Databricks

A Databricks connection lets you access your cloud data warehouse. It’s optimized for analytics and built to support modern data warehousing workloads with high performance and scalability.

Feature support

The table below outlines whether the connection supports certain Prophecy features.

Feature	Supported
Read data with a Source gem	Yes
Write data with a Target gem	Yes
Browse data in the Environment browser	Yes

Parameters

To create a connection with Databricks, enter the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Connection Name	Name to to identify your connection
JDBC URL	URL to connect to your SQL warehouse Example: jdbc:databricks://<databricks-instance>:443/default;transportMode=http;ssl=1;AuthMech=3;httpPath=/sql/1.0/warehouses/<warehouse-id>
Catalog	Default catalog for reading and writing data
Schema	Default schema for reading and writing data
Authentication method	How you want to authenticate your Databricks account (OAuth or PAT)

Authentication methods

You can configure your Databricks connection using the following authentication methods.

OAuth

When you choose Databricks OAuth for the authentication method, there are two modes.

OAuth Method	Description	Use cases
User	Each user signs in with their own Databricks account when prompted during interactive sessions.	Development workflows, testing, or when real-time user interaction is needed.
Service Principal	Prophecy uses a service principal to authenticate without user interaction.	Automated or scheduled pipelines that require stable, long-term access without re-authentication interruptions.

Choose the appropriate OAuth method

We recommend using separate fabrics for development and production environments. Each fabric should use a different OAuth method to align with its purpose.

• Development fabric: Utilize user-based OAuth.

  Developers authenticate using their own Databricks accounts so they only have access to the correct set of resources. Regular re-authentication enforces better security and reflects changes in individual user permissions.

• Production fabric: Use service principal-based OAuth.

  For automated or scheduled pipelines, use a service principal to ensure uninterrupted access. Unlike user identities, service principals don't expire or become deactivated, so pipelines continue running reliably. Limit fabric access to trusted users, since all members share the service principal’s credentials.

info

You can use User OAuth to schedule pipelines without service principal credentials. However, you'll need to periodically re-authenticate each Databricks connection in the fabric to keep schedules running.

Because Prophecy can't retrieve the exact token expiration time from Databricks, it estimates when to prompt you for re-authentication. To avoid interruptions, we recommend switching to Service Principal OAuth when deploying projects to production.

Personal Access Token (PAT)

When you choose Personal Access Token (PAT) for the authentication method, you'll authenticate using a Databricks personal access token. When you set up the connection, you will use a secret to enter your PAT.

Using the PAT authentication method:

• All team members that have access to the fabric can use the connection in their projects.
• No additional authentication is required. Team members automatically inherit the access and permissions of the stored connection credentials.

Databricks permissions

When you create an Databricks connection in Prophecy, access permissions are tied to the credentials you use. This is because Prophecy uses your credentials to execute all data operations, such as reading from or writing to tables.

To fully leverage a Databricks connection in Prophecy, you need the following Databricks permissions:

• Create Schema
• Create or Replace Table
• Drop Table
• Insert Into
• Create Volume PROPHECY_ORCHESTRATOR_VOLUME
• Access to /Volumes/<catalog>/<schema>/PROPHECY_ORCHESTRATOR_VOLUME
• Remove File permission inside the volume
• Copy Into (from the volume)

Fetching data

Prophecy fetches data from Databricks connections in the following ways:

• When you browse an Databricks connection in the Environment browser, Prophecy fetches data on demand as you expand folders. You can manually refresh the Environment browser to see updated files.

• When a pipeline runs, Source gems will read the latest available version of the data. If the schema of your data in Databricks changes, Prophecy will automatically use the new schema.