Databricks Enterprise RBAC

Overview

Implement enterprise access control using Unity Catalog privileges, SCIM-provisioned groups, workspace entitlements, cluster policies, and audit logging. Unity Catalog uses a three-level namespace (catalog.schema.object) with privilege inheritance: granting USAGE on a catalog cascades to schemas. Account-level SCIM syncs groups from your IdP (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace).

Prerequisites

• Databricks Premium or Enterprise with Unity Catalog enabled
• Account admin access for SCIM and group management
• Identity Provider supporting SAML 2.0 and SCIM 2.0

Instructions

Step 1: Provision Groups via SCIM API

Sync groups from your IdP at the account level. Max 10,000 users + service principals and 5,000 groups per account.

# Create account-level groups that map to IdP teams
databricks account groups create --json '{
  "displayName": "data-engineers",
  "entitlements": [
    {"value": "workspace-access"},
    {"value": "databricks-sql-access"}
  ]
}'

databricks account groups create --json '{
  "displayName": "data-analysts",
  "entitlements": [
    {"value": "workspace-access"},
    {"value": "databricks-sql-access"}
  ]
}'

databricks account groups create --json '{
  "displayName": "ml-engineers",
  "entitlements": [
    {"value": "workspace-access"},
    {"value": "databricks-sql-access"},
    {"value": "allow-cluster-create"}
  ]
}'

# Assign groups to workspaces
from databricks.sdk import AccountClient

acct = AccountClient()

# Get workspace ID
workspaces = list(acct.workspaces.list())
prod_ws = next(ws for ws in workspaces if ws.workspace_name == "production")

# Assign group to workspace with permissions
acct.workspace_assignment.update(
    workspace_id=prod_ws.workspace_id,
    principal_id=group_id,
    permissions=["USER"],
)

Step 2: Unity Catalog Privilege Hierarchy

-- Privilege model: CATALOG > SCHEMA > TABLE/VIEW/FUNCTION
-- USAGE grants must cascade from catalog to schema

-- Data Engineers: full ETL access
GRANT USAGE ON CATALOG analytics TO `data-engineers`;
GRANT CREATE SCHEMA ON CATALOG analytics TO `data-engineers`;
GRANT CREATE, MODIFY, SELECT ON SCHEMA analytics.bronze TO `data-engineers`;
GRANT CREATE, MODIFY, SELECT ON SCHEMA analytics.silver TO `data-engineers`;
GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA analytics.gold TO `data-engineers`;

-- Data Analysts: read-only curated data
GRANT USAGE ON CATALOG analytics TO `data-analysts`;
GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA analytics.gold TO `data-analysts`;

-- ML Engineers: full ML lifecycle
GRANT USAGE ON CATALOG analytics TO `ml-engineers`;
GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA analytics.gold TO `ml-engineers`;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON SCHEMA analytics.ml_features TO `ml-engineers`;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON SCHEMA analytics.ml_models TO `ml-engineers`;

-- Service Principal: CI/CD automation
GRANT USAGE ON CATALOG analytics TO `cicd-service-principal`;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON CATALOG analytics TO `cicd-service-principal`;

Step 3: Cluster Policies by Role

from databricks.sdk import WorkspaceClient

w = WorkspaceClient()

# Analyst policy: restrict to SQL warehouses and small clusters
analyst_policy = w.cluster_policies.create(
    name="analyst-compute-policy",
    definition="""{
        "cluster_type": {
            "type": "allowlist",
            "values": ["all-purpose"],
            "hidden": false
        },
        "autotermination_minutes": {
            "type": "range",
            "minValue": 10,
            "maxValue": 30,
            "defaultValue": 15
        },
        "num_workers": {
            "type": "range",
            "minValue": 0,
            "maxValue": 4
        },
        "node_type_id": {
            "type": "allowlist",
            "values": ["m5.xlarge", "m5.2xlarge"]
        },
        "spark_conf.spark.databricks.cluster.profile": {
            "type": "fixed",
            "value": "singleNode"
        }
    }""",
)

