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Local OpenMetadata ​

Use the local OpenMetadata containers for catalog, discovery, ownership, glossary, metadata ingestion, and lineage experiments. This is a developer convenience, not the production deployment pattern.

Start OpenMetadata ​

sh
cp .env.example .env
make openmetadata-up

OpenMetadata starts at:

  • http://127.0.0.1:8585

The default local administrator account is:

  • Username: admin@open-metadata.org
  • Password: admin

The OpenMetadata ingestion Airflow service is exposed at:

  • http://127.0.0.1:8081

It uses port 8081 on the host so the EDP Airflow UI can keep using port 8080.

Services ​

The local scaffold uses the OpenMetadata server, its ingestion service, Elasticsearch for catalog search, and the existing local PostgreSQL stack for metadata storage.

Compose services:

  • openmetadata-elasticsearch
  • openmetadata-migrate
  • openmetadata-server
  • openmetadata-ingestion
  • postgres
  • pgbouncer

The openmetadata-migrate service applies OpenMetadata application migrations before the web service starts.

Metadata Databases ​

OpenMetadata stores its application metadata in the local PostgreSQL openmetadata database. Its ingestion service stores its Airflow metadata in the separate openmetadata_airflow database.

The local PostgreSQL init script creates both databases with separate owners:

  • openmetadata
  • openmetadata_airflow

These databases are application-owned and are not managed by EDP Alembic revisions.

Common Commands ​

sh
make openmetadata-up
make openmetadata-migrate
make openmetadata-logs
make openmetadata-down

Use make postgres-down to stop the full local Compose stack.

Configuration ​

OpenMetadata configuration is primarily environment-driven in compose.yaml and .env.

Important local values:

  • OPENMETADATA_DATABASE_USER
  • OPENMETADATA_DATABASE_PASSWORD
  • OPENMETADATA_DATABASE
  • OPENMETADATA_AIRFLOW_DATABASE_USER
  • OPENMETADATA_AIRFLOW_DATABASE_PASSWORD
  • OPENMETADATA_AIRFLOW_DATABASE
  • OPENMETADATA_AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDER
  • OPENMETADATA_AIRFLOW_USERNAME
  • OPENMETADATA_AIRFLOW_PASSWORD
  • OPENMETADATA_FERNET_KEY

The values in .env.example are intentionally not production-safe.

Local Catalog Guidance ​

Use OpenMetadata to catalog governed EDP assets first:

  • edp_ods current-state entities and views
  • edp_vault hubs, links, and satellites when lineage or history matters
  • edp_mart reporting datasets and dashboard-facing views
  • Superset dashboards and charts once they become shared assets
  • Airflow pipelines that publish reusable datasets

Avoid treating the catalog as a replacement for version-controlled models, migrations, and runbooks. OpenMetadata should describe and govern assets; source control should remain the system of record for platform code and schema definitions.

Troubleshooting ​

If OpenMetadata cannot connect to its metadata database:

  • Confirm make postgres-up succeeds.
  • Confirm the openmetadata and openmetadata_airflow databases exist.
  • Confirm OpenMetadata database settings use the Compose hostname pgbouncer.
  • If the local Postgres volume was created before OpenMetadata was added, create the two databases manually or rebuild the disposable local volume with make postgres-reset.

If search or the UI is slow to become ready:

  • Check make openmetadata-logs.
  • Confirm openmetadata-elasticsearch is healthy.
  • Give the first startup enough time to apply migrations and initialize indexes.

If the ingestion service collides with another local service:

  • Change the host-side port mapping for openmetadata-ingestion in compose.yaml.