Manually create a workspace (existing Databricks accounts)

Note

These instructions apply to accounts created before November 8, 2023. If your Databricks account was created after November 8, 2023, see Manually create a workspace (new Databricks accounts).

This article describes how to create workspaces using the account console and custom AWS configurations. You can use this process if you want to create your own AWS resources or need to deploy a workspace in your own VPC.

You can also create workspaces using the AWS Quick Start template, the Account API, or Terraform.

Before you begin

Before you can deploy a workspace using custom AWS configurations, you must do the following:

Create a workspace with custom AWS configurations

  1. Go to the account console and click the Workspaces icon.

  2. Click Create Workspace, then Custom AWS configuration.

  3. In the Workspace name field, enter a human-readable name for this workspace. It can contain spaces.

  4. In the Workspace URL field, enter a deployment name (optional). This field may be hidden for some customers. See Considerations for deployment name.

  5. In the Subscription plan field, select the plan that you want to associate with this workspace. Depending on your account, there may be only one choice.

  6. In the Region field, select an AWS region for your workspace’s network and clusters.

  7. In the Credential configuration field, select the credential configuration you configured for this workspace.

  8. In the Storage configuration field, select the storage configuration you configured for the root storage in this workspace.

  9. Databricks recommends you enable Unity Catalog for your workspace. After you switch on the Enable Unity Catalog toggle, accept the assigned metastore or select one from the Metastore dropdown.

    If a Unity Catalog metastore already exists in the workspace region and the metastore is configured to be automatically assigned to new workspaces, that metastore will be selected for you. If there is more than one metastore defined for the region (early-adopter workspaces only), you can select any one of them.

  10. (Optional) To create the workspace in your own VPC, select or add a Network configuration. For instructions on configuring your own VPC, see customer-managed VPC.

    Important

    If you are using a customer-managed VPC, ensure your IAM role uses an access policy that supports customer-managed VPCs.

  11. (Optional) To enable PrivateLink, select or add a private access setting under Private Link.

    To enable PrivateLink, you must also have created the correct regional VPC endpoints, registered them, and referenced them from your network configuration. For more guidance, see Enable private connectivity using AWS PrivateLink.

  12. Click Create.

View workspace status

After you create a workspace, you can view its status on the Workspaces page.

  • Provisioning: In progress. Wait a few minutes and refresh the page.

  • Running: Successful workspace deployment.

  • Failed: Failed deployment.

  • Banned: Contact your Databricks account team.

  • Cancelling: In the process of cancellation.

If the status for your new workspace is Failed, click the workspace to view a detailed error message. You can make updates to the configuration and try to deploy the workspace again. See Troubleshooting creating workspaces.

Log into a workspace

  1. Go to the account console and click the Workspaces icon.

  2. On the row with your workspace, click Open.

  3. To log in as a workspace administrator, log in with your account owner or account administrator email address.

If you configured single-sign on (SSO), click the Single Sign On button.

Considerations for deployment naming

The deployment name defines part of the subdomain for the workspace. The workspace URL for access to the Databricks web application and REST APIs is <workspace-deployment-name>.cloud.databricks.com.

For example, if the deployment name is abcsales, your workspace URL will be https://abcsales.cloud.databricks.com. Hyphens are allowed. This property supports only the set of characters that are allowed in a subdomain. This value must be unique across all workspaces across all AWS regions, not including deleted workspaces.

If you leave this field blank, the server generates a unique deployment name for you with the pattern dbc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx.

Some Databricks accounts have a deployment name prefix that interacts with this feature. Contact your Databricks account team to set a deployment name prefix for your account. If your account has a deployment name prefix, the final workspace deployment name includes the account prefix followed by a hyphen. For example, if your account’s deployment prefix is acme and you enter the deployment name as workspace-1, the new workspace’s deployment name becomes acme-workspace-1. The final workspace URL is acme-workspace-1.cloud.databricks.com.

The deployment name must adhere to the Databricks acceptable use policy.

Next steps

Now that you have deployed a workspace, you can start building out your data strategy. Databricks recommends the following articles: