MS Entra service principal authentication

Article
08/20/2024

MS Entra service principal authentication uses the credentials of a MS Entra service principal to authenticate. To create and manage service principals for Azure Databricks, see:

Note

Databricks recommends that you use OAuth machine-to-machine (M2M) authentication in most scenarios instead of MS Entra service principal authentication. This is because OAuth M2M authentication uses Azure Databricks OAuth access tokens that are more robust when authenticating only with Azure Databricks.

You should only use MS Entra service principal authentication in cases where you must authenticate with Azure Databricks and other Azure resources at the same time.

To use OAuth M2M authentication instead of MS Entra service principal authentication, skip this article and see Authenticate access to Azure Databricks with a service principal using OAuth (OAuth M2M).

MS Entra service principals are different than managed identities for Azure resources, which Azure Databricks also supports for authentication. To learn how to use managed identities for Azure resources instead of MS Entra service principals for Azure Databricks authentication, see Set up and use Azure managed identities authentication for Azure Databricks automation.

For details on Microsoft Entra authentication to Databricks with Azure DevOps specifically, see Authenticate with Azure DevOps on Databricks.

To configure MS Entra service principal authentication with Azure Databricks, you must set the following associated environment variables, .databrickscfg fields, Terraform fields, or Config fields:

The Azure Databricks host.
- For account operations, specify https://accounts.azuredatabricks.net.
- For workspace operations, specify the per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net.
  
  If the MS Entra service principal has not already been added to the workspace, then specify the Azure resource ID instead. In this case, the MS Entra service principal must have at least Contributor or Owner permissions on the Azure resource.
For account operations, the Azure Databricks account ID.
The Azure resource ID.
The tenant ID of the MS Entra service principal.
The client ID of the MS Entra service principal.
The client secret of the MS Entra service principal.

To perform MS Entra service principal authentication with Azure Databricks, integrate the following within your code, based on the participating tool or SDK:

To use environment variables for a specific Azure Databricks authentication type with a tool or SDK, see Authenticate access to Azure Databricks resources or the tool’s or SDK’s documentation. See also Environment variables and fields for client unified authentication and the Default methods for client unified authentication.

For account-level operations, set the following environment variables:

DATABRICKS_HOST, set to the value of your Azure Databricks account console URL, https://accounts.azuredatabricks.net.
- DATABRICKS_ACCOUNT_ID
- ARM_TENANT_ID
- ARM_CLIENT_ID
- ARM_CLIENT_SECRET
For workspace-level operations, set the following environment variables:
- DATABRICKS_HOST, set to the value of your Azure Databricks per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net.
- ARM_TENANT_ID
- ARM_CLIENT_ID
- ARM_CLIENT_SECRET
For workspace-level operations, if the MS Entra service principal has not already been added to the workspace, then specify DATABRICKS_AZURE_RESOURCE_ID along with the Azure resource ID for the Azure Databricks workspace, instead of HOST along with the workspace URL. In this case, the MS Entra service principal must have at least Contributor or Owner permissions on the Azure resource for the Azure Databricks workspace.

Create or identify an Azure Databricks configuration profile with the following fields in your .databrickscfg file. If you create the profile, replace the placeholders with the appropriate values. To use the profile with a tool or SDK, see Authenticate access to Azure Databricks resources or the tool’s or SDK’s documentation. See also Environment variables and fields for client unified authentication and the Default methods for client unified authentication.

For account-level operations, set the following values in your .databrickscfg file. In this case, the Azure Databricks account console URL is https://accounts.azuredatabricks.net:

[<some-unique-configuration-profile-name>]
host                = <account-console-url>
account_id          = <account-id>
azure_tenant_id     = <azure-service-principal-tenant-id>
azure_client_id     = <azure-service-principal-application-id>
azure_client_secret = <azure-service-principal-client-secret>

For workspace-level operations, set the following values in your .databrickscfg file. In this case, the host is the Azure Databricks per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net:

[<some-unique-configuration-profile-name>]
host                = <workspace-url>
azure_tenant_id     = <azure-service-principal-tenant-id>
azure_client_id     = <azure-service-principal-application-id>
azure_client_secret = <azure-service-principal-client-secret>

For workspace-level operations, if the MS Entra service principal has not already been added to the workspace, then specify azure_workspace_resource_id along with the Azure resource ID for the Azure Databricks workspace, instead of host along with the workspace URL. In this case, the MS Entra service principal must have at least Contributor or Owner permissions on the Azure resource for the Azure Databricks workspace.

