Authentication and access control
This article introduces authentication and access control in Databricks. For information about securing access to your data, see Data governance with Unity Catalog.
Sign in to Databricks
Databricks recommends configuring single sign-on (SSO) and unified login for greater security and improved usability. SSO enables your users to sign in to Databricks using your organization’s identity provider.
Unified login allows you to manage a single SSO configuration for your Databricks account and workspaces. If your account was created after June 21, 2023 or you did not configure SSO before December 12, 2024, unified login is enabled on your account for all workspaces, new and existing, and it cannot be disabled. Once SSO is configured, you can enable fine-grained access control, such as multi-factor authentication, via your identity provider. See Configure SSO in Databricks.
If you don’t configure single sign-on, users can login to Databricks using a selected external account, like Google, or a one-time passcode. See Sign-in with email or external accounts.
To prevent lockouts, account admins can set up emergency access for up to 20 users. These users can sign into Databricks using a password and multi-factor authentication. See Emergency access to prevent lockouts.
Sync users and groups from your identity provider
You can sync users and groups automatically from your identity provider to your Databricks account using SCIM. SCIM is an open standard that allows you to automate user provisioning. SCIM enables a consistent onboarding and offboarding process. It uses your identity provider to create users and groups in Databricks and give them the proper level of access. When a user leaves your organization or no longer needs access to Databricks, admins can remove the user from your identity provider, and that user is deactivated in Databricks. This prevents unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data. For more information, see Sync users and groups from your identity provider using SCIM.
For more information on how to best configure users and groups in Databricks, see Identity best practices.
Secure API authentication with OAuth
Databricks OAuth supports secure credentials and access for resources and operations at the Databricks workspace level and supports fine-grained permissions for authorization.
Basic authentication using a Databricks username and password reached end of life on July 10, 2024. See End of life for Databricks-managed passwords.
Databricks also supports personal access tokens (PATs), but recommends you use OAuth instead. To monitor and manage PATs, see Monitor and revoke personal access tokens and Manage personal access token permissions.
For more information on authenticating to Databricks automation overall, see Authorizing access to Databricks resources.
Access control overview
In Databricks, there are different access control systems for different securable objects. The table below shows which access control system governs which type of securable object.
Securable object | Access control system |
|---|---|
Workspace-level securable objects | Access control lists |
Account-level securable objects | Account role based access control |
Data securable objects | Unity Catalog |
Databricks also provides admin roles and entitlements that are assigned directly to users, service principals, and groups.
For information about securing data, see Data governance with Unity Catalog.
Access control lists
In Databricks, you can use access control lists (ACLs) to configure permission to access workspace objects such as notebooks and SQL Warehouses. All workspace admin users can manage access control lists, as can users who have been given delegated permissions to manage access control lists. For more information on access control lists, see Access control lists.
Account role based access control
You can use account role based access control to configure permission to use account-level objects such as service principals and groups. Account roles are defined once, in your account, and apply across all workspaces. All account admin users can manage account roles, as can users who have been given delegated permissions to manage them, such as group managers and service principal managers.
Follow these articles for more information on account roles on specific account-level objects:
Admin roles and workspace entitlements
There are two main levels of admin privileges available on the Databricks platform:
- Account admins: Manage the Databricks account, including workspace creation, user management, cloud resources, and account usage monitoring.
- Workspace admins: Manage workspace identities, access control, settings, and features for individual workspaces in the account.
There are also feature-specific admin roles with a narrower set of privileges. To learn about the available roles, see Databricks administration introduction.
An entitlement is a property that allows a user, service principal, or group to interact with Databricks in a specified way. Workspace admins assign entitlements to users, service principals, and groups at the workspace-level. For more information, see Manage entitlements.