We use cookies to improve site navigation, analyze site usage, and enhance your user experience. Click "Accept" to enable cookies or "Reject" to reject cookies.

connectors

No menu items for this category
Home/Connectors/Dashboard/Hex
OpenMetadata Documentation
Hex

Hex

BETA
Available In
Feature List
Dashboards
Charts
Lineage
Owners
Tags
Owners
Datamodels

In this section, we provide guides and references to use the Hex connector.

Configure and schedule Hex metadata and profiler workflows from the OpenMetadata UI:

Ingestion Deployment

To run the Ingestion via the UI you'll need to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion Container, which comes shipped with custom Airflow plugins to handle the workflow deployment. If you want to install it manually in an already existing Airflow host, you can follow this guide.

If you don't want to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion container to configure the workflows via the UI, then you can check the following docs to run the Ingestion Framework in any orchestrator externally.

Run Connectors from the OpenMetadata UI

Learn how to manage your deployment to run connectors from the UI

Run the Connector Externally

Get the YAML to run the ingestion externally

External Schedulers

Get more information about running the Ingestion Framework Externally

Requirements

Hex Account Setup

Follow the steps below to configure the account setup for Hex connector:

Step 1: Generate API Token

To generate an API token in Hex:

  1. Log into your Hex account
  2. Navigate to Account Settings
  3. Go to the API Keys section
  4. Click on "Create API Key"
  5. Choose the token type:
    • Personal Token: Provides access to projects you own or have access to
    • Workspace Token: Provides access to all projects in the workspace (requires admin privileges)
  6. Copy and securely store the generated token

Step 2: Verify API Access

Ensure that the token has appropriate permissions:

  • For personal tokens: Verify you have access to the projects you want to ingest
  • For workspace tokens: Verify admin privileges are granted

Metadata Ingestion

1. Visit the Services Page

Click Settings in the side navigation bar and then Services.

The first step is to ingest the metadata from your sources. To do that, you first need to create a Service connection first.

This Service will be the bridge between OpenMetadata and your source system.

Once a Service is created, it can be used to configure your ingestion workflows.

Visit Services Page

Select your Service Type and Add a New Service

2. Create a New Service

Click on Add New Service to start the Service creation.

Create a new Service

Add a new Service from the Services page

3. Select the Service Type

Select Hex as the Service type and click Next.

Select Service

Select your Service from the list

4. Name and Describe your Service

Provide a name and description for your Service.

Service Name

OpenMetadata uniquely identifies Services by their Service Name. Provide a name that distinguishes your deployment from other Services, including the other Hex Services that you might be ingesting metadata from.

Note that when the name is set, it cannot be changed.

Add New Service

Provide a Name and description for your Service

5. Configure the Service Connection

In this step, we will configure the connection settings required for Hex.

Please follow the instructions below to properly configure the Service to read from your sources. You will also find helper documentation on the right-hand side panel in the UI.

Configure Service connection

Configure the Service connection by filling the form

Connection Details

hostPort: URL to the Hex instance.

Provide the URL to your Hex instance. For Hex cloud users, use https://app.hex.tech.

For on-premise installations, provide your custom domain URL.

tokenType: Type of authentication token.

Select the type of token you're using:

  • personal: Personal access token (default)
  • workspace: Workspace-level token (requires admin privileges)

token: Hex API Token.

Provide the API token generated from your Hex account. This token is used for authentication with the Hex APIs.

To generate a token:

  • Log into Hex
  • Go to Account Settings > API Keys
  • Create a new API key
  • Copy the generated token

includeTags: Import Hex Categories and Status as Tags.

Enable this option to import Hex project categories and status as OpenMetadata tags. This helps in organizing and filtering your Hex projects within OpenMetadata.

By default, this is set to true.

Dashboard Filter Pattern:

Use regex patterns to include or exclude specific dashboards from ingestion. This helps you control which Hex projects are imported into OpenMetadata.

Examples:

  • Include only production projects: ^prod-.*
  • Exclude test projects: ^(?!test-).*

6. Test the Connection

Once the credentials have been added, click on Test Connection and Save the changes.