For the Databricks CLI, do one of the following:

Set the environment variables as specified in this article’s “Environment” section.
Set the values in your .databrickscfg file as specified in this article’s “Profile” section.

Environment variables always take precedence over values in your .databrickscfg file.

Note

MS Entra service principal authentication is supported on the following Databricks Connect versions:

For Python, Databricks Connect for Databricks Runtime 13.1 and above.
For Scala, Databricks Connect for Databricks Runtime 13.3 LTS and above.

For Databricks Connect, you can do one of the following:

Set the values in your .databrickscfg file for Azure Databricks workspace-level operations as specified in this article’s “Profile” section. Also set the cluster_id environment variable in your profile to your per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net.
Set the environment variables for Azure Databricks workspace-level operations as specified in this article’s “Environment” section. Also set the DATABRICKS_CLUSTER_ID environment variable to your per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net.

Values in your .databrickscfg file always take precedence over environment variables.

To initialize the Databricks Connect client with these environment variables or values in your .databrickscfg file, see one of the following:

For Python, see Configure connection properties for Python.
For Scala, see Configure connection properties for Scala.

For the Databricks extension for Visual Studio Code, do the following:

Set the values in your .databrickscfg file for Azure Databricks workspace-level operations as specified in this article’s “Profile” section.
In the Configuration pane of the Databricks extension for Visual Studio Code, click Configure Databricks.
In the Command Palette, for Databricks Host, enter your per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net, and then press Enter.
In the Command Palette, select your target profile’s name in the list for your URL.

For more details, see Authentication setup for the Databricks extension for Visual Studio Code.

For account-level operations, for default authentication:

provider "databricks" {
  alias = "accounts"
}

For direct configuration (replace the retrieve placeholders with your own implementation to retrieve the values from the console or some other configuration store, such as HashiCorp Vault. See also Vault Provider). In this case, the Azure Databricks account console URL is https://accounts.azuredatabricks.net:

provider "databricks" {
  alias               = "accounts"
  host                = <retrieve-account-console-url>
  account_id          = <retrieve-account-id>
  azure_tenant_id     = <retrieve-azure-tenant-id>
  azure_client_id     = <retrieve-azure-client-id>
  azure_client_secret = <retrieve-azure-client-secret>
}

For workspace-level operations, for default authentication:

provider "databricks" {
  alias = "workspace"
}

For direct configuration (replace the retrieve placeholders with your own implementation to retrieve the values from the console or some other configuration store, such as HashiCorp Vault. See also Vault Provider). In this case, the host is the Azure Databricks per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net:

provider "databricks" {
  alias               = "workspace"
  host                = <retrieve-workspace-url>
  azure_tenant_id     = <retrieve-azure-tenant-id>
  azure_client_id     = <retrieve-azure-client-id>
  azure_client_secret = <retrieve-azure-client-secret>
}

For more information about authenticating with the Databricks Terraform provider, see Authentication.

For account-level operations, for default authentication:

from databricks.sdk import AccountClient

a = AccountClient()
# ...

For direct configuration (replace the retrieve placeholders with your own implementation to retrieve the values from the console or some other configuration store, such as Azure KeyVault). In this case, the Azure Databricks account console URL is https://accounts.azuredatabricks.net:

from databricks.sdk import AccountClient

a = AccountClient(
  host                = retrieve_account_console_url(),
  account_id          = retrieve_account_id(),
  azure_tenant_id     = retrieve_azure_tenant_id(),
  azure_client_id     = retrieve_azure_client_id(),
  azure_client_secret = retrieve_azure_client_secret()
)
# ...

For workspace-level operations, for default authentication:

from databricks.sdk import WorkspaceClient

w = WorkspaceClient()
# ...

For direct configuration (replace the retrieve placeholders with your own implementation to retrieve the values from the console or some other configuration store, such as Azure KeyVault). In this case, the host is the Azure Databricks per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net:

from databricks.sdk import WorkspaceClient

w = WorkspaceClient(
  host                = retrieve_workspace_url(),
  azure_tenant_id     = retrieve_azure_tenant_id(),
  azure_client_id     = retrieve_azure_client_id(),
  azure_client_secret = retrieve_azure_client_secret()
)
# ...

