections you have in the the Looker instance. This is the same terminology as in Looker.
Why wasn't the lineage between the data sources and Looker assets generated?
Here are some troubleshooting steps to check:
Check that Advanced Config is present in your credentials.
Check that permission see_sql is given to the role from which the API3 credentials are generated.
Make sure the data sources' assets are in Atlan.
What tiles (elements) are crawled from the Looker Dashboard?
Two tiles are crawled from Looker:
Look tile
Query tile
If the Explore asset isn't crawled, will the lineage between the data sources and Looker assets be generated?
Yes, the table lineage will still be formed with Widget.