Create and manage collections in Azure Purview

Collections in Azure Purview can be used to organize assets and sources by your business's flow, but they are also the tool used to manage access across Purview. This guide will take you through the creation and management of these collections, as well as cover steps about how to register sources and add assets into your collections.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.

• Your own Azure Active Directory tenant.

• An active Purview resource.

Check permissions

In order to create and manage collections in Purview, you will need to be a Collection Admin within Purview. We can check these permissions in the Purview Studio. You can find the studio by going to your Purview resource in the Azure portal, and selecting the Open Purview Studio tile on the overview page.

1. Select Data Map > Collections from the left pane to open collection management page.

   

2. Select your root collection. This is the top collection in your collection list and will have the same name as your Purview resource. In our example below, it is called Contoso Purview. Alternatively, if collections already exist you can select any collection where you want to create a subcollection.

   

3. Select Role assignments in the collection window.

   

4. To create a collection, you will need to be in the collection admin list under role assignments. If you created the Purview resource, you should be listed as a collection admin under the root collection already. If not, you will need to contact the collection admin to grant you permission.

   

Collection management

Create a collection

You will need to be a collection admin in order to create a collection. If you are not sure, follow the guide above to check permissions.

1. Select Data Map > Collections from the left pane to open collection management page.

   

2. Select + Add a collection. Again, note that only collection admins can manage collections.

   

3. In the right panel, enter the collection name and description. If needed you can also add users or groups as collection admins to the new collection.

4. Select Create.

   

5. The new collection's information will reflect on the page.

   

Edit a collection

1. Select Edit either from the collection detail page, or from the collection's drop down menu.

   

2. Currently collection description and collection admins can be edited. Make any changes, then select Save to save your change.

   

View Collections

1. Select the triangle icon beside the collection's name to expand or collapse the collection hierarchy. Select the collection names to navigate.

   

2. Type in the filter box at the top of the list to filter collections.

   

3. Select Refresh in Root collection's contextual menu to reload the collection list.

   

4. Select Refresh in collection detail page to reload the single collection.

   

Delete a collection

You will need to be a collection admin in order to delete a collection. If you are not sure, follow the guide above to check permissions. Collection can be deleted only if no child collections, assets, data sources or scans are associated with it.

1. Select Delete from the collection detail page.

   

2. Select Confirm when prompted, Are you sure you want to delete this collection?

   

3. Verify deletion of the collection from your Purview Data Map.

Add roles and restrict access through collections

Since permissions are managed through collections in Purview, it is important to understand the roles and what permissions they will give your users. A user granted permissions on a collection will have access to sources and assets associated with that collection, as well as inherit permissions to subcollections. Inheritance can be restricted, but is allowed by default.

The guide below will discuss the roles, how to manage them, and permissions inheritance.

Roles

All assigned roles apply to sources, assets, and other objects within the collection where the role is applied.

• Collection admins - can edit the collection, its details, and add subcollections. They can also add data curators, data readers, and other Purview roles to a collection scope. Collection admins that are automatically inherited from a parent collection can't be removed.
• Data source admins - can manage data sources and data scans.
• Data curators - can perform create, read, modify, and delete actions on catalog data objects and establish relationships between objects.
• Data readers - can access but not modify catalog data objects.

Add role assignments

1. Select the Role assignments tab to see all the roles in a collection. Only a collection admin can manage role assignments.

   

2. Select Edit role assignments or the person icon to edit each role member.

   

3. Type in the textbox to search for users you want to add to the role member. Select X to remove members you don't want to add.

   

4. Select OK to save your changes, and you will see the new users reflected in the role assignments list.

Remove role assignments

1. Select X button next to a user's name to remove a role assignment.

   

2. Select Confirm if you're sure to remove the user.

   

Restrict inheritance

Collection permissions are inherited automatically from the parent collection. For example, any permissions on the root collection (the collection at the top of the list that has the same name as your Purview resource), will be inherited by all collections below it. You can restrict inheritance from a parent collection at any time, using the restrict inherited permissions option.

