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Migrate from legacy and third party online tables

This page describes how to migrate your existing Databricks online tables (legacy). You can migrate to the following:

  • An online feature store
  • A Lakebase synced table
important

Databricks online tables (legacy) are deprecated. After January 15, 2026, you will not be able to access these tables.

Databricks Online Feature Store (powered by Lakebase) is the recommended approach for online feature serving.

List all existing online tables​

To see all existing online tables in your workspace, use a SQL query or a Python script.

Replace <workspace_url> and <workspace_id> with your workspace information.

SQL
SELECT
  CONCAT("https://<workspace_url>/pipelines/", usage_metadata.dlt_pipeline_id, "?o=<workspace_id>"),
  SUM(usage_quantity)
FROM
  system.billing.usage
WHERE
  usage_date > DATE_SUB(NOW(), 7)
  AND billing_origin_product = 'ONLINE_TABLES'
GROUP BY
  ALL;

Migrate online tables to online feature store for model or feature serving endpoints​

Preview

This feature is in Public Preview and is available in the following regions:

us-east-1, us-west-2, eu-west-1, ap-southeast-1, ap-southeast-2, eu-central-1, us-east-2, ap-south-1

Step 1: Create an online feature store and publish the feature tables​

Databricks recommends creating a single online store per workspace for testing and proof of concept. For production use cases or isolation requirements, you can provision additional stores.

Python
from databricks.feature_engineering import FeatureEngineeringClient

fe = FeatureEngineeringClient()

# Create a single online store that can support multiple feature tables
fe.create_online_store(
    name="online-feature-store",
    capacity="CU_1"
)

For details on publishing feature tables, see Databricks Online Feature Stores.

Step 2: Update the endpoint that depends on these online features​

Use Databricks SDK for Python or the UI to update the endpoint with a new environment variable MIGRATE_FEATURE_STORE with the current date as the value.

Python
from databricks.sdk import WorkspaceClient
from databricks.sdk.service.serving import EndpointCoreConfigInput, ServedEntityInput

workspace = WorkspaceClient()

workspace.serving_endpoints.update_config(
  name="my-serving-endpoint",
  served_entities=[
    ServedEntityInput(
      entity_name="main.default.customer_features",
      workload_size="Small",
      scale_to_zero_enabled=True,
      environment_vars={
        # Set to the current date (optional time) to indicate migration to online store
        # This environment variable can be removed after January 15, 2026.
        "MIGRATE_FEATURE_STORE": "2025-11-13"
      }
    )
  ]
)

For details, see Update an endpoint.

Step 3: Clean up your online tables​

Verify that the endpoint is using the new online store by checking if the endpoint events contain messages like Linked to Online Feature Store table: "table name". See Monitor model quality and endpoint health.

Next, delete your legacy online tables. See Delete an online table using the UI or Delete an online table using APIs.

Migrate online tables to synced tables for OLTP​

Preview

This feature is in Public Preview in the following regions: us-east-1, us-west-2, eu-west-1, ap-southeast-1, ap-southeast-2, eu-central-1, us-east-2, ap-south-1.

Lakebase (Public Preview) is the current production-ready version. For the latest features including database branching, autoscaling, and scale-to-zero, try Lakebase Postgres (Beta), available for evaluation only. See choosing between versions to understand which version is right for you.

Step 1: Create a database instance​

To start, create a Lakebase database instance to store your synced tables. See Create and manage a database instance.

Optionally, you can create a database catalog to use Unity Catalog privileges to manage data access. See Register your database in Unity Catalog.

Step 2: Create a synced table from the source table​

A synced table is a Unity Catalog read-only Postgres table that automatically synchronizes data from a Unity Catalog table to your Lakebase database instance.

To migrate from online tables to synced tables, create a synced table from the source table of an online table:

  1. In Data icon. Catalog, select the online table you want to migrate to a synced table.
  2. In the Overview tab, under the Description section, click the name of the Source table.
  3. Create a synced table from the selected source table. See Sync data from Unity Catalog tables to a database instance.
    • You can store the synced table in the same catalog location as the existing online table.
    • You can share a pipeline between synced tables.
  4. After your synced table is created, you can connect to the database instance and query it directly. See Connect and query.

Step 3: Clean up your online tables​

After you create your synced tables, delete your online tables. See Delete an online table using the UI or Delete an online table using APIs.