Google Drive Connector | OpenMetadata Drive Guide

In this section, we provide guides and references to use the Google Drive connector. Configure and schedule Google Drive metadata workflows from the OpenMetadata UI:

• Requirements
• Metadata Ingestion
• Troubleshooting

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Requirements

Before configuring the Google Drive connector, make sure the following requirements are in place.

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Google Drive API Permissions

To connect to Google Drive, you’ll need a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) service account with the necessary permissions.

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1. Create a Service Account

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console
2. Navigate to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts
3. Click Create Service Account
4. Provide a name and description for the service account
5. Grant the service account the necessary roles (at minimum: Viewer role)
6. Click Done

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2. Enable Google Drive API

1. In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to APIs & Services > Library
2. Search for “Google Drive API”
3. Click on it and enable the API

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3. Create and Download Service Account Key

1. Navigate back to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts
2. Click on your newly created service account
3. Go to the Keys tab
4. Click Add Key > Create new key
5. Choose JSON as the key type
6. Download the JSON key file

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4. Domain-Wide Delegation (Optional)

If you need to access files owned by other users in your organization:

1. In the service account details, click Show Domain-Wide Delegation
2. Enable Enable Google Workspace Domain-wide Delegation
3. Note the Client ID
4. In Google Workspace Admin Console:
   • Navigate to Security > API Controls > Domain-wide Delegation
   • Add the Client ID with the following OAuth scopes:
     • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly
     • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.metadata.readonly
     • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets.readonly (if processing Google Sheets)
5. Specify the delegated email address in the connection configuration

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Permissions Required

The service account needs:

• Read access to the Google Drive files and folders you want to ingest
• If using shared drives: access to the specific shared drive
• If using domain-wide delegation: domain-wide delegation enabled with the scopes above

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Profiler & Data Quality

Google Drive is a file storage connector. Profiler and data quality workflows are not supported for this connector.

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Metadata Ingestion

To ingest metadata from Google Drive, you need to create a service connection. The service connects Google Drive with OpenMetadata. Once you create a service, OpenMetadata automatically starts ingesting metadata.

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Step 1: Add New Service

1. Navigate to Settings > Services.
2. Click Add New Service.

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Step 2: Select a Service and Connector

From the service type dropdown, select Drive Services, then click the Google Drive connector tile.

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Step 3: Add Service Name and Description

• Enter a unique, descriptive Service Name. OpenMetadata identifies services by their service name. Enter a name that distinguishes this deployment from other Google Drive services you are ingesting metadata from.
• Optional: Enter a Description for the service.

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Step 4: Configure Connection Options

Specify your source credentials and verify the connection.

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Enter Connection Details

Enter the connection details for Google Drive. The right-hand panel in the UI displays inline help for each field.

• GCP Credentials: Provide the GCP credentials to access Google Drive API. You can provide the credentials in one of the following ways:
  • GCP Credentials Path: Path to the GCP service account credentials JSON file
  • GCP Credentials Values: Paste the content of the GCP service account credentials JSON file directly
• Delegated Email (Optional): Email address to impersonate using domain-wide delegation. This is required if you want to access files owned by other users in your organization using domain-wide delegation.
• Drive ID (Optional): Specific shared drive ID to connect to. If provided, only this shared drive will be processed. Leave empty to process all accessible drives.
• Include Team Drives: Enable to include shared/team drives in metadata extraction. Default is true.
• Include Google Sheets: Enable to extract metadata only for Google Sheets files. When enabled, only Google Sheets will be processed. Default is false.
• Directory Filter Pattern (Optional): Regex pattern to include or exclude directories from metadata extraction.
• File Filter Pattern (Optional): Regex pattern to include or exclude files from metadata extraction.
• Spreadsheet Filter Pattern (Optional): Regex pattern to include or exclude spreadsheets from metadata extraction (only applies when Include Google Sheets is enabled).
• Worksheet Filter Pattern (Optional): Regex pattern to include or exclude worksheets within spreadsheets from metadata extraction (only applies when Include Google Sheets is enabled).

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Test Connection

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

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Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options

In the What to Ingest step, use filter patterns to control which assets OpenMetadata ingests from your drive service. Filter patterns use regular expressions applied to asset names.

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How Filter Patterns Work

• Include: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. OpenMetadata ingests only assets whose names match at least one expression. Leave blank to include all assets.
• Exclude: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. OpenMetadata skips any asset whose name matches an expression. Leave blank to exclude nothing.