For more information about authenticating with Databricks tools and SDKs that use Python and that implement Databricks client unified authentication, see:

For account-level operations, for default authentication:

import com.databricks.sdk.AccountClient;
// ...
AccountClient a = new AccountClient();
// ...

import com.databricks.sdk.AccountClient;
import com.databricks.sdk.core.DatabricksConfig;
// ...
DatabricksConfig cfg = new DatabricksConfig()
  .setHost(retrieveAccountConsoleUrl())
  .setAccountId(retrieveAccountId())
  .setAzureTenantId(retrieveAzureTenantId())
  .setAzureClientId(retrieveAzureClientId())
  .setAzureClientSecret(retrieveAzureClientSecret())
AccountClient a = new AccountClient(cfg);
// ...

For workspace-level operations, for default authentication:

import com.databricks.sdk.WorkspaceClient;
// ...
WorkspaceClient w = new WorkspaceClient();
// ...

For direct configuration (replace the retrieve placeholders with your own implementation to retrieve the values from the console or some other configuration store, such as Azure KeyVault). In this case, the host is the Azure Databricks per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net:

import com.databricks.sdk.WorkspaceClient;
import com.databricks.sdk.core.DatabricksConfig;
// ...
DatabricksConfig cfg = new DatabricksConfig()
  .setHost(retrieveWorkspaceUrl())
  .setAzureTenantId(retrieveAzureTenantId())
  .setAzureClientId(retrieveAzureClientId())
  .setAzureClientSecret(retrieveAzureClientSecret())
WorkspaceClient w = new WorkspaceClient(cfg);
// ...

For workspace-level operations, if the MS Entra service principal has not already been added to the workspace, then specify setAzureWorkspaceResourceId along with the Azure resource ID for the Azure Databricks workspace, instead of setHost along with the workspace URL. In this case, the MS Entra service principal must have at least Contributor or Owner permissions on the Azure resource for the Azure Databricks workspace.

For more information about authenticating with Databricks tools and SDKs that use Java and that implement Databricks client unified authentication, see:

Set up the Databricks Connect client for Scala (the Databricks Connect client for Scala uses the included Databricks SDK for Java for authentication)
Authenticate the Databricks SDK for Java with your Azure Databricks account or workspace

For account-level operations, for default authentication:

import (
  "github.com/databricks/databricks-sdk-go"
)
// ...
a := databricks.Must(databricks.NewAccountClient())
// ...

import (
  "github.com/databricks/databricks-sdk-go"
)
// ...
a := databricks.Must(databricks.NewAccountClient(&databricks.Config{
  Host:              retrieveAccountConsoleUrl(),
  AccountId:         retrieveAccountId(),
  AzureTenantId:     retrieveAzureTenantId(),
  AzureClientId:     retrieveAzureClientId(),
  AzureClientSecret: retrieveAzureClientSecret(),
}))
// ...

For workspace-level operations, for default authentication:

import (
  "github.com/databricks/databricks-sdk-go"
)
// ...
w := databricks.Must(databricks.NewWorkspaceClient())
// ...

For direct configuration (replace the retrieve placeholders with your own implementation to retrieve the values from the console or some other configuration store, such as Azure KeyVault). In this case, the host is the Azure Databricks per-workspace URL, for example https://adb-1234567890123456.7.azuredatabricks.net:

import (
  "github.com/databricks/databricks-sdk-go"
)
// ...
w := databricks.Must(databricks.NewWorkspaceClient(&databricks.Config{
  Host:              retrieveWorkspaceUrl(),
  AzureTenantId:     retrieveAzureTenantId(),
  AzureClientId:     retrieveAzureClientId(),
  AzureClientSecret: retrieveAzureClientSecret(),
}))
// ...

For workspace-level operations, if the MS Entra service principal has not already been added to the workspace, then specify AzureWorkspaceResourceId along with the Azure resource ID for the Azure Databricks workspace, instead of Host along with the workspace URL. In this case, the MS Entra service principal must have at least Contributor or Owner permissions on the Azure resource for the Azure Databricks workspace.

For more information about authenticating with Databricks tools and SDKs that use Go and that implement Databricks client unified authentication, see Authenticate the Databricks SDK for Go with your Azure Databricks account or workspace.

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