Default storage in serverless workspaces

Preview

This feature is in Private Preview and only available in serverless workspace or accounts enrolled in the private preview.

Default storage provides a fully-managed storage location for your Databricks workspace and Unity Catalog catalogs. Default storage allows you to create workspaces without configuring root storage, and create managed tables and volumes without configuring storage credentials and external locations on Unity Catalog.

Important

During the Private Preview, Databricks does not recommend storing production data or sensitive data in default storage or running any production workloads using default storage.

Create a catalog with default storage

Serverless workspaces come with default catalogs in their default storage. To create additional catalogs in your default storage, you can use both Catalog Explorer in the workspace UI and SQL command CREATE CATALOG catalog_name.

You must have CREATE CATALOG privileges to create a catalog with default storage. See Unity Catalog privileges and securable objects.

In the UI, complete the following steps to create a new catalog using default storage:

Click Catalog in the sidebar. Catalog Explorer appears.
Click Create catalog. The Create a new catalog dialog appears.
Provide a Catalog name that is unique in you account.
Select the option to Use default storage.
Click Create.

In serverless workspaces, you can also use the following SQL command to create a new catalog in your default storage. You do not need to specify a location for the catalog.

CREATE CATALOG [ IF NOT EXISTS ] catalog_name
    [ COMMENT comment ]

Work with default storage

Resources backed by default storage use the same privilege model as other objects in Unity Catalog. You must have sufficient privileges to create, view, query, or modify data objects. See Unity Catalog privileges and securable objects.

By default, catalogs backed by default storage are visible in all your account’s workspaces in the same region. You can disable this behavior by binding the catalog to a single workspace. See Limit catalog access to specific workspaces.

You work with default storage by creating and interacting with managed tables and managed volumes backed by default storage. See Work with managed tables and What are Unity Catalog volumes?.

You can use Catalog Explorer, notebooks, the SQL editor, and dashboards to interact with data objects stored in default storage.

Example tasks

The following are examples of tasks you can complete with default storage:

Upload local files to a managed volume or to create a managed table. See Upload files to a Unity Catalog volume and Create or modify a table using file upload.
Query data with notebooks. See Get started: Query and visualize data from a notebook.
Create a dashboard. See Create a dashboard.
Query data with SQL and schedule SQL queries. See Write queries and explore data in the SQL editor.
Ingest data from an external volume to a managed table. See Using Auto Loader with Unity Catalog.
Ingest data to a managed table with Fivetran. See Connect to Fivetran.
Use BI tools to explore managed tables. See Connect Tableau and Databricks and Connect Power BI to Databricks.
Run serverless notebooks. See Serverless compute for notebooks.
Run serverless jobs. See Run your Databricks job with serverless compute for workflows.
Run model serving endpoints. See Model serving with Databricks.
Run serverless Delta Live Tables pipelines. See Configure a serverless Delta Live Tables pipeline.
Use predictive optimization on your tables. See Predictive optimization for Unity Catalog managed tables.

Limitations

Classic compute (any compute that is not serverless) cannot interact with data assets in default storage.
Delta Sharing supports sharing data assets from default storage within the same Databricks account, but not with other Databricks accounts or open Delta Sharing clients.
External readers and writers cannot access default storage.
Default storage is not compatible with advanced networking configurations or customer-managed keys.