Databricks Deploy Integration

Overview

Deploy Databricks jobs, DLT pipelines, and ML models using Declarative Automation Bundles (DABs, formerly Asset Bundles). Bundles provide infrastructure-as-code with databricks.yml defining resources, targets (dev/staging/prod), variables, and permissions. The CLI handles validation, deployment, and lifecycle management.

Prerequisites

• Databricks CLI v0.200+ (databricks --version)
• Workspace access with service principal for automated deploys
• databricks.yml bundle configuration at project root

Instructions

Step 1: Initialize a Bundle

# Create from a template
databricks bundle init

# Available templates:
# - default-python: Python notebook project
# - default-sql: SQL project
# - mlops-stacks: Full MLOps template with feature engineering

Step 2: Configure databricks.yml

# databricks.yml — single source of truth for project deployment
bundle:
  name: sales-etl-pipeline

workspace:
  host: ${DATABRICKS_HOST}

variables:
  catalog:
    description: Unity Catalog name
    default: dev_catalog
  alert_email:
    description: Alert notification email
    default: dev@company.com
  warehouse_size:
    default: "2X-Small"

include:
  - resources/*.yml

targets:
  dev:
    default: true
    mode: development
    # dev mode auto-prefixes resources with [username] and enables debug
    workspace:
      root_path: /Users/${workspace.current_user.userName}/.bundle/${bundle.name}/dev
    variables:
      catalog: dev_catalog

  staging:
    workspace:
      root_path: /Shared/.bundle/${bundle.name}/staging
    variables:
      catalog: staging_catalog
      alert_email: staging-alerts@company.com

  prod:
    mode: production
    # production mode prevents accidental destruction
    workspace:
      root_path: /Shared/.bundle/${bundle.name}/prod
    variables:
      catalog: prod_catalog
      alert_email: oncall@company.com
      warehouse_size: "Medium"

Step 3: Define Resources

# resources/jobs.yml
resources:
  jobs:
    daily_etl:
      name: "daily-etl-${bundle.target}"
      max_concurrent_runs: 1
      timeout_seconds: 14400

      schedule:
        quartz_cron_expression: "0 0 6 * * ?"
        timezone_id: "UTC"

      email_notifications:
        on_failure: ["${var.alert_email}"]

      tasks:
        - task_key: extract
          notebook_task:
            notebook_path: ./src/extract.py
            base_parameters:
              catalog: "${var.catalog}"
          job_cluster_key: etl

        - task_key: transform
          depends_on: [{task_key: extract}]
          notebook_task:
            notebook_path: ./src/transform.py
          job_cluster_key: etl

        - task_key: load
          depends_on: [{task_key: transform}]
          notebook_task:
            notebook_path: ./src/load.py
          job_cluster_key: etl

      job_clusters:
        - job_cluster_key: etl
          new_cluster:
            spark_version: "14.3.x-scala2.12"
            node_type_id: "i3.xlarge"
            autoscale:
              min_workers: 1
              max_workers: 4
            aws_attributes:
              availability: SPOT_WITH_FALLBACK
              first_on_demand: 1

# resources/pipelines.yml (DLT)
resources:
  pipelines:
    dlt_pipeline:
      name: "dlt-pipeline-${bundle.target}"
      target: "${var.catalog}.silver"
      catalog: "${var.catalog}"
      libraries:
        - notebook:
            path: ./src/dlt_pipeline.py
      continuous: false
      development: ${bundle.target == "dev"}

Step 4: Deploy Lifecycle Commands

# Validate — checks YAML syntax, variable resolution, permissions
databricks bundle validate -t staging

# Deploy — creates/updates jobs, uploads notebooks, syncs config
databricks bundle deploy -t staging

# Summary — show what's deployed
databricks bundle summary -t staging

# Run — trigger a specific job/pipeline
databricks bundle run daily_etl -t staging

# Run and wait for completion
databricks bundle run daily_etl -t staging --restart-all-workflows

# Sync — live-reload files during development
databricks bundle sync -t dev --watch

# Destroy — remove all deployed resources (dev only!)
databricks bundle destroy -t dev --auto-approve

Step 5: Promote Staging to Production

# 1. Validate staging is clean
databricks bundle validate -t staging

# 2. Deploy and test on staging
databricks bundle deploy -t staging
RUN=$(databricks bundle run daily_etl -t staging --output json | jq -r '.run_id')
databricks runs get --run-id $RUN | jq '.state.result_state'

# 3. After staging passes, deploy to production
databricks bundle validate -t prod
databricks bundle deploy -t prod

# 4. Verify production deployment
databricks bundle summary -t prod
databricks jobs list --output json | \
  jq '.[] | select(.settings.name | contains("daily-etl-prod"))'

Step 6: Permissions in Bundles

# resources/jobs.yml — add permissions block
resources:
  jobs:
    daily_etl:
      name: "daily-etl-${bundle.target}"
      permissions:
        - group_name: data-engineers
          level: CAN_MANAGE
        - group_name: data-analysts
          level: CAN_VIEW
        - service_principal_name: cicd-service-principal
          level: CAN_MANAGE_RUN

Output

• databricks.yml with multi-target deployment (dev/staging/prod)
• Job and pipeline resources defined as code
• Environment-specific variables (catalog, alerts, sizing)
• Promotion workflow from staging to production
• Permissions managed declaratively in bundle config

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
bundle validate fails	Invalid YAML or unresolved variable	Check variable definitions and target config
PERMISSION_DENIED on deploy	Service principal lacks workspace access	Add SP to workspace in Account Console
RESOURCE_CONFLICT	Resource name collision across targets	Bundle auto-prefixes in development mode
Cluster quota exceeded	Too many active clusters	Use instance pools or terminate idle clusters
Cannot destroy production	mode: production prevents accidental destroy	This is intentional — remove mode or use --force

Examples

Override Variables per Target

# Override a variable at deploy time
databricks bundle deploy -t prod --var="warehouse_size=Large"

Clean Slate Redeploy (Dev Only)

databricks bundle destroy -t dev --auto-approve
databricks bundle deploy -t dev

Resources

• Declarative Automation Bundles
• Bundle Configuration Reference
• Bundle Resources
• Deployment Modes

Next Steps

For multi-environment setup, see databricks-multi-env-setup.