Virtualizing data with business terms in Data Virtualization in strict virtualization mode

If you have data assets in your catalogs that are connected directly to your data sources and that have business terms assigned, in strict virtualization mode in Data Virtualization, virtual objects must use business terms for table and column names.

Before you begin

Ensure that Data Virtualization and IBM® Knowledge Catalog are installed in the same OpenShift® project (namespace).

These instructions assume that you completed the following prerequisites:

About this task

If you enabled the strict virtualization mode, you can create virtual tables only from existing catalog data assets that have term assignments. Assigned terms are used to rename table and column names automatically.

In this virtualization mode, users can virtualize only assets that have been added to a catalog by using a data source connection and that have a business term assigned at the asset level and to at least one column. The same connection must be added as a data source to Data Virtualization. Use one of the following options to catalog data source assets and assign business terms:
Important: These instructions apply only if the service is set to the strict virtualization mode. To use business terms to govern your virtual data in the default virtualization mode, see Virtualizing data with business terms.

Procedure

  1. On the navigation menu, click Data > Data virtualization to reveal the service menu.
  2. On the service menu, click Virtualization > Virtualize and click the Tables tab.
    Data Virtualization shows only tables that you can virtualize which are tables with assigned business terms. You can see a list of business terms suggestions applicable to each table.

    You can see tables in the Virtualize page only if you have the required Access catalog permission in IBM Knowledge Catalog. For more information, see Catalog collaborator permissions.

    • Narrow down the displayed assets by using the available filters. Additionally, you can search tables by name, schema, or column.
    • Click a business term to view term information in IBM Knowledge Catalog.
  3. Select the table that you want to virtualize and click Add to cart.
  4. Click View cart to view your selections.
    From this window, you can update schema names or remove a selection from your cart. Additionally, you can select or deselect a column, or select a different business term for a column if multiple business terms are assigned to a table column.

    To edit a table name, you can select any of the business terms that are assigned to the table. Thus, the virtual table name matches the business term that is assigned to the source table automatically.

    To select columns in strict mode, follow these steps.

    1. In the object action menu, click Select columns.
      Note: In strict mode, column names are not editable.
    2. Select a business term to rename the column name.

      If a column has more than one business term assigned, Data Virtualization selects the first business term that was assigned to rename columns.

      You can select business terms to rename columns. However, you cannot edit column names in a table.

    3. Select columns that you want to include in your virtual table.
      Note: For your changes to take effect, ensure you select the checkbox of the column name.
    4. Click Apply.
  5. Select the appropriate sharing options for the virtualized table.
  6. Specify a schema in the Schema field.
    You can also create a schema by following these steps.
    • A Data Virtualization AdminAdmins can grant access permission on a schema to a Data Virtualization Engineer, who can pick that schema when they virtualize a table.
    • If you have the Data Virtualization Engineer role, leave the Schema field as default to create a schema with your user ID.
    • If you have the Data Virtualization Admin role, leave the Schema field as default to create a schema with your user ID or enter the new schema name in the Schema field.
    For more information, see Creating schemas for virtual objects.
  7. Click Virtualize to complete the process.
    When the status window appears, you can select to view your virtualized data or virtualize more data. However, you must wait until virtualization is complete before you navigate away from the page.

Results

On the Virtualized data page, you can publish your virtual object to the catalog. For more information, see Publishing virtual data to the catalog.

Limitation: In the strict virtualization mode (where you can see tables only if they have at least one column with business term assignment), when you navigate to the Virtualize page, the console appears to be loading the table list for a while without showing any tables. The loading can be much slower compared to the default virtualization mode while the console evaluates the list of eligible tables that can be virtualized, depending on term assignments to data source table and column names.