# Assign to analysts group
w.cluster_policies.set_permissions(
    cluster_policy_id=analyst_policy.policy_id,
    access_control_list=[{
        "group_name": "data-analysts",
        "all_permissions": [{"permission_level": "CAN_USE"}],
    }],
)

Step 4: SQL Warehouse Permissions

# Grant warehouse access by group
databricks permissions update sql/warehouses/$WAREHOUSE_ID --json '[
  {"group_name": "data-analysts", "permission_level": "CAN_USE"},
  {"group_name": "data-engineers", "permission_level": "CAN_MANAGE"},
  {"group_name": "ml-engineers", "permission_level": "CAN_USE"}
]'

Step 5: Row-Level Security and Column Masking

-- Row filter: analysts only see their department's data
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION analytics.gold.dept_filter(dept STRING)
  RETURN IF(IS_ACCOUNT_GROUP_MEMBER('data-admins'), true,
            dept = current_user_department());

ALTER TABLE analytics.gold.sales
  SET ROW FILTER analytics.gold.dept_filter ON (department);

-- Column mask: hide email from non-engineers
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION analytics.gold.mask_email(email STRING)
  RETURN IF(IS_ACCOUNT_GROUP_MEMBER('data-engineers'), email,
            REGEXP_REPLACE(email, '(.).*@', '$1***@'));

ALTER TABLE analytics.gold.customers
  ALTER COLUMN email SET MASK analytics.gold.mask_email;

Step 6: Service Principal for Automation

from databricks.sdk import AccountClient

acct = AccountClient()

# Create service principal
sp = acct.service_principals.create(
    display_name="cicd-pipeline",
    active=True,
)

# Generate OAuth secret
secret = acct.service_principal_secrets.create(
    service_principal_id=sp.id,
)
print(f"Client ID: {sp.application_id}")
print(f"Secret: {secret.secret}")  # Store securely — shown only once

Step 7: Audit Access Patterns

-- Who accessed what in the last 7 days
SELECT event_time, user_identity.email AS actor,
       action_name, request_params
FROM system.access.audit
WHERE action_name LIKE '%Grant%' OR action_name LIKE '%Revoke%'
  AND event_date > current_date() - INTERVAL 7 DAYS
ORDER BY event_time DESC;

-- Excessive privilege detection
SELECT user_identity.email, action_name, COUNT(*) AS access_count
FROM system.access.audit
WHERE event_date > current_date() - INTERVAL 30 DAYS
  AND service_name = 'unityCatalog'
GROUP BY user_identity.email, action_name
HAVING COUNT(*) > 100
ORDER BY access_count DESC;

Output

• Account-level groups provisioned via SCIM matching IdP teams
• Unity Catalog grants enforcing least-privilege across medallion layers
• Cluster policies restricting compute by role (analysts vs engineers)
• SQL warehouse permissions assigned per group
• Row-level security and column masking for PII protection
• Service principal for CI/CD with OAuth M2M
• Audit queries for ongoing compliance monitoring

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
PERMISSION_DENIED on table	Missing USAGE on parent catalog/schema	Grant USAGE at each namespace level
SCIM sync fails	Expired bearer token	Regenerate account-level PAT or use OAuth
Can't create cluster	No matching cluster policy	Assign a policy to the user's group
Can't see SQL warehouse	Missing CAN_USE grant	Add warehouse permission for the group
Row filter too slow	Complex subquery in filter function	Materialize permissions in a small lookup table

Examples

Verify Current Permissions

SHOW GRANTS ON CATALOG analytics;
SHOW GRANTS `data-analysts` ON SCHEMA analytics.gold;
SHOW GRANTS ON TABLE analytics.gold.sales;

Permission Matrix Reference

Role	Bronze	Silver	Gold	ML	Clusters	Warehouses
Data Engineer	Read/Write	Read/Write	Read	-	Create (policy)	Use/Manage
Data Analyst	-	-	Read	-	Single-node (policy)	Use
ML Engineer	-	Read	Read	Read/Write	Create (policy)	Use
Admin	Full	Full	Full	Full	Unrestricted	Manage
CI/CD SP	Full	Full	Full	Full	Manage	-

Resources

• Unity Catalog Privileges
• SCIM Provisioning
• Cluster Policies
• Row and Column Filters