Will existing cluster with databricks runtime stop working because of out of support

Question

Hi,
I am currently using an old data bricks cluster that uses a 6.4 ML version. Will it ever stop working? I understand that its out of support. But, if I never delete this cluster, can I keep using the same cluster? Will i ever be forced to upgrade my cluster runtime version?

Answer 1

Hello @kalyan reddy ,

Will it ever stop working?

You can continue to run until you delete the cluster manually.

Note: You can manually terminate a cluster or configure the cluster to automatically terminate after a specified period of inactivity. Azure Databricks records information whenever a cluster is terminated. When the number of terminated clusters exceeds 150, the oldest clusters are deleted.

Unless a cluster is pinned, 30 days after the cluster is terminated, it is automatically and permanently deleted.

For more details, refer Azure Databricks - Terminate a cluster.

Support for Databricks Runtime 6.4 ended on April 1, 2021 due to the end of support for its underlying Ubuntu operating system. Databricks recommends upgrading to Databricks Runtime 7.x or 8.x to get the benefits of Apache Spark 3.x and the many new features and improvements built into these newer runtimes.

For migration information, see Databricks Runtime 7.x migration guide.

You have the option to migrate to Databricks Runtime 6.4 Extended Support, which is identical to Databricks Runtime 6.4 apart from the operating system version, JDK, and a small number of R and Python libraries. See Databricks Runtime 6.4 Extended Support.

For more details, refer Databricks Runtime 6.4 for Machine Learning (Unsupported).

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

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Answer 2

According to this Stack overflow post- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65122072/azure-databricks-this-clusters-runtime-version-is-out-of-support... you can just leave the cluster and it will work just fine. But, i'll wait for someone from Microsoft to confirm this