SentryOne Director of Software Engineering, Matt Whitfield, and I recently participated in a webinar, Introducing SentryOne Document: Database Documentation and Lineage in the Cloud, which showcased the features that are now available in the latest cloud-based documentation solution, SentryOne Document.
In the webinar, we covered:
- Why maintaining up-to-date documentation and ensuring compliance with your business rules and data privacy regulations is crucial
- How SentryOne Document can help you address that task with its documentation, data lineage, and metadata management (data dictionary) capabilities
If you missed the webinar, you can view the recording here.
During the webinar, we received many great questions from attendees. Check out our answers below!
Webinar Q&A
Q: Are there any plans for SentryOne Document to support more SaaS data sources, specifically Salesforce or Oracle databases?
Whitfield: We’re always expanding the list of supported sources, and we take customer direction and feedback into consideration when making those decisions. Currently, support for Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Warehouse, and Salesforce is in development.
Q: Will SentryOne Document drill through to linked server details?
Whitfield: Yes, if that linked server is SQL Server–based, we do an excellent job of linking through to it, and for other technology types we show the link but at a lower level of detail. Sometimes you need to use Endpoint Aliases to add some extra context to the linkage so that it can tie up naming differences.
Q: Our company is looking to integrate SentryOne Document with other architecture documentation tools. Is it possible to use APIs to interact with your product?
Whitfield: Yes, we fully expect customers to be able to use the REST API to interact with SentryOne Document.
Q: What permissions does the proxy account need on the servers?
Whitfield: The permissions vary by provider, so it differs depending on what technology you’re taking a snapshot of. The requirements are the same as are required for those technology types in DOC xPress, and those are listed in the SentryOne Document documentation.
Q: Will existing DOC xPress customers have their licenses ported over to this platform?
Lynch: At this time, DOC xPress licenses will not be ported over to SentryOne Document licenses. We’re still actively supporting DOC xPress.
Q: Is SentryOne Document a cloud, on-prem, or hybrid product?
Whitfield: SentryOne Document is a hybrid product. A remote agent runs on-premises to collect metadata from your systems without you having to open your network to inbound connections. We are actively developing a fully on-premises solution for those who would rather keep their environments entirely in-house.
Q: You said you have Salesforce on your radar. How do you integrate data from Salesforce into SentryOne?
Whitfield: For SentryOne Document, we’re currently exploring what options we could offer. For Task Factory, we offer a full connectivity solution for your Salesforce data.
Q: How does your product handle synonyms (SQL Server) or Task Factory SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) components? Does it have any issues with these objects?
Whitfield: For synonyms, we handle those completely. For SSIS components, we automatically handle any synchronous components and regularly update our lineage engine as Task Factory asynchronous components are added or modified.
Q: Is there a way we could use SentryOne Document to see all sensitive data? I see we can mark with data dictionary, but how could we summarize it quickly?
Whitfield: Right now, there isn’t a ”show me all objects with this data dictionary value”—but that is something that we are actively developing and seeking user feedback on. We’ll have a better answer to this question as we further develop our solution!
Q: It looks like the product is licensed “per data source.” Can you further define that?
Lynch: Think of it as “per instance” or “per server.” We get many questions about how SSIS is licensed—in this case, it’s based on the solution item. An SSIS solution item can point to a catalog, a folder, an MSDB, etc. All packages in the source are covered under one license.
Additional Resources
Interested in learning more about SentryOne Document? Check out the resources below for more information.
- Blog: Simplify Database Documentation and Data Lineage Analysis With SentryOne Document
- Video: SentryOne Document Installation and Configuration
- SentryOne Document Help Documentation : Getting Started with SentryOne Document
Get Started with SentryOne Document
Are you ready to try SentryOne Document? Sign up for a free 30-day trial and find how you can simplify your database documentation and data lineage analysis with our new cloud solution.
