Looker¶

Horizon Catalog ingests Looker metadata (dashboards, Looks, explores, and usage) through the Looker API. If your Looker projects use LookML models backed by a Git repository, Horizon Catalog can also produce lineage between your warehouse and Looker by cloning those repositories with a read-only SSH deploy key you install in Step 6.

Before you start¶

To connect Looker to Horizon Catalog, you need the following:

• Admin access to your Looker instance.
• If you want LookML-based lineage: admin access to add deploy keys to the Git repositories backing your LookML projects (for example, Settings > Deploy keys on a GitHub repository).

Complete the following steps to enable metadata, lineage, and popularity of your Looker content in Horizon Catalog.

1. Create a permission set and role for Horizon Catalog.
2. Create the Horizon Catalog user in Looker.
3. Generate an API3 key.
4. Grant access to the Shared folder.
5. Create the Looker connection.
6. Connect Git repositories for LookML projects (optional, required for lineage).

1. Create a permission set and role for Horizon Catalog¶

Create a Looker permission set and role with the minimum access that Horizon Catalog needs to collect metadata, lineage, and popularity data.

1. In Looker, go to Admin > Roles > Permission Sets, and select New Permission Set.

2. For Name, enter Horizon Catalog.

3. Under Permissions, enable the following. Some permissions are nested under a parent permission in the Looker UI. Enable the parent before its children:

   • access_data
     • see_lookml_dashboards
     • see_looks
       • see_user_dashboards
       • explore
       • see_lookml
   • see_queries
   • see_logs
   • see_users
   • see_datagroups
   • see_system_activity

4. Select Save Permission Set.

5. Go to Admin > Roles, and select New Role.

6. For Name, enter Horizon Catalog.

7. For Permission Set, select Horizon Catalog.

8. For Model Set, select All.

9. Select Save Role.

2. Create the Horizon Catalog user in Looker¶

Create a dedicated Looker user for Horizon Catalog.

1. In Looker, go to Admin > Users, and select Add Users.
2. For Email, enter an email address for the Horizon Catalog user, for example, horizoncatalog@yourcompany.com.
3. Under Roles, select Horizon Catalog.
4. Select Save to create the user.

3. Generate an API3 key¶

Generate an API3 key for the Horizon Catalog user. Horizon Catalog uses the client ID and client secret to authenticate with the Looker API.

1. In Looker, go to Admin > Users, and select the Horizon Catalog user.
2. Select Edit Keys.
3. Select New API3 Key to generate credentials.
4. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret, and securely store them for use in Step 5.

For details, see Looker API authentication (https://cloud.google.com/looker/docs/api-auth) in the Looker documentation.

4. Grant access to the Shared folder¶

Grant the Horizon Catalog user view access to the Shared folder so that Horizon Catalog can discover dashboards and Looks across your Looker instance.

1. In Looker, go to Browse > Shared.
2. Select the gear icon, then select Manage Access.
3. In the Share with field, enter the name or email of the Horizon Catalog user, and set the permission level to View.
4. Select Save.

5. Create the Looker connection¶

1. In Snowflake, open Catalog > Connections and select Looker from the Metadata connections section.

2. Fill out the setup form with the following information:

   Field	Value
   Display Name	A name for this connection. The default is Looker, but you can override it.
   Client ID	The client ID from Step 3.
   Client Secret	The client secret from Step 3.
   Host URL	The base URL of your Looker instance, for example, https://yourcompany.cloud.looker.com.
   Snowflake Database	The Snowflake database where Horizon Catalog stores the connector metadata. The default is CONNECTORS.
   Snowflake Schema	The Snowflake schema where Horizon Catalog stores the connector metadata. The default is METADATA.

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3. Select Create connection.

6. Connect Git repositories for LookML projects¶

Looker defines its data model in LookML, a Git-backed language where each Looker project maps to a Git repository. To let Horizon Catalog read your LookML files and produce lineage between your warehouse and Looker, grant it read-only access to each project’s Git repository.

1. After you select Create connection in Step 5, Horizon Catalog opens the Select Projects step and lists the LookML projects it discovered from your Looker instance.

2. Select the checkbox next to each project you want Horizon Catalog to ingest.

3. For each selected project that uses an SSH Git remote, select Copy key next to the project to copy its Snowflake-generated SSH public key.

   Note

   Projects that use an HTTPS Git remote show a warning icon instead of a key. SSH deploy keys are only supported for SSH remote URLs. Horizon Catalog can’t clone HTTPS-backed projects.

4. In your Git provider (for example, GitHub), open the LookML project’s repository and go to Settings > Deploy keys, then select Add deploy key.

5. Paste the copied key, give it a descriptive title (for example, Horizon Catalog), and leave Allow write access unchecked. Horizon Catalog only needs read access.

6. Select Add key.

7. Repeat steps 3–6 for each selected project, then select Next to save your selection and start ingestion.

Connection security¶

All communication between Horizon Catalog and Looker uses HTTPS (TLS 1.2 or higher). Authentication uses an API3 client ID and secret, which are stored as encrypted secrets. No additional encryption configuration is required.

For more details, see Security and data protection.