Skip to main content

Connect to serverless compute

This page explains how to use and enable serverless compute in Databricks.

What is serverless compute?​

Serverless compute is a Databricks-managed service that allows you to quickly connect to on-demand computing resources.

When you choose to use serverless compute, you can run workloads without provisioning any compute resources in your cloud account. Instead, Databricks automatically allocates and manages the necessary compute resources. This speeds up start-up and scaling times, minimizes idle time, and reduces the need to manage compute resources.

Many features in Databricks run on serverless compute. Use the following pages to learn how to use serverless compute in different features:

Enable serverless compute​

To access serverless compute for notebooks, jobs, and Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines, an account admin might need to enable the feature. See Enable serverless compute.

To access serverless SQL warehouses, see Enable serverless SQL warehouses.

Serverless compute limitations​

For a list of limitations, see Serverless compute limitations.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)​

How are releases rolled out?​

Serverless compute is a versionless product, which means that Databricks automatically upgrades the serverless compute runtime to support enhancements and upgrades to the platform. All users get the same updates, rolled out over a short period of time.

How do I determine which serverless version I am running?​

Serverless workloads always run on the latest runtime version. See Release notes for the most recent version.

How do I estimate costs for serverless?​

Databricks recommends running and benchmarking a representative or specific workload and then analyzing the billing system table. See Billable usage system table reference.

How do I analyze DBU usage for a specific workload?​

To see the cost for a specific workload, query the system.billing.usage system table. See Monitor the cost of serverless compute for sample queries and to download our cost observability dashboard.

Is there a delay between when you run a job or query and the appearance of charges on the billable usage system table?​

Yes, there could be up to a 24-hour delay between when you run a workload and its usage being reflected in the billable usage system table.

I haven't enabled serverless compute for jobs and notebooks, why do I see billing records for serverless jobs?​

Lakehouse Monitoring and predictive optimization are also billed under the serverless jobs SKU.

Serverless compute does not have to be enabled to use these two features.

Does serverless compute support private repos?​

Repositories can be private or require authentication. For security reasons, a pre-signed URL is required when accessing authenticated repositories.

How do I install libraries for my job tasks?​

Databricks recommends using environments to install and manage libraries for your jobs. See Configure environment for non-notebook job tasks.

Can I connect to custom data sources?​

No, only sources that use Lakehouse Federation are supported. See Supported data sources.

How does the serverless compute plane networking work?​

Serverless compute resources run in the serverless compute plane, which is managed by Databricks. For more details on the network and architecture, see Serverless compute plane networking.

Can I configure serverless compute for jobs with Databricks Asset Bundles?​

Yes, Databricks Asset Bundles can be used to configure jobs that use serverless compute. See Job that uses serverless compute.

How do I run my serverless workload from my local development machine or from my data application?​

Databricks Connect allows you to connect to Databricks from your local machine and run workloads on serverless. See What is Databricks Connect?.

Last updated on