Enablement of Unity Catalog

Question

Our organization is a network partner with Databricks, and we have monthly premium tier credits for Azure services. I currently hold a contributor role; however, to enable Unity Catalog on Databricks, I require Azure Databricks admin access or Azure Active Directory administrator access to the account console. Could you please advise on how I can obtain the necessary access?

Answer 1

@Nidhi Singh - Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

To enable Unity Catalog on Azure Databricks, you need to have Azure Databricks admin access or Azure Active Directory (Entra ID) global administrator access to the account console. If you currently hold a contributor role, you may not have the necessary permissions to enable Unity Catalog.

To obtain the necessary access, you can contact your global administrator of your Azure subscription and request the required permissions. They can grant you the necessary permissions to enable Unity Catalog on Azure Databricks.

Here is the requirements to create and manage catalogs and Set up and manage Unity Catalog

You must be an Azure Databricks account admin to getting started using Unity Catalog this can be done for first time using Azure Active Directory Global Administrator of your subscription.

The first Azure Databricks account admin must be an Azure Active Directory Global Administrator at the time that they first log in to the Azure Databricks account console. Upon first login, that user becomes an Azure Databricks account admin and no longer needs the Azure Active Directory Global Administrator role to access the Azure Databricks account. The first account admin can assign users in the Azure Active Directory tenant as additional account admins (who can themselves assign more account admins). Additional account admins do not require specific roles in Azure Active Directory.

How to identify your Microsoft Azure global administrators for your subscriptions?

The global administrator has access to all administrative features. By default, the person who signs up for an Azure subscription is assigned the global administrator role for the directory. Only global administrators can assign other administrator roles.

Login into the Azure Databricks account console via Global admin and then account admin can assign users in the Azure Active Directory tenant .

For more details, refer to Azure Databricks - Get started using Unity Catalog and also refer to MS Q&A thread - How to access Azure Databricks account admin? addressing similar issue.

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.

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