Running the Looker collector
Generating the command or YAML file
This section walks you through the process of generating the command or YAML file for running the collector from Windows or Linux or MAC OS.
To generate the command or YAML file:
On the Organization profile page, go to the Settings tab > Metadata collectors section.
Click the Help me set up a collector button.
On the On-prem collector setup prerequisites screen, read the pre-requisites and click Next.
On the On which platform will this collector execute? screen, select if you will be running the collector on Windows or Mac OS or Linux. This will determine the format of the YAML and CLI that is generated in the end. Click Next.
On the Choose metadata collector type you would like to setup screen, select Looker. Click Next.
On the Configure a new on premises Looker Collector screen, set the following properties and click Next.
On the next screen, set the following properties and click Next.
Table 2.Field name
Corresponding parameter name
Description
Required?
Looker URL Base Path
--looker-api-base-url= <baseUrl>
Base URL of the Looker API, for example: https://looker-customer.cloud.looker.com/api/4.0/
Yes
The Looker Client ID
--looker-clientid= <clientId>
Looker client ID for Looker app. When the credential is for a non-admin user, we do not get any information about the database objects used by Explores. For everything else, the catalog will contain all the objects that the credential’s user has access to.
Yes
The Looker secret
--looker-clientsecret= <clientSecret>
Looker client secret for the Looker API. It is recommended you use a variable for this parameter as it has sensitive information.
Yes
On the next screen, provide the Collector configuration name. This is the name used to save the configuration details. The configuration is saved and made available on the Metadata collectors summary page from where you can edit or delete the configuration at a later point. Click Save and Continue.
On the Finalize your Looker Collector configuration screen, you are notified about the environment variables and directories you need to setup for running the collector. Select if you want to generate a Configuration file( YAML) or Command line arguments (CLI). Click Next.
The next screen gives you an option to download the YAML configuration file or copy the CLI command. Click Done. If you are generating a YAML file, click Next.
Sample YAML file.
The Looker command screen gives you the command to use for running the collector using the YAML file.
You will notice that the YAML/CLI has following additional parameters that are automatically set for you.
Important
Except for the collector version, you should not change the values of any of the parameter listed here.
Table 3.Parameter name
Details
Required?
-a= <agent>
--agent= <agent>
--account= <agent>
The ID for the data.world account into which you will load this catalog - this is used to generate the namespace for any URIs generated.
Yes
--site= <site>
This parameter should be set only for Private instances. Do not set it for public instances and single-tenant installations. Required for private instance installations.
Yes
(required for private instance installations)
-U
--upload
Whether to upload the generated catalog to the organization account's catalogs dataset.
Yes
-L
--no-log-upload
Do not upload the log of the Collector run to the organization account's catalogs dataset.
Yes
dwcc: <CollectorVersion>
The version of the collector you want to use (For example,
datadotworld/dwcc:2.113)Yes
Verifying environment variables and directories
Verify that you have set up all the required environment variables that were identified by the Collector Wizard before running the collector. Alternatively, you can set these credentials in a credential vault and use a script to retrieve those credentials.
Verify that you have set up all the required directories that were identified by the Collector Wizard.
Running the collector
Important
Before you begin running the collector make sure you have the correct version of collectors downloaded and available.
Running collector using YAML file
Go to the server where you have setup docker to run the collector.
Make sure you have download the correct version of collectors. This version should match the version of the collector specified in the command you are using to run the collector.
Place the YAML file generated from the Collector wizard to the correct directory.
From the command line, run the command generated from the application for executing the YAML file.
Caution
Note that is just a sample command for showing the syntax. You must generate the command specific to your setup from the application UI.
docker run -it --rm --mount type=bind,source=${HOME}/dwcc,target=/dwcc-output \ --mount type=bind,source=${HOME}/dwcc,target=${HOME}/dwcc --mount type=bind,source=${HOME}/dwcc-drivers,target=/usr/src/dwcc-config/lib \ datadotworld/dwcc:2.124 catalog-looker --agent=8bank-catalog-sources \ --site=solutions --no-log-upload=false --upload=true --api-token=${DW_AUTH_TOKEN} \ --name=8bank-catalog-sources-collection --output=/dwcc-output \ --upload-location=ddw-catalogs --looker-api-base-url=https://looker-customer.cloud.looker.com/api/4.0/ \ --looker-clientid=12344 --looker-clientsecret=${DW_LOOKER_SECRET}The collector automatically uploads the file to the specified dataset and you can also find the output at the location you specified while running the collector.
At a later point, if you download a newer version of collector from Docker, you can edit the collector version in the generated command to run the collector with the newer version.
Running collector without the YAML file
Go to the server where you have setup docker to run the collector.
Make sure you have download the version of collectors from here. This version should match the version of the collector specified in the command you are using to run the collector.
From the command line, run the command generated from the application. Here is a sample command.
Caution
Note that is just a sample command for showing the syntax. You must generate the command specific to your setup from the application UI.
docker run -it --rm --mount type=bind,source=${HOME}/dwcc,target=/dwcc-output \ --mount type=bind,source=${HOME}/dwcc,target=${HOME}/dwcc --mount type=bind,source=${HOME}/dwcc-drivers,target=/usr/src/dwcc-config/lib \ -e DW_AUTH_TOKEN=${DW_AUTH_TOKEN} -e DW_LOOKER_SECRET=${DW_LOOKER_SECRET} \ datadotworld/dwcc:2.124 --config-file=/dwcc-output/config-looker.ymlThe collector automatically uploads the file to the specified dataset and you can also find the output at the location you specified while running the collector.
At a later point, if you download a newer version of collector from Docker, you can edit the collector version in the generated command to run the collector with the newer version.
Collector runtime and troubleshooting
The catalog collector may run in several seconds to many minutes depending on the size and complexity of the system being crawled.
If the catalog collector runs without issues, you should see no output on the terminal, but a new file that matching *.dwec.ttl should be in the directory you specified for the output.
If there was an issue connecting or running the catalog collector, there will be either a stack trace or a *.log file. Both of those can be sent to support to investigate if the errors are not clear.
A list of common issues and problems encountered when running the collectors is available here.
Automating updates to your metadata catalog
Keep your metadata catalog up to date using cron, your Docker container, or your automation tool of choice to run the catalog collector on a regular basis. Considerations for how often to schedule include:
Frequency of changes to the schema
Business criticality of up-to-date data
For organizations with schemas that change often and where surfacing the latest data is business critical, daily may be appropriate. For those with schemas that do not change often and which are less critical, weekly or even monthly may make sense. Consult your data.world representative for more tailored recommendations on how best to optimize your catalog collector processes.
Managing collector runs and configuration details
From the Metadata collectors summary page, view the collectors runs to ensure they are running successfully,
From the same Metadata collectors summary page you can view, edit, or delete the configuration details for the collectors.