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Understanding Revisions

All the metadata for a scan and the resulting lineage are grouped together in a single revision. Each revision represents a point-in-time snapshot of all the coordinated metadata and lineage in the corporate systems and technologies used in the enterprise. Users will see the most recent revision by default but can switch to an older revision showing the metadata and lineage at an earlier point in time, supporting any kind of historical lineage research or comparisons.

There are two types of revisions used to capture your data lineage: major revisions and minor revisions.

• Major revisions are a snapshot of your environment that is created by scanning all your enabled connections at one point in time — your metadata admin can also adjust which connections you scan at any time. It does not include anything that was available in any previous revision.

• Minor revisions are used to update lineage from the last (major or minor) revision. They are much quicker than major revisions, so metadata admins use them to run analyses on individual connections. They can also be used to test new connections, test Open Manta extension inputs, or quickly refresh existing connections.

Working with Revisions

Up to and including IBM Manta Data Lineage R42.1

To select the revision you want to work with, open the drop-down in the upper-left part of the home page to see a list of available revisions. When a major revision has been followed by one or more minor revisions, there will be a down arrow to the right of it. In the following example, revisions #18 and #8 have some minor revisions.

When you click the down arrow next to a major revision, you’ll see a list of its minor revisions, numbered with the major revision number plus a decimal point and the minor revision number.

As of Manta Data Lineage R42.2

For any major revision that has minor revisions, the drop-down will show the most recent minor revision at the highest level. For example, if Revision #18 has a Minor Revision #18.26, the list will display "18.26" instead of just "18".

Clicking the down arrow next to the major revision number will reveal all associated minor revisions, listed in descending order, followed by the major revision itself. This change is intended to provide a direct view of the latest minor revision for each major revision.

When you come to the IBM Manta Data Lineage home page, remember to check the latest revision available. By default, Manta Data Lineage opens the one that you used last time.

As of Manta Data Lineage R42.5

New Manta Data Lineage instances will no longer have any major revision in the repository and won't be able to create new major revision. If the Manta Data Lineage repository consists only of minor revisions, the revisions are displayed across the UI in format #XXX instead of #0.XXX."

If you are a metadata administrator, see also Understanding Revisions for Administrators.