How to manage domains

Domains provide a logical way of mapping and organizing assets within a specific domain or business entity. For example, you can create domains for the following:

• Functions such as finance, sales, and human resources
• Business units or brands for different products and services
• Geographic regions of operation
• Environments such as development and production

Most importantly, domains help promote shared ownership and domain-level governance in your organization.

To create a domain, complete the following steps.

Add a domain

To add a domain:

1. From the left menu of any screen in Atlan, click Governance.
2. Under the Governance heading of the Governance center, click Domains. If you have enabled the products module, refer to How to create data domains instead.
3. On the Domains page, under All domains, click Create domain.
4. For Overview, enter basic details for your domain:
   1. (Optional) For Cover, click the Change button to select an image from the gallery or upload an image of your own. Click Reposition to drag and reposition the cover image and then click Save position to save your preferences.
   2. (Optional) For Theme, choose from the available color options to add a theme to your domain.
   3. For Name, enter a meaningful name for your domain — for example, Product Operations.
   4. (Optional) Click the domain icon to change the icon for your domain.
   5. (Optional) For Description, enter a description for your domain.
   6. For Owners, assign additional users or groups as domain owner(s).
5. In the top right of the screen, click the Create button to complete setup.

Congrats on creating a domain in Atlan! 🎉

Your users can now add assets to your domain.

(Optional) Add a subdomain

Subdomains help you logically segment your domains according to business needs.

To add a subdomain:

1. From the left menu of any screen in Atlan, click Governance.
2. Under the Governance heading of the Governance center, click Domains. If you have enabled the products module, refer to How to create data domains instead.
3. On the Domains page, under All domains, select a domain or subdomain to add a subdomain.
4. From the upper right of your domain page, click the + Add button and then click New sub-domain.
5. For Overview, enter basic details for your subdomain:
   
   1. (Optional) For Cover, click the Change button to select an image from the gallery or upload an image of your own. Click Reposition to drag and reposition the cover image and then click Save position to save your preferences.
   2. (Optional) For Theme, choose from the available color options to add a theme to your subdomain.
   3. For Name, enter a meaningful name for your subdomain — for example, Analytics.
   4. (Optional) Click the domain icon to change the icon for your subdomain.
   5. (Optional) For Description, enter a description for your subdomain.
   6. For Owners, assign additional users or groups as subdomain owner(s).
6. In the top right of the screen, click the Create button to complete setup.

Congrats on creating a subdomain in Atlan! 🎉

Manage a domain

The domain profile includes essential details about the domain. You can also curate what your domain users will be able to view.

To manage a domain:

1. From the left menu of any screen in Atlan, click Governance.
2. Under the Governance heading of the Governance center, click Domains. If you have enabled the products module, refer to How to create data domains instead.
3. On the Domains page, under All domains, hover over a domain or subdomain to:
   • View domain owners in the Owners column.
   • Click + Add personas to add a persona for governing assets within a domain or subdomain.
     🚨 Careful! Any non-guest users must be granted the update metadata permission to be able to add assets to a domain.
   • Click the star button to star your domain and bookmark it for easy access.
   • For subdomains only, to the right of the subdomain name, click the 3-dot icon and then:
     • Click Move to to move a subdomain to a different parent domain. In the Move to dialog, select a relevant parent domain within the same or a different domain and then click Move to confirm the changes.
     • Click Convert to domain to convert a subdomain into a parent domain. In the Convert to domain dialog, click Convert to domain to confirm your changes.
4. Click a domain or subdomain to navigate to the domain or subdomain profile, respectively.
5. On your domain page, the Overview tab displays important details about the domain. (Optional) From the top right, click the + Add button and then click New sub-domain to add data subdomains.
6. Under Summary, view a total count of assets in your domain and the domain description:
   • (Optional) Click + Add stakeholder to add stakeholders.
   • (Optional) Click the Description field to update the description.
   • (Optional) For Owners, click the pencil icon to add or remove owners.
   • (Optional) If custom metadata properties are available, you can add custom metadata to your domain.
   • (Optional) Click + Add resource to add a resource to your domain.
7. Under Readme, click + Add to add a README to your data domain or use Atlan AI for documentation.
8.  From the top right of the domain profile:
   • Click the user avatars to view a list of recently visited users, total views on your domain, total number of unique visitors, and total views by user.
     • Use the days filter to filter domain views and user activity in the last 7, 30, and 90 days.
     • This feature is turned on by default — admins can turn off user activity.
   • Click the star button to star your domain and bookmark it for easy access.
   • Click the Slack or Teams icon to post on a Slack or Microsoft Teams channel.
   • Click the 3-dot icon to configure the following:
     • Click Add announcement to add an announcement to your domain.
     • Click Add a resource to add resources to your domain.
     • Click Archive to archive your domain — ensure that your domain is empty before you archive it.
9. Change to the Assets tab to view assets within your domain.
10. Change to the Statistics tab to monitor domain usage.
11. If you have enabled the products module, change to the Lineage tab to view business lineage for your domain.