Databricks on AWS

Learn how to connect to your Databricks data warehouse on AWS to Select Star and retrieve metadata from your datasets. This guide will provide you with the necessary steps to get started.

Before you start

Ensure Unity Catalog is enabled for your Databricks instance. For details, see Getting Started with Unity catalog.

To connect Databricks to Select Star, you will need...

• an Databricks instance on AWS. For details, see Databricks' documentation.

• Account admin permissions on the Databricks instance

• Workspace admin permissions on the Databricks instance

Complete all of the following steps to see Databricks metadata, lineage, and popularity in Select Star.

1. Create a service principal (SelectStar) in Databricks

2. Generate a Personal Access Token

3. Configure System tables lineage (Recommended)

4. Connect Databricks to Select Star

5. Choose Catalogs and Schemas

1. Create a Service Principal in Databricks

What is a Service Principal?

A service principal is an identity that you create in Databricks for use with automated tools, jobs, and applications. Service principals give automated tools and scripts API-only access to Databricks resources, providing greater security than using users or groups. It also prevents jobs and automations from failing if a user leaves your organization or a group is modified. For details, see Manage Service Principal.

Add a service principal to your Databricks account

Account admins can add service principals to your Databricks account using the account console or the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) Account API.

Add service principals to your account using the account console

To add a service principal to the account using the account console:

1. As an account admin, log in to the account console.

2. Click User management.

3. On the Service principals tab, click Add service principal.

4. Enter a name (SelectStar) for the service principal.

5. Click Add.

To add a service principal via REST API, see Add service principals to your account using the SCIM (Account) API .

💡 To use service principals, you must add them to a workspace and generate access tokens for them in the workspace.

Add a service principal to a workspace

Account admins can add service principals to identity-federated workspaces using the following:

• The account console

• The Workspace Assignment API

Workspace admins can manage service principals in their workspace using the following:

• The workspace admin console (if the workspace is enabled for identity federation)

• The workspace-level SCIM (ServicePrincipals) API

• The Workspace Assignment API (if the workspace is enabled for identity federation)

Assign a service principal to a workspace using the account console

To add service principals to a workspace using the account console, the workspace must be enabled for identity federation.

1. As an account admin, log in to the account console.

2. Click Workspaces.

3. On the Permissions tab, click Add permissions.

4. Search for and select the service principal SelectStar and assign the permission level (workspace Admin), and click Save.

To add a service principle to a workspace via admin console or REST API, see Add a service principal to a workspace.

These are the minimum permissions required for Select Star to collect basic metadata and query history. Query history is also used to generate Data Lineage.

Grant SQL and Workspace access for a service principal

To grant SQL Warehouse access for a service principal using the workspace admin console, the workspace must be enabled for identity federation.

1. As a workspace admin, log in to the Databricks workspace.

2. Click your username in the top bar of the Databricks workspace and select Admin Console.

   

   Admin Console
3. Click Settings and select Service principals.

4. On the Service principals tab, click the service principal that was create in the previous steps.

5. Select the checkbox for Databricks SQL access and Workspace access, and click Update.

   

   Entitlements for service principal

Grant permissions to a catalog for a service principal

1. Log in to a workspace that is linked to the metastore.

2. Click Data.

3. Click the catalog that needs to be granted access to, and select Permissions.

   

   Catalog permissions in the Data Explorer UI
4. Click Grant.

5. Select the user/group and grant Privilege presets to Data Reader, and select the checkbox for USE CATALOG, USE SCHEMA and SELECT, and click Grant.

Privileges for service principal or User groups

Grant permission to a workspace for a service principal

This step is required to show notebooks in the catalog and notebook lineage.

1. Log in to a workspace that is linked to the metastore.

2. Click Workspace and select top folder.

3. Click Share button.

   

   Folder permissions in the Workspace explore UI
4. Select the user/group, then select permission "Can view", and click Add.

   

   Permission grant in Workspace share

2. Generate a Personal Access Token

To authenticate a service principal to APIs on Databricks, an administrator can create a Databricks Personal Access Tokens on behalf of the service principal.

