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This guide describes how to prepare a Databricks Unity Catalog for use with StreamNative Ursa as a managed Iceberg table catalog on Microsoft Azure.

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Prerequisites

  • A Databricks workspace on Azure with Unity Catalog and Iceberg Managed Table enabled
  • An Azure subscription with permissions to create storage accounts and Access Connectors

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1. Create an Azure Storage Container

Create a storage container in your Azure Storage Account (for example, unity-catalog-iceberg). The container path will follow the format:

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2. Create an Access Connector for Azure Databricks

Refer to the Azure Databricks Managed Identities documentation for the canonical procedure. In the Azure Portal, create an Access Connector for Azure Databricks. Record the connector Resource ID, which has the form:

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3. Grant Storage Permissions to the Access Connector

The Access Connector identity requires the following roles:

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3.1 Grant Storage Blob Data Contributor

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3.2 Grant Storage Queue Data Contributor

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3.3 Grant EventGrid EventSubscription Contributor

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4. Create the Unity Catalog Metastore

Create the Unity Catalog metastore in Databricks.

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5. Create a Storage Credential

In the Databricks Catalog console, create a storage credential linked to the Access Connector created in step 2.

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6. Create the External Location

Create an external location pointing to the Azure storage container:
  • URL: abfss://<container>@<storage-account>.dfs.core.windows.net
  • Storage credential: the credential created in step 5

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7. Create the Unity Catalog

Create a new Catalog and bind it to the external location created in step 6.

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8. Grant Catalog Permissions

Grant permissions on the catalog. The EXTERNAL_USE_SCHEMA permission is required for Iceberg Managed Tables in Unity Catalog.

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9. Enable External Data Access on the Metastore

Note: This action requires Azure Account Admin privileges; without them, the Metastore entry is not visible.
Enable External data access on the metastore. This step is required for Unity Catalog Iceberg Managed Tables.

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10. Create OAuth2 Credentials

Create an OAuth2 service principal that StreamNative Ursa will use to authenticate. Generate a secret for the principal and record both the Client ID and Client Secret.

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Catalog Information Summary

When the steps above are complete, collect the following values for the StreamNative Ursa compaction service: For the next steps, see Configure Lakehouse Catalogs.