Test Connection

Test the connection and save the Service

7. Configure Metadata Ingestion

In this step we will configure the metadata ingestion pipeline, Please follow the instructions below

Configure Metadata Ingestion

Configure Metadata Ingestion Page

Metadata Ingestion Options

  • Name: This field refers to the name of ingestion pipeline, you can customize the name or use the generated name.
  • Dashboard Filter Pattern (Optional): Use it to control whether to include dashboard as part of metadata ingestion.
    • Include: Explicitly include dashboards by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Include' field. OpenMetadata will include all dashboards with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other dashboards will be excluded.
    • Exclude: Explicitly exclude dashboards by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Exclude' field. OpenMetadata will exclude all dashboards with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other dashboards will be included.
  • projectFilterPattern: Filter the dashboards, charts and data sources by projects. Note that all of them support regex as include or exclude. E.g., "My project, My proj.*, .*Project".
  • Chart Pattern (Optional): Use it to control whether to include charts as part of metadata ingestion.
    • Include: Explicitly include charts by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Include' field. OpenMetadata will include all charts with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other charts will be excluded.
    • Exclude: Explicitly exclude charts by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Exclude' field. OpenMetadata will exclude all charts with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other charts will be included.
  • Data Model Pattern (Optional): Use it to control whether to include data modes as part of metadata ingestion.
    • Include: Explicitly include data models by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Include' field. OpenMetadata will include all data models with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other data models will be excluded.
    • Exclude: Explicitly exclude data models by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Exclude' field. OpenMetadata will exclude all data models with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other data models will be included.
  • Database Service Name (Optional): Enter the name of Database Service which is already ingested in OpenMetadata to create lineage between dashboards and database tables.
  • Enable Debug Log (toggle): Set the 'Enable Debug Log' toggle to set the default log level to debug.
  • Include Owners (toggle): Set the 'Include Owners' toggle to control whether to include owners to the ingested entity if the owner email matches with a user stored in the OM server as part of metadata ingestion. If the ingested entity already exists and has an owner, the owner will not be overwritten.
  • Include Tags (toggle): Set the 'Include Tags' toggle to control whether to include tags in metadata ingestion.
  • Include Data Models (toggle): Set the 'Include Data Models' toggle to control whether to include tags as part of metadata ingestion.
  • Mark Deleted Dashboards (toggle): Set the 'Mark Deleted Dashboards' toggle to flag dashboards as soft-deleted if they are not present anymore in the source system.
  • Include Draft Dashboard (toogle): Set the 'Include Draft Dashboard' toggle to include draft dashboards. By default it will include draft dashboards.

8. Schedule the Ingestion and Deploy

Scheduling can be set up at an hourly, daily, weekly, or manual cadence. The timezone is in UTC. Select a Start Date to schedule for ingestion. It is optional to add an End Date.

Review your configuration settings. If they match what you intended, click Deploy to create the service and schedule metadata ingestion.

If something doesn't look right, click the Back button to return to the appropriate step and change the settings as needed.

After configuring the workflow, you can click on Deploy to create the pipeline.

Schedule the Workflow

Schedule the Ingestion Pipeline and Deploy

9. View the Ingestion Pipeline

Once the workflow has been successfully deployed, you can view the Ingestion Pipeline running from the Service Page.

View Ingestion Pipeline

View the Ingestion Pipeline from the Service Page

Lineage

Hex connector extracts lineage information by:

  • Warehouse Query History: Directly queries data warehouse logs (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, etc.) to find queries executed by Hex
  • Hex Metadata Identification: Identifies Hex-originated queries using metadata comments embedded by Hex containing project IDs
  • SQL Parsing: Analyzes the discovered SQL queries to extract upstream table dependencies

The lineage information helps you understand:

  • Which data warehouse tables are actually queried by each Hex project
  • Real data usage patterns based on executed queries
  • Impact analysis when making changes to underlying data sources

Note: The connector does not use Hex APIs for lineage. Instead, it discovers lineage by analyzing actual queries executed in your data warehouses, providing more accurate data dependency information.

Warehouse Query Log Requirements

For lineage extraction to work, query logging must be enabled in your data warehouse:

Snowflake

  • Requires access to SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY
  • Query history is automatically maintained by Snowflake

BigQuery

  • Requires access to INFORMATION_SCHEMA.JOBS_BY_PROJECT
  • Query history is automatically maintained by BigQuery

MySQL

  • Requires general_log to be enabled:
  • Grant access to mysql.general_log table

Databricks

  • Requires access to system.query.history
  • Query history is automatically maintained

Redshift

  • Requires access to stl_query system table
  • Query history is automatically maintained

Other Warehouses

  • Athena: Access to query history via CloudTrail or S3 logs
  • ClickHouse: Access to system.query_log table

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Authentication Failures

  • Verify that your API token is valid and hasn't expired
  • Check that the token type matches your access level (personal vs workspace)
  • Ensure the API token has necessary permissions

Missing Projects

  • For personal tokens: Verify you have access to the projects
  • For workspace tokens: Confirm admin privileges
  • Check the dashboard filter pattern configuration

Connection Timeouts

  • Verify the hostPort URL is correct
  • Check network connectivity to Hex
  • For on-premise installations, ensure firewall rules allow access

Rate Limiting

  • Hex APIs may have rate limits
  • Consider adjusting the ingestion schedule if you encounter rate limit errors
  • Contact Hex support if persistent rate limiting issues occur