Compute system tables reference

Important

This system table is in Public Preview. To access the table, the schema must be enabled in your system catalog. For more information, see Enable system table schemas.

This article provides you with a reference guide for the compute system tables. You can use these tables to monitor the activity and metrics of all-purpose and jobs compute in your account:

  • clusters: Records compute configurations in your account.
  • node_types: Includes a single record for each of the currently available node types, including hardware information.
  • node_timeline: Includes minute-by-minute records of your compute’s utilization metrics.

Cluster table schema

The cluster table is a slow-changing dimension table that contains the full history of compute configurations over time for all-purpose and jobs compute.

Table path: This system table is located at system.compute.clusters

Column name Data type Description Example
account_id string ID of the account where this cluster was created. 23e22ba4-87b9-
4cc2-9770-d10b894b7118
workspace_id string ID of the workspace where this cluster was created. 1234567890123456
cluster_id string ID of the cluster for which this record is associated. 0000-123456-crmpt124
cluster_name string User defined name for the cluster. My cluster
owned_by string Username of the cluster owner. Defaults to the cluster creator, but can be changed through the Clusters API. sample_user@email.com
create_time timestamp Timestamp of the change to this compute definition. 2023-01-09 11:00:00.000
delete_time timestamp Timestamp of when the cluster was deleted. The value is null if the cluster is not deleted. 2023-01-09 11:00:00.000
driver_node_type string Driver node type name. This matches the instance type name from the cloud provider. Standard_D16s_v3
worker_node_type string Worker node type name. This matches the instance type name from the cloud provider. Standard_D16s_v3
worker_count bigint Number of workers. Defined for fixed-size clusters only. 4
min_autoscale_workers bigint The set minimum number of workers. This field is valid only for autoscaling clusters. 1
max_autoscale_workers bigint The set maximum number of workers. This field is valid only for autoscaling clusters. 1
auto_termination_minutes bigint The configured autotermination duration. 120
enable_elastic_disk boolean Autoscaling disk enablement status. true
tags map User-defined tags for the cluster (does not include default tags). {"ResourceClass":"SingleNode"}
cluster_source string Indicates the creator for the cluster: UI, API, JOB, etc. UI
init_scripts array Set of paths for init scripts. "/Users/example@email.com
/files/scripts/install-python-pacakges.sh"
aws_attributes struct AWS specific settings. null
azure_attributes struct Azure specific settings. {
"first_on_demand": "0",
"availability": "ON_DEMAND_AZURE",
"spot_bid_max_price": "—1"
}
gcp_attributes struct GCP specific settings. This field will be empty. null
driver_instance_pool_id string Instance pool ID if the driver is configured on top of an instance pool. 1107-555555-crhod16-pool-DIdnjazB
worker_instance_pool_id string Instance Pool ID if the worker is configured on top of an instance pool. 1107-555555-crhod16-pool-DIdnjazB
dbr_version string The Databricks Runtime of the cluster. 14.x-snapshot-scala2.12
change_time timestamp Timestamp of change to the compute definition. 2023-01-09 11:00:00.000
change_date date Change date. Used for retention. 2023-01-09

Node types table schema

The node type table captures the currently available node types with their basic hardware information.

Table path: This system table is located at system.compute.node_types.

Column name Data type Description Example
account_id string ID of the account where this cluster was created. 23e22ba4-87b9-4cc2-9770-d10b894b7118
node_type string Unique identifier for node type. Standard_D16s_v3
core_count double Number of vCPUs for the instance. 48.0
memory_mb long Total memory for the instance. 393216
gpu_count long Number of GPUs for the instance. 0

Node timeline table schema

The node timeline table captures node-level resource utilization data at minute granularity. Each record contains data for a given minute of time per instance.

Table path: This system table is located at system.compute.node_timeline.

Column name Data type Description Example
account_id string ID of the account where this compute resource is running. 23e22ba4-87b9-4cc2-9770-d10b894b7118
workspace_id string ID of the workspace where this compute resource is running. 1234567890123456
cluster_id string ID of the compute resource. 0000-123456-crmpt124
instance_id string ID for the specific instance. i-1234a6c12a2681234
start_time timestamp Start time for the record in UTC. 2024-07-16T12:00:00Z
end_time timestamp End time for the record in UTC. 2024-07-16T13:00:00Z
driver boolean Whether the instance is a driver or worker node. true
cpu_user_percent double Percentage of time the CPU spent in userland. 34.76163817234407
cpu_system_percent double Percentage of time the CPU spent in the kernel. 1.0895310279488264
cpu_wait_percent double Percentage of time the CPU spent waiting for I/O. 0.03445157400629276
mem_used_percent double Percentage of the compute’s memory that was used during the time period (including memory used by background processes running on the compute). 45.34858216779041
mem_swap_percent double Percentage of memory usage attributed to memory swap. 0.014648443087939
network_sent_bytes bigint The number of bytes sent out in network traffic. 517376
network_received_bytes bigint The number of received bytes from network traffic. 179234
disk_free_bytes_per_mount_point map The disk utilization grouped by mount point. This is ephemeral storage provisioned only while the compute is running. {"/var/lib/lxc":123455551234,"/":

