Record Tracking Link Satellite

A Record Tracking Link Satellite records in which loads the rows of a Link appeared in the source, in a table of the Raw Vault layer. Use it to see when a relationship between business keys was delivered and, with Delete Detection Method FullSet, in which loads it was missing. After each load, the result view shows one row per Link row and load with its BG_Appearance value.

Sources and relationships

A Record Tracking Link Satellite reads Stages, RawVault Composites and Store Entities of a linked Data Store project, in one or more dataflows. It has exactly one relationship to a Link, Hierarchical Link, Same As Link or Driving Key Link. Its foreign-key terms are the business keys of the Link's Hubs, and they must be mapped. BusinessVault Composite, Vault Out and the Business Vault types can read it. PIT, Current View and History View do not read it.

Create the model object

• With the wizard: open the menu of a Stage, RawVault Composite or Store Entity, choose Automate and then Create Record Tracking Link Satellite. Its steps are Create Model Object, Create Dataflow, Create Relations, Map Foreign Key Terms and Add to View. See Create a Model Object with the wizard.
• Manually: create a model object of type Record Tracking Link Satellite in the Raw Vault layer, add a relationship to the Link, create a dataflow set, add the source model object and map the foreign-key terms.

You do not map BG_Appearance. The source view sets it to 1 for every Link row that the source delivers.

Loading behavior

Every load inserts one row for each Link row that the source delivers, with the load timestamp as BG_ValidFromTimestamp and BG_Appearance 1. A row is valid until the next row of the same Link_HK. Delete Detection Method decides what happens to a Link row that the source does not deliver:

• FullSet (default): the delta view compares the source rows with the rows of the latest load in the table, by Link_HK. A Link row of that load that is missing from the source gets a row with BG_Appearance 0. It gets such a row in every load until the source delivers it again.
• None: there is no delta view. The loader inserts the delivered Link rows only, so a missing Link row gets no row.

Properties

• Delete Detection Method: FullSet (default) or None, see Loading behavior.
• Implementation Type: Permanent only.
• Foreign Key Mode: whether the table gets a foreign key to the Link table. With Create Disabled, the default, it is created and disabled.
• Load Caching: empty (default) or Hashing, which stores the hashing view in a table before the loader runs.
• Deduplication Method and Sort Order within Partition, per dataflow.
• Use Embryo Loader, on the relationship: inserts the Link keys that the Link does not hold yet.

The project properties Persist Validity and Create Result Views also apply.

Default Terms

• Link_HK: the key of the Link row, calculated from the foreign-key terms. With BG_ValidFromTimestamp it forms the primary key.
• DrivingKeyLink_HK: only on a Driving Key Link, the key of the driving relationships.
• BG_Appearance: 1 when the load delivered the Link row, 0 when it was missing.
• BG_ValidFromTimestamp: the load timestamp of the row.
• BG_ValidToTimestamp: the start of the next row of the same Link row.
• BG_LoadTimestamp and BG_SourceSystem: the load that inserted the row and its source system, empty unless you map it.
• BG_DataQuality_ID, BG_ErrorCount and BG_ErrorDescription: hidden terms of the data quality objects.

A Record Tracking Link Satellite has no BG_RowHash and no BG_IncrementalFilter.

Generated objects

These are the names on Microsoft SQL Server for a Record Tracking Link Satellite with one dataflow. <model object name> stands for the name of the model object:

• Loaders are stored procedures; the Record Tracking Link Satellite table and the hashing table are tables; all other objects are views.
• The delta view exists only with Delete Detection Method FullSet.
• The deduplication view exists only with a Deduplication Method other than None.
• The hashing table and hashing loader exist only with Load Caching Hashing.
• The embryo loader exists only when Use Embryo Loader is true on the relationship. It runs before the loader.
• The result view exists only with Create Result Views; without it, Persist Validity must be true.
• With several dataflows, all objects except the table and the result view exist once per dataflow, with the dataflow name in their names.
• The table has no unknown-member row.

With the default settings, a load runs this chain:

sources -> _Source -> _Hashing -> _Delta -> _Loader
_Loader -> RDV_RLSAT_<model object name> -> _Result
_Result -> _Delta (rows of the latest load)

The delta view joins the hashed source rows with the rows of the latest load in the result view, by Link_HK. Delivered Link rows keep BG_Appearance 1, and Link rows found only in the result view get 0. The loader inserts all rows of the delta view with the load timestamp. With None, the loader reads _Hashing directly. _Deduplication sits between _Source and _Hashing, and _HashingTable after _Hashing.

