Google Drive connector

Important

This feature is in Beta. Workspace admins can control access to this feature from the Previews page. See Manage Azure Databricks previews.

The managed Google Drive connector in Lakeflow Connect allows you to ingest files from Google Drive into Azure Databricks. Ingest unstructured files as binary data, parse structured formats (CSV, JSON, XML, EXCEL, and more) into Delta tables, or capture file metadata without loading file contents.

For the standard Google Drive connector that uses Spark reader APIs (read_files, spark.read, Auto Loader), see Ingest files from Google Drive.

What to know before you start

Topic	Why it matters
Azure Databricks user persona	The workflow depends on your Azure Databricks user persona: Single-user: An administrator user creates a Unity Catalog connection and an ingestion pipeline. Multi-user: An administrator user creates a connection for non-administrator users to create pipelines with.
Authentication method	The steps to create a connection depend on the authentication method you select.
Interface	The steps to create a pipeline depend on the interface.
Ingestion frequency	The pipeline schedule depends on your latency and cost requirements.
Common patterns	Depending on your ingestion needs, the pipeline might use configurations like history tracking, column selection, and row filtering. Supported configurations vary by connector. See Feature availability.

Start ingesting from Google Drive

The following table has an overview of the end-to-end Google Drive ingestion flow, based on user type:

User	Steps
Administrator	Configure OAuth 2.0 and create a Unity Catalog connection. See Set up Google Drive for managed ingestion. Use Catalog Explorer to create a connection to Google Drive so that non-administrators can create pipelines. See Connect to managed ingestion sources.
Non-administrator	Use any supported interface to create a pipeline from an existing connection. See Ingest data from Google Drive.

Feature availability

Feature	Availability
UI-based pipeline authoring	Supported
API-based pipeline authoring	Supported
Declarative Automation Bundles	Supported
Incremental ingestion	Supported
Unity Catalog governance	Supported
Orchestration using Databricks Workflows	Supported
SCD type 2	Not supported
Schema evolution	Supported Configurable via schema_evolution_mode. See Google Drive connector reference.
API-based column selection and deselection	Not supported
API-based row filtering	Not supported

Authentication methods

Authentication method	Availability
OAuth U2M	Supported
OAuth M2M	Not supported
OAuth (manual refresh token)	Not supported
Basic authentication (username/password)	Not supported
Basic authentication (API key)	Not supported
Basic authentication (service account JSON key)	Not supported