Description:
Unity Catalog in Azure Databricks is a unified governance solution that allows users to manage and control access to data assets across multiple workspaces. It provides centralized governance for data, notebooks, and other resources, enabling better control and visibility over data access and compliance. Ensuring that Unity Catalog is configured allows for consistent security policies and data management across Databricks.
Rationale:
Configuring Unity Catalog in Azure Databricks allows for centralized management of data governance, access control, and auditing. It integrates with Azure Active Directory (AAD) and other security services to enforce data access policies consistently across the workspace. This is crucial for organizations that require fine-grained control over data access, compliance with regulatory standards, and auditing of data access events.
Impact:
Implementing Unity Catalog ensures that your organization has a clear, manageable way to organize, control, and audit access to data across all Databricks workspaces. This adds a layer of security and governance, but may require some initial setup and integration with other Azure resources. It can also impact existing data access policies, so it's important to plan the migration and configuration accordingly.
Default Value:
By default, Unity Catalog is not enabled for Azure Databricks workspaces. It needs to be manually configured.
Pre-requisites:
Azure account with Azure Databricks workspace.
Admin access to Azure Databricks and the necessary permissions to configure Unity Catalog.
Azure Active Directory (AAD) integration should be in place for managing identity and access.
Databricks Premium Plan (Unity Catalog is available with this plan).
Audit:
Sign in to Azure portal as a Databricks Admin or Global Admin.
Navigate to the Azure Databricks workspace.
Ensure that Unity Catalog is configured by checking the Data section of the Databricks workspace.
Verify that data assets, schemas, and access control policies are being managed via Unity Catalog.
Implementation Steps:
Sign in to the Azure portal with Databricks Admin or appropriate privileges.
Ensure Unity Catalog is enabled for your Databricks workspace:
Go to your Azure Databricks workspace.
Under Admin Console, select Unity Catalog.
If Unity Catalog is not enabled, follow the prompts to enable it. You may need to configure Azure Active Directory (AAD) for user authentication and authorization.
Set up Unity Catalog for data management:
In the Admin Console, navigate to Data and select Unity Catalog.
Configure your metastore (the central store for managing metadata and access to data).
Set up data assets, such as tables, views, and files, that will be managed by Unity Catalog.
Configure permissions and access control:
Assign appropriate access control policies for users and groups in Azure Active Directory.
Specify the level of access (read, write, admin) for users/groups to specific data assets, databases, or schemas within Unity Catalog.
Integrate Unity Catalog with Azure Databricks cluster permissions to ensure that only authorized users and clusters can access specific data assets.
Validate Unity Catalog functionality:
After configuring Unity Catalog, test access by verifying that users can only access data they have permission for, and that auditing and logging are functioning as expected.
Check that all data access requests are routed through Unity Catalog and that any changes to data access policies are reflected in real-time.
Monitor and audit Unity Catalog usage:
Enable audit logs to track user activities related to data access and management.
Review the audit logs regularly for compliance monitoring and to ensure data governance policies are followed.
Backout Plan:
Sign in to the Azure portal as a Databricks Admin or Global Admin.
Navigate to the Azure Databricks workspace and open the Admin Console.
If necessary, disable Unity Catalog or remove the configurations by selecting the Disable Unity Catalog option in the Admin Console.
Revert any changes to data access control policies and ensure that users no longer have access to managed data assets.
Ensure that existing data access policies are restored if needed.
Test to confirm that Unity Catalog is no longer being used for data governance in the workspace.