Example

The Record Tracking Link Satellite record_tracking_with_delete_detection_lsat on Microsoft SQL Server reads the Stage CUSTOMER. It has a relationship to the Link single_customer_hub_lnk, whose only relationship is to the customer Hub. Its Delete Detection Method is FullSet, and Persist Validity is false. The loads deliver these customers:

• Load 1 on 2026-10-28 08:00: customers 1 and 2.
• Load 2 on 2026-10-29 08:00: customers 1, 2 and 3.
• Load 3 on 2026-10-30 08:00: customers 1 and 3. Customer 2 is missing.
• Load 4 on 2026-10-31 08:00: customers 1, 2 and 3.

Check the result

Query the result view with the foreign key of the Link, here in the schema p2:

SELECT l.FK_load_customer_hub_CUSTOMER_CUSTOMER_ID AS CUSTOMER_ID,
       s.BG_Appearance, s.BG_ValidFromTimestamp,
       s.BG_ValidToTimestamp
FROM p2.RDV_RLSAT_record_tracking_with_delete_detection_lsat_Result
  AS s
JOIN p2.RDV_LNK_single_customer_hub_lnk_Result AS l
  ON l.Link_HK = s.Link_HK
WHERE l.FK_load_customer_hub_CUSTOMER_CUSTOMER_ID = 2
ORDER BY s.BG_ValidFromTimestamp;

This is the result after load 4, with the column names and timestamps shortened:

CUSTOMER_ID  BG_Appearance  ValidFrom         ValidTo
2            1              2026-10-28 08:00  2026-10-29 08:00
2            1              2026-10-29 08:00  2026-10-30 08:00
2            0              2026-10-30 08:00  2026-10-31 08:00
2            1              2026-10-31 08:00  9999-12-31 00:00

• Load 3 did not deliver the Link row of customer 2 and inserted a row with BG_Appearance 0. Load 4 delivered it again and inserted a row with 1.
• Every load inserted a row for each delivered Link row, also when nothing changed.

Platform differences

• Persist Validity is true by default on Snowflake, Snowflake dbt, Databricks, Databricks dbt, Fabric Lakehouse and Fabric Warehouse, and false on Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. With true, the table stores BG_ValidToTimestamp.
• The data type of BG_Appearance differs per platform, see BG_Appearance.
• Snowflake: names are in capitals, and the loader is a stored procedure. A load control task calls it. The dataflow properties Use Stream and Warehouse Placeholder Variable Name apply.
• Databricks and Fabric Lakehouse: table and view names are in lowercase, and the loader is the notebook RDV_RLSAT_<model object name>_Loader. The properties File Format, Optimization Method, Optimization Method Columns and Use Sequential Dataflow Execution apply. Fabric Lakehouse allows only Foreign Key Mode None.
• Databricks dbt and Snowflake dbt: the Record Tracking Link Satellite becomes the dbt models rdv_rlsat_<model object name>_source and rdv_rlsat_<model object name>. The model rdv_rlsat_<model object name>_result exists only when Create Result Views is true; the default on dbt is false. Load Caching and Use Embryo Loader are not available.
• Fabric Warehouse: the same objects as on Microsoft SQL Server, deployed by notebooks.
• Oracle: names are in capitals, and the loader is a PL/SQL package. Partition Clause adds its text to the CREATE TABLE statement. Table Compression, the tablespaces and the statistics properties also apply.
• Foreign Key Mode Create Enforced exists only on Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.

Limitations

• A Record Tracking Link Satellite has exactly one relationship, to a Link, Hierarchical Link, Same As Link or Driving Key Link.
• A term other than the Default Terms, business keys and foreign keys raises a validation error. Business keys raise a validation warning.
• Custom Singleton Values and Version Valid From Term are not available.

Release differences

• Generator 2.0: Delete Detection Method is available.
• Generator 2.2: Use Embryo Loader and Persist Validity are available.

Related articles

• Previous: Link, Driving Key Link, Hierarchical Link, Same As Link
• Reference: BG_Appearance, Link_HK, DrivingKeyLink_HK, Delete Detection Method (Model Object), Persist Validity (Project), Create Result Views (Project), Foreign Key Mode (Model Object), Load Caching (Model Object)
• See also: Record Tracking Satellite, Link Satellite, Embryo Loader, Create a Model Object with the wizard