Data Warehouse connector

The Synapse data catalog your whole team can trust.

The Dawiso Synapse connector turns your pool into a searchable data catalog: every database, schema, table, view and procedure, with object-level lineage to Power BI downstream.

Read the docs

Live connector Stable connector

Synapse

Dawiso

Metadata-only · your data never leaves the source

Type: Cloud analytics service
Auth: SQL login (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 Azure Synapse Analytics?

Azure Synapse Analytics is Microsoft's enterprise analytics service on Azure. It brings together dedicated and serverless SQL pools, Apache Spark, Data Explorer for log and time series, and Pipelines for ETL, with deep integration into Power BI and Azure ML. Teams that grew up on SQL Data Warehouse and Microsoft BI use Synapse as the analytical home base for finance, risk and customer analytics.

Microsoft Purview covers governance for Synapse natively. What it doesn't always cover is the cross-platform picture: the Tableau dashboard alongside Power BI, the Oracle source that feeds the pipeline, and the policy security signed off on. That's where the Dawiso Synapse data catalog joins the picture: read-only, metadata-only, and cross-platform.

Architecture

How Dawiso connects to Synapse

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

Source

Synapse SQL pool

Databases & schemas
Tables & external tables
Views & materialized views
Procedures & functions

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: Synapse JDBC (TDS) + sys catalog and sql_expression_dependencies views
Authentication: SQL login + database user · read-only grants
Lineage: Object dependencies resolved from sys.sql_expression_dependencies; object-level lineage built from Data Flow parsing of view and procedure SQL on enterprise plans

Setup

Connect Synapse in 4 steps

01

Create a SQL login

CREATE LOGIN [DawisoIntegration] WITH PASSWORD = '<password>' against master. Requires ALTER ANY LOGIN or membership in the securityadmin server role.
02

Create a user per database

CREATE USER [DawisoIntegrationUser] FOR LOGIN [DawisoIntegration] in each pool database you want to ingest.
03

Grant catalog access

GRANT VIEW DEFINITION ON DATABASE::[pool_db] and GRANT SELECT ON OBJECT::sys.sql_expression_dependencies. Sample script ships in the docs.
04

Connect and run

Provide the Synapse host (e.g. yourpool.sql.azuresynapse.net), SQL user and password. Encrypt + Trust Server Certificate if needed. Pick databases to ingest.

Capabilities

What you get with the Synapse connector

Schema & table catalog

Every Synapse database, schema, table, view and procedure is searchable, with column descriptions, data types, owners and parameters.
Object-level lineage

Cross-platform lineage from a Power BI report through Synapse views and stored procedures down to the source tables in ADLS or Oracle.
Object dependencies

Synapse's sys.sql_expression_dependencies view drives a dependency graph for tables, views and procedures, with cross-database links resolved automatically.
PII classification

Classify a column once. Dawiso flags every Synapse column carrying email, IBAN or government IDs across all databases in scope.
Ownership & certification

Mark Synapse tables as certified, deprecated or under review. Owner, steward and SLA are visible directly in the catalog.
GDPR & DORA evidence

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

Business value

Why teams turn on the Synapse connector

-65%
Fewer 'which table?' pings

Analysts find the certified Synapse table in Dawiso instead of pinging the data engineer to ask which staging view feeds the gold report.
10x
Faster impact analysis

Before altering a Synapse view, see exactly which Power BI reports and downstream tables depend on it. Seconds, not days.
Audit-ready
GDPR & DORA evidence

Sensitive columns are classified once and the policy follows them through views, joins and downstream BI, with a full audit trail.

Ready to catalog your Synapse?

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 ->

Does Azure Synapse have a data catalog?

Synapse relies on Microsoft Purview for cataloging. Dawiso adds cross-platform lineage and a business glossary: it reads Synapse SQL pool and pipeline metadata read-only and connects it to BI and the rest of your stack.

What is the Azure data catalog?

Microsoft's catalog is Microsoft Purview. Dawiso is a cross-platform alternative that reads Synapse metadata read-only and links it to non-Microsoft systems with end-to-end, object-level lineage.

What is a data catalog used for?

A data catalog makes Synapse tables and pipelines discoverable, documented and trustworthy. Dawiso turns Synapse metadata into one searchable catalog with ownership, classification and lineage for the whole business.

What permissions does Dawiso need in Synapse?

A SQL login at server level, a database user per pool database, plus GRANT VIEW DEFINITION ON DATABASE and GRANT SELECT ON OBJECT::sys.sql_expression_dependencies. The user creating the login needs ALTER ANY LOGIN or securityadmin. Read-only end to end.

Does Dawiso copy our Synapse data?

No. Dawiso queries sys catalog views for metadata only. Row-level data stays inside Synapse. Column profiling and sampling are opt-in per data source and never run automatically.

How is object-level lineage built?

Object dependencies come from sys.sql_expression_dependencies. For object-level resolution, Dawiso parses SQL from view and stored-procedure definitions. Data Flow parsing is available on enterprise plans.

Does it work with dedicated SQL pool and serverless SQL?

Yes. The connector uses the standard Synapse TDS endpoint (port 1433 default) and reads sys catalog views, which exist in both dedicated and serverless SQL pools. Spark pool metadata is not in scope today.