Troubleshooting the Data Quality Features¶
This section outlines common issues and troubleshooting guidance for the Alation Data Quality application. Use this guide to identify the root cause of a problem and take appropriate steps to resolve it.
Monitor or Check Setup Not Working¶
Problem¶
Monitor setup wizard does not display any recommended tables or columns.
AI recommendations do not appear after selecting a table.
Causes¶
Cataloged metadata is incomplete or outdated.
Lineage data is not available or turned off.
Data source is not profiled or scanned recently.
Solutions¶
Ensure metadata extraction has run successfully on the connected data source.
Confirm table- and column-level lineage is enabled for relevant sources.
Re-run metadata extraction or profiling jobs if required.
Check Execution Errors¶
Problem¶
Checks return “Error” instead of “Pass” or “Fail”.
Causes¶
Invalid SQL syntax in custom checks (CTE or SQL).
Missing access privileges for the service account.
Data source has moved, schema or table renamed.
Solutions¶
Verify SQL and CTE logic; test queries in the data source directly.
Check service account access to the target schema, table, or column.
Confirm data source configuration is up-to-date.
Re-create the check using valid references.
Monitors Not Running as Scheduled¶
Problem¶
Monitor has not run at the scheduled time.
No recent check results appear in the UI.
Causes¶
Monitor schedule is misconfigured.
Backend job failure or delay.
Temporary outage of the service.
Solutions¶
Go to the Monitor page and verify the schedule.
Manually trigger a monitor run to test execution.
Contact Alation Support if the issue persists across multiple monitors.
Data Quality Score Not Displaying¶
Problem¶
Table shows -- instead of a score in the Assets tab
Causes¶
No active or enabled checks on the table.
No successful check executions were recorded.
Solutions¶
Add at least one active check to the table.
Run the monitor at least once to populate results.
Ensure there are no errors in the check definitions.
Columns Missing from UI¶
Problem¶
Some expected columns do not appear while configuring the checks.
Cause¶
Columns are not covered in the extracted metadata.
Solution¶
Refresh the metadata for the table.
Inconsistent Results Across Monitors¶
Problem¶
Identical checks return different results across monitors.
Cause¶
Tables or columns have different data freshness across environments.
Solution¶
Verify data recency for each table. Align monitor execution schedules if applicable.
UI Lag or Unresponsiveness¶
Problem¶
Pages in the Alation Data Quality application load slowly or time out.
Causes¶
Large number of checks or monitors on the same table.
Browser memory or resource issues.
Solutions¶
Split large monitors into smaller ones by data domain.
Use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge latest versions and clear browser cache.
Restart browser and retry in Incognito mode.