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What is a SQL warehouse?

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A SQL warehouse is a compute resource that lets you query and explore data on Azure Databricks.

Most users have access to SQL warehouses configured by administrators.

Databricks recommends using serverless SQL warehouses when available.

Use SQL warehouses

The SQL warehouses you have access to appear in the compute drop-down menus of workspace UIs that support SQL warehouse compute, including the query editor, Catalog Explorer, and dashboards.

You can also view, sort, and search available SQL warehouses by clicking Endpoints Icon SQL Warehouses in the sidebar. By default, warehouses are sorted by state (running warehouses first), then in alphabetical order.

The UI indicates whether or not a warehouse is currently running. Running a query against a stopped warehouse starts it automatically if you have access to the warehouse. See Start a SQL warehouse.

Note

To help you get started, Azure Databricks creates a small SQL warehouse called Starter Warehouse automatically. You can edit or delete this SQL warehouse.

Important

You can also attach a notebook to a SQL warehouse. See Notebooks and SQL warehouses for more information and limitations.

What are Serverless SQL warehouses?

Note

Before you can create a serverless SQL warehouse in a region that supports the feature, there might be required steps. See Enable serverless SQL warehouses.

Databricks SQL delivers optimal price and performance with serverless SQL warehouses. Key advantages of serverless warehouses over pro and classic models include:

  • Instant and elastic compute: Eliminates waiting for infrastructure resources and avoids resource over-provisioning during usage spikes. Intelligent workload management dynamically handles scaling. See SQL warehouse types for more information on intelligent workload management and other serverless features.
  • Minimal management overhead: Capacity management, patching, upgrades, and performance optimization are all handled by Azure Databricks, simplifying operations and leading to predictable pricing.
  • Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): Automatic provisioning and scaling of resources as needed helps avoid over-provisioning and reduces idle times, thus lowering TCO.

Start a SQL warehouse

To manually start a stopped SQL warehouse, click Endpoints Icon SQL Warehouses in the sidebar then click the start icon next to the warehouse.

A SQL warehouse auto-restarts in the following conditions:

  • A warehouse is stopped and you attempt to run a query.
  • A job assigned to a stopped warehouse is scheduled to run.
  • A connection is established to a stopped warehouse from a JDBC/ODBC interface.
  • A dashboard associated with a dashboard-level warehouse is opened.

Create a SQL warehouse

Configuring and launching SQL warehouses requires elevated permissions generally restricted to an administrator. See SQL warehouse admin settings and Create a SQL warehouse.

Unity Catalog governs data access permissions on SQL warehouses for most assets. Administrators configure most data access permissions. SQL warehouses can have custom data access configured instead of or in addition to Unity Catalog. See Enable data access configuration.

You should contact an administrator in the following situations:

  • You cannot connect to any SQL warehouses.
  • You cannot run queries because a SQL warehouse is stopped.
  • You cannot access tables or data from your SQL warehouse.

Note

Some organizations might allow users to modify privileges on either database objects or SQL warehouses. Check with your teammates and admins to understand how your organization manages data access.

Warehouse sizing and autoscaling behavior

For information on how classic and pro SQL warehouses are sized and how autoscaling works, see SQL warehouse sizing, scaling, and queuing behavior.

SQL warehouses and third party BI tools

Databricks SQL supports many third party BI and visualization tools that can connect to SQL warehouses, including the following:

Developer tools for SQL warehouses

You can use the REST API, CLI, and other drivers and integrations to configure and run commands on SQL warehouses. See the following: