Typical Lakebase project setup with Terraform

This page shows a complete Terraform configuration for a production-ready Lakebase Autoscaling project with the most commonly used features:

  • Protected production branch
  • High availability (HA) read-write endpoint with readable secondaries
  • Service principal with DATABRICKS_SUPERUSER database privileges
  • App-owned Postgres database
  • Synced table streaming continuously from Unity Catalog
  • Databricks App connected to the Lakebase project

For a step-by-step introduction to Terraform with Lakebase, see Get started with Terraform for Lakebase.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need:

Complete configuration

When you create a project, Azure Databricks automatically creates a production branch and a primary read-write endpoint. To configure these implicitly created resources, declare them in Terraform with replace_existing = true. For more details, see databricks_postgres_branch and databricks_postgres_endpoint.

Warning

This configuration sets is_protected = true on the production branch and includes a unprotect_for_destroy variable wired into the branch spec. Terraform can't delete a project containing protected branches, and the production branch can't be deleted directly because its lifecycle is controlled by the project. To tear down resources cleanly, use a two-step destroy:

# Step 1: unprotect the branch
terraform apply -var="unprotect_for_destroy=true"

# Step 2: destroy all resources
terraform destroy -var="unprotect_for_destroy=true"

variable "admin_sp_app_id" {
  description = "Application ID of the service principal to grant admin access"
  type        = string
}

variable "unprotect_for_destroy" {
  description = "Set to true before destroy to unprotect the production branch"
  type        = bool
  default     = false
}

# Project — top-level container for branches, endpoints, databases, and roles.
resource "databricks_postgres_project" "this" {
  project_id = "my-lakebase-project"
  spec = {
    pg_version   = 17
    display_name = "My Lakebase Project"
    default_endpoint_settings = {
      autoscaling_limit_min_cu = 0.5
      autoscaling_limit_max_cu = 4.0
      suspend_timeout_duration = "300s"
    }
  }
}

# Configure the implicitly created production branch as protected.
resource "databricks_postgres_branch" "production" {
  branch_id = "production"
  parent    = databricks_postgres_project.this.name
  spec = {
    no_expiry    = true
    is_protected = var.unprotect_for_destroy ? false : true
  }
  replace_existing = true
}

# Configure the implicitly created primary endpoint with HA.
# HA requires no_suspension = true. group.min = 2 adds a standby for automatic failover.
resource "databricks_postgres_endpoint" "primary" {
  endpoint_id = "primary"
  parent      = databricks_postgres_branch.production.name
  spec = {
    endpoint_type            = "ENDPOINT_TYPE_READ_WRITE"
    autoscaling_limit_min_cu = 0.5
    autoscaling_limit_max_cu = 4.0
    no_suspension            = true
    group = {
      min                         = 2
      max                         = 2
      enable_readable_secondaries = true
    }
  }
  replace_existing = true
}

# Grant workspace-level CAN_MANAGE on the project to the service principal.
# Use status.project_id (bare ID) not .name (full resource path) — the permissions
# API rejects the full path with a "resource type not found" error.
resource "databricks_permissions" "project" {
  database_project_name = databricks_postgres_project.this.status.project_id
  access_control {
    service_principal_name = var.admin_sp_app_id
    permission_level       = "CAN_MANAGE"
  }
}

# Create a Postgres role backed by the service principal with full database privileges.
# depends_on serializes creation — Lakebase processes one branch operation at a time.
resource "databricks_postgres_role" "admin_sp" {
  role_id = "admin-sp"
  parent  = databricks_postgres_branch.production.name
  spec = {
    identity_type    = "SERVICE_PRINCIPAL"
    postgres_role    = var.admin_sp_app_id
    auth_method      = "LAKEBASE_OAUTH_V1"
    membership_roles = ["DATABRICKS_SUPERUSER"]
    attributes = {
      createdb   = true
      createrole = true
      bypassrls  = true
    }
  }
  depends_on = [databricks_postgres_endpoint.primary]
}

# Create a Postgres database owned by the admin SP role.
resource "databricks_postgres_database" "app" {
  database_id = "app"
  parent      = databricks_postgres_branch.production.name
  spec = {
    postgres_database = "app"
    role              = databricks_postgres_role.admin_sp.name
  }
}

# Sync a Unity Catalog Delta table into the Lakebase branch continuously.
# depends_on ensures the explicit database resource is created first — without it,
# create_database_objects_if_missing races ahead and creates the database under the
# wrong owner, causing databricks_postgres_database.app to fail with "already exists".
resource "databricks_postgres_synced_table" "orders" {
  depends_on      = [databricks_postgres_database.app]
  synced_table_id = "my_catalog.default.orders_synced"
  spec = {
    branch                             = databricks_postgres_branch.production.name
    postgres_database                  = "app"
    source_table_full_name             = "my_catalog.default.orders"
    primary_key_columns                = ["order_id"]
    scheduling_policy                  = "CONTINUOUS"
    create_database_objects_if_missing = true
    new_pipeline_spec = {
      storage_catalog = "my_catalog"
      storage_schema  = "default"
    }
  }
}

# Databricks App connected to the Lakebase project.
# database must be the full resource name (databricks_postgres_database.app.name),
# not the Postgres database name. permission must be "CAN_CONNECT_AND_CREATE".
resource "databricks_app" "this" {
  name        = "my-lakebase-app"
  description = "App backed by Lakebase autoscaling project"
  depends_on  = [databricks_postgres_database.app]
  resources = [{
    name = "lakebase-db"
    postgres = {
      branch     = databricks_postgres_branch.production.name
      database   = databricks_postgres_database.app.name
      permission = "CAN_CONNECT_AND_CREATE"
    }
  }]
}

Next steps

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