1. Grant the Can Use token permission to the service principal.

2. Create a Databricks personal access token on behalf of the service principal using the POST /token-management/on-behalf-of/tokens operation in the token management REST API. An administrator can also list personal access tokens and delete them using the same API.

Generate a Personal Access Token

POST https://<deployment name>.cloud.databricks.com/api/2.0/token-management/on-behalf-of/tokens/

When you want to use the Databricks API to generate a Personal Access token on behalf of a user or service principal, use this command.

Use the token value generated from this response as API key.

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
application_id*	String	UUID of the Service Principal, and can be found here - https://accounts.cloud.databricks.com/users/serviceprincipals/
comment	String
lifetime_seconds	String	Use value = -1 in order for it to live indefinitely

200: OK

{
    "token_value": "dapia.....", #Use this value
    "token_info": {
        "token_id": "4305bc67998.........",
        "creation_time": 1671720121149,
        "expiry_time": -1,
        "comment": "Service Principal Token. API Test",
        "created_by_id": 355825636633264,
        "created_by_username": "[email protected]",
        "owner_id": 4012126671306509
    }
}

400: Bad Request Invalid Application ID

For detailed, step-by-step instructions for creating access tokens for service principals, see Service principals for Databricks automation.

3. Configure System tables lineage (Recommended)

💡 This section is optional but recommended. System tables lineage provides better performance and scalability by using Databricks system tables instead of individual API calls. If you skip this section, Select Star will use API lineage collection.

System tables lineage requires additional permissions beyond the basic setup. These permissions allow Select Star to query Databricks system tables that contain lineage metadata, without accessing your actual data.

Grant SQL Warehouse access permissions

The service principal needs permission to use a specific SQL Warehouse for executing lineage queries.

1. In your Databricks workspace, go to SQL Warehouses.

2. Select the SQL Warehouse you want to use for Select Star.

3. Click the Permissions button.

4. Click Add and search for your SelectStar service principal.

5. Grant Can use permission and click Add.

Grant CAN USE permission on SQL Warehouse

💡 Note the Warehouse ID from the SQL Warehouse details page - you'll need this when connecting to Select Star.

SQL Warehouse ID location

Grant system.access schema permissions

The service principal needs permissions to read lineage data from Databricks system tables.

1. In your Databricks workspace, go to Catalog.

2. Select the system catalog.

3. Select the access schema.

4. Go to the Permissions tab.

5. Click Grant and search for your SelectStar service principal.

6. Select USE and SELECT permissions.

7. Click Grant.

Grant permissions on system.access schema

Ensure SQL access entitlement

Verify that your service principal has the SQL access entitlement enabled:

1. In your Databricks workspace, click your username and select Admin Console.

2. Click Settings and select Service principals.

3. Click on your SelectStar service principal.

4. Ensure Databricks SQL access is checked and click Update if needed.

Enable SQL access for service principal

4. Connect Databricks to Select Star

Go to the Select Star Settings. Click Data in the sidebar, then + Add to create a new Data Source.

Choose Databricks in the Source Type dropdown and provide the following information:

Display Name: This value is Databricks by default, but you can override it if desired.

Workspace URL: This is the address of the Workspace. This should include the <deployment name>.cloud.databricks.com . Deployment Name can be found in https://accounts.cloud.databricks.com/workspaces

Access Token: This is the Personal access token from Step 2, which is used to authenticate access to Databricks.

Lineage Method: Choose between System tables (recommended) or API lineage collection.

SQL Warehouse ID: Required when using System tables lineage. This is the Warehouse ID noted in Step 3. Not available for use with API lineage.

5. Choose Catalogs and Schemas

After you fill in the information, you'll be asked to select the catalog you'd like to load into Select Star.

💡 Select Star will not read queries or metadata or generate lineage for Catalogs, schemas, or tables that are not loaded. Please load all data for which you expect to see lineage.

You can change the catalogs and schemas you have loaded if needed.

Select the catalogs and click Next.

For each catalog you selected, you'll be able to select the schemas.

Your metadata should start loading automatically. Please allow 24-48 hours to completely generate popularity and lineage.

When the sync is complete, you'll be able to explore Databricks in Select Star.

See the link below for more information on Databricks in Select Star.

Getting Started: Databricks