Rules match asset names using one of five expressions:

• contains: matches any name containing the value. For example, sales matches my_sales_data and sales_2024.
• starts with: matches names beginning with the value. For example, prod_ matches prod_db and prod_schema.
• ends with: matches names ending with the value. For example, _raw matches events_raw and logs_raw.
• is exactly: matches the exact name only. For example, analytics matches only analytics.
• matches regex: matches names using a regular expression. For example, ^prod_.*_v\d+$ matches prod_events_v1.

When both Include and Exclude are set, Exclude takes priority. Filter Options The Directory, File, Spreadsheet, and Worksheet sections each include the following filter options:

• Directory: Controls which directories (folders) OpenMetadata ingests from the source.
• File: Controls which individual files within the ingested directories are included.
• Spreadsheet: Controls which spreadsheet files are included in metadata ingestion.
• Worksheet: Controls which individual worksheets (tabs within a spreadsheet) are included.

Each section provides the following controls:

• Scan Mode: You can choose between the following scan modes:
  • Scan all: Ingests every asset of that type the connector can access. This is the default.
  • Only specific: Enables include rules so only assets matching at least one rule are ingested.
• Exclude system toggle: Use this toggle to automatically filter out system-reserved names defined by the connector, for example, Exclude system databases for the Databases section.
• Always exclude: Add permanent exclusion rules (shown in red). Assets matching these rules are never ingested, regardless of include rules.
• Preview: Shows a real-time summary of what will be in scope based on your current rules.
• Include rules (available only in Only specific mode): Click + Add to define a rule. Added rules appear as chips; an asset is included if it matches any rule.

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Step 6: Create & Deploy

Click Create & Deploy to deploy the agent and start the first metadata ingestion run. OpenMetadata saves the service configuration and immediately begins pulling metadata from the source. To monitor ingestion progress or view the service you just added, go to Settings > Services and select your service.

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Configure Metadata Agent and Schedule Ingestion

The Metadata Agent extracts directories, files, spreadsheets, and other structural metadata from your source and keeps your OpenMetadata catalog in sync. It powers discovery, lineage, and governance across your data assets. When you click Create & Deploy, OpenMetadata automatically deploys a Metadata Agent for this service and triggers the first ingestion run. View its status and run history from the Agents tab on the service detail page. To configure the additional Metadata Agent and schedule ingestion, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Settings > Services and select the service type.
2. Click the service you have added.
3. Select the Agents tab and click Add Agent > Metadata. For some services, the dropdown is not available and clicking Add Agent takes you directly to the agent configuration page.
4. On the Configure Ingestion page, do the following and click Next.
   • Name this Ingestion: Enter a unique recognizable name for this ingestion pipeline.
   • Agent Setup: Configure the core parameters for this agent. The following fields are available:

     Field	Default	Description
     Number of Threads	1	Number of threads to use for parallel drive ingestion.
     Mark Deleted Directories	On	Soft-delete directories in OpenMetadata when they are removed from the source. Associated entities like files, spreadsheets, worksheets, and lineage are also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Files	On	Soft-delete files in OpenMetadata when they are removed from the source. Associated entities like lineage are also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Spreadsheets	On	Soft-delete spreadsheets in OpenMetadata when they are removed from the source. Associated entities like worksheets and lineage are also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Worksheets	On	Soft-delete worksheets in OpenMetadata when they are removed from the source. Associated entities like lineage are also deleted.
     Include Directories	On	Fetch directory metadata. Turn off to skip directories entirely.
     Include Files	On	Fetch file metadata. Turn off to skip files entirely.
     Include Spreadsheets	On	Fetch spreadsheet metadata. Turn off to skip spreadsheets entirely.
     Include Worksheets	On	Fetch worksheet metadata. Turn off to skip worksheets entirely.

     
   • Filter Patterns: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which directories, files, spreadsheets, and worksheets this agent ingests. Use FQN for filtering to apply regex on fully qualified names (for example, service_name.directory_name.file_name) instead of raw names. These follow the same filter options described in Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options.
   • Scope & Behaviour: Control what metadata to include and how to handle deletions. Toggle each option on or off based on your needs:

     Toggle	Default	Description
     Enable Debug Log	Off	Sets the ingestion log level to DEBUG. Useful for troubleshooting.
     Include Tags	On	Ingest tags from the source.
     Include Owners	Off	Assign owners from the source when the owner email matches an OpenMetadata user. Does not overwrite an existing owner.
     Override Metadata	Off	When on, source values overwrite existing descriptions, tags, owners, and display names in OpenMetadata. When off, OpenMetadata only updates fields that have no existing value.

     
5. On the Schedule Interval page, set when the agent runs:
   • Schedule: Choose a preset interval (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly) or enter a custom cron expression.
   • On-Demand: No automatic schedule; trigger the agent manually when needed.
   
6. Click Add to deploy the agent.

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