Secure Unity Catalog objects

Module
11 Units

Intermediate

Data Engineer

Azure Databricks

Unity Catalog provides centralized governance and security for data assets in Azure Databricks. This module explores how to secure Unity Catalog objects through access control strategies, fine-grained permissions, credential management, and authentication mechanisms. You'll learn how to implement table and schema-level security, enforce row and column filtering, securely access secrets from Azure Key Vault, and authenticate data access using service principals and managed identities.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

Understand the query lifecycle in Unity Catalog and how security is enforced
Implement access control strategies using inherited and explicit permissions
Apply fine-grained access control through row filtering and column masking
Securely access Azure Key Vault secrets in Azure Databricks workflows
Authenticate data access using service principals
Configure managed identities for secure resource access without managing credentials

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites should be completed:

Basic understanding of Azure Databricks and Unity Catalog concepts
Familiarity with SQL and data access patterns
Knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID and Azure security fundamentals

Introduction min
Understand query lifecycle min
Implement access control strategies min
Understand fine-grained access control min
Implement row filtering and column masking min
Access Azure Key Vault secrets min
Authenticate data access with service principals min
Authenticate resource access with managed identities min
Exercise - Secure Unity Catalog Objects min
Module assessment min
Summary min

Start