Once you restrict inheritance, you will need to add users directly to the restricted collection to grant them access.

1. Navigate to the collection where you want to restrict inheritance and select the Role assignments tab.

2. Select Restrict inherited permissions and select Restrict access in the popup dialog to remove inherited permissions from this collection and any subcollections. Note that collection admin permissions won't be affected.

   

3. After restriction, inherited members are removed from the roles expect for collection admin.

4. Select the Restrict inherited permissions toggle button again to revert.

   

Register source to a collection

1. Select Register or register icon on collection node to register a data source. Note that only data source admin can register sources.

   

2. Fill in the data source name, and other source information. It lists all the collections which you have scan permission on the bottom of the form. You can select one collection. All assets under this source will belong to the collection you select.

   

3. The created data source will be put under the selected collection. Select View details to see the data source.

   

4. Select New scan to create scan under the data source.

   

5. Similarly, at the bottom of the form, you can select a collection, and all assets scanned will be included in the collection. Note that the collections listed here are restricted to subcollections of the data source collection.

   

6. Back in the collection window, you will see the data sources linked to the collection on the sources card.

   

Add assets to collections

Assets and sources are also associated with collections. During a scan, if the scan was associated with a collection the assets will be automatically added to that collection, but can also be manually added to any subcollections.

1. Check the collection information in asset details. You can find collection information in the Collection path section on right-top corner of the asset details page.

   

2. Permissions in asset details page:

   1. Please check the collection based permission model by following the add roles and restricting access on collections guide above.

   2. If you don't have read permission on a collection, the assets under that collection will not be listed in search results. If you get the direct URL of one asset and open it, you will see the no access page. In this case please contact your Purview admin to grant you the access. You can select the Refresh button to check the permission again.

      

   3. If you have the read permission to one collection but don't have the write permission, you can browse the asset details page, but the following operations are disabled:

      • Edit the asset. The Edit button will be disabled.
      • Delete the asset. The Delete button will be disabled.
      • Move asset to another collection. The ellipsis button on the right-top corner of Collection path section will be hidden.

   4. The assets in Hierarchy section are also affected by permissions. Assets without read permission will be grayed.

      

Move asset to another collection

1. Select the ellipsis button on the right-top corner of Collection path section.

   

2. Select the Move to another collection button.

3. In the right side panel, choose the target collection you want move to. Note that you can only see the collections where you have write permissions. The asset can also only be added to the subcollections of the data source collection.

   

4. Select Move button on the bottom of the window to move the asset.

Search and browse by collections

Search by collection

1. In Azure Purview, the search bar is located at the top of the Purview studio UX.

   

2. When you select the search bar, you can see your recent search history and recently accessed assets. Select View all to see all of the recently viewed assets.

   

3. Enter in keywords that help identify your asset such as its name, data type, classifications, and glossary terms. As you enter in keywords relating to your desired asset, Azure Purview displays suggestions on what to search and potential asset matches. To complete your search, select View search results or press Enter.

   

4. The search results page shows a list of assets that match the keywords provided in order of relevance. There are various factors that can affect the relevance score of an asset. You can filter down the list more by selecting specific collections, data stores, classifications, contacts, labels, and glossary terms that apply to the asset you are looking for.

   

5. Select your desired asset to view the asset details page where you can view properties including schema, lineage, and asset owners.

   

Browse by collection

1. You can browse data assets, by selecting the Browse assets on the homepage.

   

2. On the Browse asset page, select By collection pivot. Collections are listed with hierarchical table view. To further explore assets in each collection, select the corresponding collection name.

   

3. On the next page, the search results of the assets under selected collection will be show up. You can narrow the results by selecting the facet filters. Or you can see the assets under other collections by selecting the sub/related collection names.

   

4. To view the details of an asset, select the asset name in the search result. Or you can check the assets and bulk edit them.

   

Next steps

Now that you have a collection, you can follow these guides below to add resources and scan.

• Manage data sources

• Supported data sources

• Scan and ingestion