Managing data sources

As the number of data sources across your organization grows, it helps to have one place an administrator can go to keep them all healthy.

Admins can use the Settings > Data > Data Sources page to add, index, edit, delete and control access to any data source in the organization.

Add a data source

You can add a data source from several places, and where you start decides whether it ends up linked to a workspace right away. Choose from:

  • The Add data source icon in the left-hand navigation: Adds the data source and links it to that workspace in the same step.
  • The Add data source button on a workspace's overview page: Adds the data source and links it to that workspace in the same step.
  • The Add data source button on the Settings > Data > Data Sources page: Adds the data source to your organization only. See Link a data source to a workspace, below, to make it available there.
  • The Add data source button in the tile editor's data stream step: Lets you link an existing, unlinked data source to the current workspace without leaving the tile you're building. If you do need a completely new one, it directs you out of the tile editor to the full Add data source page instead.

To add a data source:

  1. Click Add data source in one of the available locations.
  2. Search for the data source you want to connect and select it. See All data sources for the full catalog of what SquaredUp can connect to.
  3. Complete the required configuration fields. The exact configuration required varies between data sources. Some may only require a display name, while others may require authentication details.

    There may also be settings controlling which objects are imported.

    If the data source is on-prem or hybrid, you'll also be able to select a relay agent group to connect through.
  4. Click Add. SquaredUp establishes the connection and indexes the objects. Once the connection is complete, the data source appears in the list.

If someone else's workspace already has a data source you want to use, and you have permission to see it, you can link to their existing connection instead of setting up a new one.

This is also how you make a data source you added from Settings > Data > Data Sources available in a workspace, since adding it there only adds it to your organization.

To link a data source to a workspace:

  1. Add a data source from any of the available locations (see Add a data source).
  2. Select the data source you want to link from the Data sources in my organization section.
  3. Click Add to link the data source.

Remove a data source from a workspace

Removing a data source unlinks it from one workspace. It stays in your organization, so other workspaces linked to it carry on as before, but dashboard tiles in this workspace that use it stop working.

To remove a data source from a workspace:

  1. Click the data source under Data Sources in the left-hand menu to open its data source overview page.
  2. Click Remove.
  3. Click Remove to confirm. You're taken to the Add a data source page.

If this is your organization's only workspace and you have permission to delete the data source, the button reads Delete instead, and it deletes the data source permanently. See Delete a data source.

Index a data source

Click Refresh index next to a data source to re-index its objects and refresh its data on demand. You don’t have to do this routinely: SquaredUp automatically re-indexes every data source every 12 hours regardless, so this is mainly useful when you’ve just changed something upstream and don’t want to wait for the next scheduled run.

This applies to custom plugins too. A custom plugin you've built with AI is indexed and refreshed exactly like any built-in data source.

See Object indexing for how index definitions work and the schema behind them.

Edit a data source

Editing a data source updates the settings for every workspace that uses it. If the test fails, the plugin’s own Testing and troubleshooting steps are shown so you can fix the configuration and click Rerun tests.

To edit a data source:

  1. Click Edit next to the data source to open the Edit data source window.
  2. Change the configuration as required.
  3. Click Test and update. This checks the configuration is valid before saving it.

Delete a data source

This is permanent. Every object it indexed is deleted along with it, and any dashboard tile configured to use it stops working. There's no undo, so make sure nothing still depends on it first.

To delete a data source:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Data > Data Sources.
  2. Click Delete
    next to the data source you want to delete.
  3. Click the Delete button to confirm. The data source and its objects are permanently deleted.

Configure access control

By default, anyone in your organization can view, edit and administer a data source. Restricting access limits this to specific users or groups, for example when a data source holds credentials or connects to a system that only certain people should manage.

This controls who can administer the data source itself, not which workspaces it's linked to.

To configure access control:

  1. Open the Edit data source window for the data source.
  2. Enable Restrict access to this data source. By default this is off, meaning the data source can be viewed, edited and administered by anyone.
  3. Tailor access to the data source by selecting individual users or user groups from the dropdown and giving them Link to workspace or Full Control permissions. See Data Sources settings for the full permissions table.
  4. If a user is not available from the dropdown, invite them by typing their email address and clicking Add. They are sent an email invitation to create an account, and gain access to the organization once it is created.

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