123456789123,"/local_disk0":123412341234}
node_type string The name of the node type. This will match the instance type name from the cloud provider. Standard_D16s_v3

Known limitations

  • Compute resources that were marked deleted before October 23, 2023 do not appear in the clusters table. This might result in joins from the system.billing.usage table not matching records in the clusters table. All active compute resources have been backfilled.
  • These tables only includes records for all-purpose and jobs compute. They do not contain records for serverless compute, Delta Live Tables compute, or SQL warehouses.
  • Nodes that ran for less than 10 minutes might not appear in the node_timeline table.

Sample queries

You can use the following sample queries to answer common questions:

Note

Some of these examples join the cluster table with the system.billing.usage table. Since billing records are cross-regional and cluster records region-sepcific, billing records only match cluster records for the region in which you are querying. To see records from another region, please execute the query in that region.

Join cluster records with the most recent billing records

This query can help you understand spending over time. Once you update the usage_start_time to the most current billing period, it grabs the most recent updates to the billing records to join into clusters data.

Each record is associated with the cluster owner during that particular run. So, if the cluster owner changes, costs will roll up to the correct owner based on when the cluster was used.

SELECT
  u.record_id,
  c.cluster_id,
  c.owned_by,
  c.change_time,
  u.usage_start_time,
  u.usage_quantity
FROM
  system.billing.usage u
  JOIN system.compute.clusters c
  JOIN (SELECT u.record_id, c.cluster_id, max(c.change_time) change_time
    FROM system.billing.usage u
    JOIN system.compute.clusters c
    WHERE
      u.usage_metadata.cluster_id is not null
      and u.usage_start_time >= '2023-01-01'
      and u.usage_metadata.cluster_id = c.cluster_id
      and date_trunc('HOUR', c.change_time) <= date_trunc('HOUR', u.usage_start_time)
    GROUP BY all) config
WHERE
  u.usage_metadata.cluster_id is not null
  and u.usage_start_time >= '2023-01-01'
  and u.usage_metadata.cluster_id = c.cluster_id
  and u.record_id = config.record_id
  and c.cluster_id = config.cluster_id
  and c.change_time = config.change_time
ORDER BY cluster_id, usage_start_time desc;

Attribute costs to the cluster owner

If you are looking to reduce compute costs, you can use this query to find out which cluster owners in your account are using the most DBUs.

SELECT
  u.record_id record_id,
  c.cluster_id cluster_id,
  max_by(c.owned_by, c.change_time) owned_by,
  max(c.change_time) change_time,
  any_value(u.usage_start_time) usage_start_time,
  any_value(u.usage_quantity) usage_quantity
FROM
  system.billing.usage u
  JOIN system.compute.clusters c
WHERE
  u.usage_metadata.cluster_id is not null
  and u.usage_start_time >= '2023-01-01'
  and u.usage_metadata.cluster_id = c.cluster_id
  and c.change_time <= u.usage_start_time
GROUP BY 1, 2
ORDER BY cluster_id, usage_start_time desc;

Identify the compute resources with the highest average utilization and peak utilization

Identify the all-purpose and jobs compute that have the highest average CPU utilization and the highest peak CPU utilization.

SELECT
        distinct cluster_id,
driver,
avg(cpu_user_percent + cpu_system_percent) as `Avg CPU Utilization`,
max(cpu_user_percent + cpu_system_percent) as `Peak CPU Utilization`,
        avg(cpu_wait_percent) as `Avg CPU Wait`,
        max(cpu_wait_percent) as `Max CPU Wait`,
        avg(mem_used_percent) as `Avg Memory Utilization`,
        max(mem_used_percent) as `Max Memory Utilization`,
avg(network_received_bytes)/(1024^2) as `Avg Network MB Received per Minute`,
avg(network_sent_bytes)/(1024^2) as `Avg Network MB Sent per Minute`
FROM
        node_timeline
WHERE
        start_time >= date_add(now(), -1)
GROUP BY
        cluster_id,
        driver
ORDER BY
        3 desc;