Database connector

The Vertica data catalog your whole team can trust.

The Dawiso Vertica connector turns your cluster into a searchable data catalog: every schema, table, view and stored procedure, with keys, constraints and object relationships mapped.

Read the docs

Live connector Stable connector

Vertica

Dawiso

Metadata-only · your data never leaves the source

Type: Columnar MPP database
Auth: User + password (read-only)
Sync: Scheduled, incremental
Direction: Read-only · metadata

First things first

What is a data connector?

Metadata-only Read-only access Incremental sync Cross-system lineage

A data connector is the bridge between a tool in your stack and the catalog that gives you a unified view of it. Once a connector is configured, it reaches into the source system on a schedule, reads out the metadata - schemas, tables, dashboards, jobs, ownership, lineage - and represents it inside the catalog. Your actual rows and values stay where they are.

Connectors are the reason a data catalog can answer questions like "which Power BI dashboard depends on this Snowflake table?" or "who owns the orders topic in Kafka?" - automatically, without anyone keeping a spreadsheet up to date.

Three properties separate a good connector from a brittle one: it should be read-only and safe, it should be incremental so a full re-scan isn't required for every refresh, and it should resolve lineage across system boundaries, not just inside one tool.

About the platform

What is Vertica?

Vertica is the columnar MPP analytics database founded by Michael Stonebraker in 2005 and now part of OpenText. Telcos, fintech and adtech teams use it for high-concurrency analytical workloads, both on-prem and on AWS or Azure. The Eon Mode variant separates compute from storage using S3, so clusters scale independently.

Vertica's own v_catalog schema covers what's inside the cluster. What it doesn't cover is the BI report consuming the table, the data product the business owns, and the policy security signed off on. That's where the Dawiso Vertica data catalog joins the picture: read-only, metadata-only, and cross-platform.

Architecture

How Dawiso connects to Vertica

A small read-only role on the Vertica side. The Dawiso scanner pulls metadata on a schedule. Everything ends up in your catalog, business-readable.

Source

Vertica cluster

Schemas
Tables & projections
Views
Stored procedures

REST · JDBC

Dawiso scanner

Read-only metadata

Schema & object discovery
Dependency resolution
SQL flow parsing (optional)
Sampling on opt-in

Internal

Catalog

Dawiso platform

Searchable metadata
Lineage & ownership
Business glossary
Policy & classifications

Connection details

Protocol: Vertica JDBC + v_catalog schema
Authentication: Vertica user + password · read-only grants
Lineage: Primary keys, foreign keys and constraints resolved from v_catalog, mapping the relationships between schemas, tables, projections and views

Setup

Connect Vertica in 4 steps

01

Create a Vertica user

CREATE USER dawiso_user IDENTIFIED BY '<password>' against a cluster where you have administrator-level privileges.
02

Grant catalog access

GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA v_catalog TO dawiso_user, plus EXECUTE ON PROCEDURE EXPORT_OBJECTS(VARCHAR, VARCHAR, BOOL) so procedure bodies can be read.
03

Connect in Dawiso

Add the Vertica host (DNS or IP), port and credentials. Pick Shared or Private connection depending on whether the cluster is internet-exposed.
04

Run ingestion

Scheduled incremental sync keeps schemas, tables and views current. Without EXPORT_OBJECTS, procedures are catalogued without their PL/vSQL bodies.

Capabilities

What you get with the Vertica connector

Schema & table catalog

Every Vertica schema, table, projection and view is searchable, with column descriptions, data types, encodings and the constraints behind them.
Keys & relationships

Primary keys, foreign keys and constraints from v_catalog map the relationships between Vertica schemas, tables, projections and views.
PII classification

Classify a column once. Dawiso flags every Vertica column carrying birth number, IBAN or government IDs across all schemas in scope.
Ownership & certification

Mark Vertica tables as certified, deprecated or under review. Owner, steward and SLA are visible directly in the catalog.
Procedure bodies included

EXPORT_OBJECTS permission lets Dawiso read PL/vSQL bodies, so stored procedure logic is documented and searchable in the catalog.
GDPR & DORA evidence

Sensitive columns are tagged and the policy follows them through views and into downstream BI, with a full audit trail for regulators.

Business value

Why teams turn on the Vertica connector

-65%
Fewer 'which table?' pings

Analysts find the certified Vertica table in Dawiso instead of pinging the DBA to ask which projection backs the customer report.
10x
Faster impact analysis

Before altering a Vertica view, check the keys and constraints that tie it to other tables and views. Seconds, not days.
Read-only
Zero risk to production

Dawiso uses a dedicated user with SELECT on v_catalog and EXECUTE on EXPORT_OBJECTS only. Your data and your write paths are untouched.

Ready to catalog your Vertica?

Set up the connector in an afternoon. See your first lineage graph the same day.

Read the docs

Frequently asked questions

Still curious? Talk to our team ->

What is a Vertica database?

Vertica is a columnar MPP analytics database. Dawiso reads Vertica metadata read-only - schemas, tables, projections and columns - and catalogs them with keys, constraints, ownership and classification across your whole stack.

Does Vertica have a data catalog?

No business-facing catalog. Dawiso turns Vertica's system metadata into a searchable, governed catalog and maps the keys, constraints and relationships between its tables, projections and views.

What permissions does Dawiso need in Vertica?

A dedicated user (e.g. dawiso_user) with GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA v_catalog and GRANT EXECUTE ON PROCEDURE EXPORT_OBJECTS(VARCHAR, VARCHAR, BOOL). The account creating the user needs administrator-level privileges. Read-only end to end.

Which Vertica versions are supported?

Vertica 10.x and later, including Vertica Community Edition. Both classic Enterprise Mode and Eon Mode (S3-backed compute/storage separation) are supported via the standard JDBC driver against v_catalog.

Does Dawiso copy our Vertica data?

No. Dawiso queries the v_catalog schema for metadata only. Row-level data stays inside Vertica. Column profiling and sampling are opt-in per data source and never run automatically.

Why does Dawiso need EXPORT_OBJECTS?

It's required to read stored procedure source code (the PL/vSQL body). Without it, procedures are still scanned but their bodies are empty, which limits how much procedure logic is documented. SELECT permissions alone never expose row-level data.