JDBC and ODBC drivers and configuration parameters

You can connect business intelligence (BI) tools to Databricks Workspace clusters and SQL Analytics SQL endpoints to query data in tables. This article describes how to get JDBC and ODBC drivers and configuration parameters to connect to clusters and SQL endpoints. For tool-specific connection instructions, see Business intelligence tools.

Permission requirements

The permissions required to access compute resources using JDBC or ODBC depend on whether you are connecting to a cluster or a SQL endpoint.

Workspace cluster requirements

To access a cluster, you must have Can Attach To permission.

If you connect to a terminated cluster and have Can Restart permission, the cluster is started.

SQL Analytics SQL endpoint requirements

To access a SQL endpoint, you must have Can Use permission.

If you connect to a stopped endpoint and have Can Use permission, the SQL endpoint is started.

Step 1: Download and install a JDBC or ODBC driver

For all BI tools, you need a JDBC or ODBC driver to make a connection to Databricks compute resources.

1. Go to the Databricks JDBC / ODBC Driver Download page.
2. Fill out the form and submit it. The page will update with links to multiple download options.
3. Select a driver and download it.
4. Install the driver. For JDBC, a JAR is provided which does not require installation. For ODBC, an installation package is provided for your chosen platform.

Step 2: Collect JDBC or ODBC connection information

To configure a JDBC or ODBC driver, you must collect connection information from Databricks. Here are some of the parameters a JDBC or ODBC driver might require:

Parameter	Value
Authentication	See Get authentication credentials.
Host, port, HTTP path, JDBC URL	See Get server hostname, port, HTTP path, and JDBC URL.

The following are usually specified in the httpPath for JDBC and the DSN conf for ODBC:

Parameter	Value
Spark server type	Spark Thrift Server
Schema/Database	default
Authentication mechanism AuthMech	See Get authentication credentials.
Thrift transport	http
SSL	1

Get authentication credentials

This section describes how to collect the credentials supported for authenticating BI tools to Databricks compute resources.

Username and password authentication

If SSO is enabled, you must use a personal access token. If SSO is disabled, you can use a Databricks username and password to authenticate.

• Username: token
• Password: A user generated token. The procedure for retrieving a token for username and password authentication depends on whether you are using a Databricks Workspace cluster or a SQL Analytics SQL endpoint.
  • Workspace personal access token: Get a personal access token using the instructions in Generate a personal access token.
  • SQL Analytics personal access token: Get a personal access token using the instructions in Generate a personal access token.

Get server hostname, port, HTTP path, and JDBC URL

The procedure for retrieving JDBC and ODBC parameters depends on whether you are using a Databricks Workspace cluster or a SQL Analytics SQL endpoint.

Workspace cluster

1. Click the icon in the sidebar.

2. Click a cluster.

3. Click the Advanced Options toggle.

4. Click the JDBC/ODBC tab.

   

5. Copy the parameters required by your BI tool.

SQL Analytics SQL endpoint

1. Click the icon in the sidebar.

2. Click an endpoint.

3. Click the Connection Details tab.

   

4. Copy the parameters required by your BI tool.

Step 3: Configure JDBC URL

The steps for configuring the JDBC URL depend on whether you are using a Databricks Workspace cluster or a SQL Analytics SQL endpoint.

Workspace cluster

Replace <personal-access-token> with the token you created in Get authentication credentials. For example:

jdbc:spark://<server-hostname>:443/default;transportMode=http;ssl=1;httpPath=sql/protocolv1/o/0/xxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxxxx;AuthMech=3;UID=token;PWD=<personal-access-token>

SQL Analytics SQL endpoint

Replace <personal-access-token> with the token you created in Get authentication credentials. For example:

jdbc:spark://<server-hostname>:443/default;transportMode=http;ssl=1;httpPath=sql/protocolv1/o/0/xxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxxxx;AuthMech=3;UID=token;PWD=<personal-access-token>

Configure for native query syntax

JDBC and ODBC drivers accept SQL queries in ANSI SQL-92 dialect and translate the queries to Spark SQL. If your application generates Spark SQL directly or your application uses any non-ANSI SQL-92 standard SQL syntax specific to Databricks, Databricks recommends that you add ;UseNativeQuery=1 to the connection configuration. With that setting, drivers pass the SQL queries verbatim to Databricks.

Configure ODBC Data Source Name for the Simba ODBC driver

The Data Source Name (DSN) configuration contains the parameters for communicating with a specific database. BI tools like Tableau usually provide a user interface for entering these parameters. If you have to install and manage the Simba ODBC driver yourself, you might need to create the configuration files and also allow your Driver Manager (ODBC Data Source Administrator on Windows and unixODBC/iODBC on Unix) to access them. Create two files: /etc/odbc.ini and /etc/odbcinst.ini.

/etc/odbc.ini

1. Set the content of /etc/odbc.ini to:

   [Databricks-Spark]
   Driver=Simba
   Server=<server-hostname>
   HOST=<server-hostname>
   PORT=<port>
   SparkServerType=3
   Schema=default
   ThriftTransport=2
   SSL=1
   AuthMech=3
   UID=token
   PWD=<personal-access-token>
   HTTPPath=<http-path>
   

2. Set <personal-access-token> to the token you retrieved in Get authentication credentials.

3. Set the server, port, and HTTP parameters to the ones you retrieved in Get server hostname, port, HTTP path, and JDBC URL.

/etc/odbcinst.ini

Set the content of /etc/odbcinst.ini to:

[ODBC Drivers]
Simba = Installed
[Simba Spark ODBC Driver 64-bit]
Driver = <driver-path>

Set <driver-path> according to the operating system you chose when you downloaded the driver in Step 1:

• MacOs /Library/simba/spark/lib/libsparkodbc_sbu.dylib
• Linux (64-bit) /opt/simba/spark/lib/64/libsparkodbc_sb64.so
• Linux (32-bit) /opt/simba/spark/lib/32/libsparkodbc_sb32.so

Configure paths of ODBC configuration files

Specify the paths of the two files in environment variables so that they can be used by the Driver Manager:

export ODBCINI=/etc/odbc.ini
export ODBCSYSINI=/etc/odbcinst.ini
export SIMBASPARKINI=<simba-ini-path>/simba.sparkodbc.ini # (Contains the configuration for debugging the Simba driver)

where <simba-ini-path> is

• MacOS /Library/simba/spark/lib
• Linux (64-bit) /opt/simba/sparkodbc/lib/64
• Linux (32-bit) /opt/simba/sparkodbc/lib/32

Troubleshooting

See Troubleshooting JDBC and ODBC connections.