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Spark Databricks

A unified analytics platform on top of Apache Spark

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Spark Databricks + Metabase docs


Type

Official Connector

Built and managed by Metabase, available in all editions


Website

databricks.com


Support

Unlimited technical help available on paid plans

Make self-service analytics happen for your data in Databricks with Metabase

Metabase lets your whole team visualize and explore your data in Databricks with or without SQL.

  • Analyze vast amounts of data with a querying layer that sits on top of your data warehouse so your reports run as quick as Databricks.
  • Metabase lets everyone in your team visualize, query, and run reports without technical skills or needing to ask your data team for help.
Metabase Databricks analytics

Easy-to-use data exploration tools for people of all levels

Get a BI tool with friendly UX that lets everyone make sense of your data in Databricks.

  • Interactive dashboards that load as fast as Databricks does with click-to-explore functionality.
  • Click to drill through on interactive charts and dashboards, zoom in on timelines or areas of interest, and break out for more context on a specific area.
  • Ask questions with nothing more than clicks in the Query Builder—no SQL required (or use the SQL editor if that’s more your style).
  • Set up models and metrics to give less technical teammates metadata-rich starting points, with trickier stuff like joins taken care of.

Give data access with granularity

Keep everyone in their own lane.

  • Granular permissions for viewing and querying data, so people can see (and do) what they need to and nothing else.
  • Map permissions to user groups and attributes with SSO.
  • Detailed usage analytics lets you see who did what when.

Lots of options for sharing charts and dashboards with your team—or your customers

With as much interactivity and room to pull threads (or as little) as you want.

  • Customer-facing analytics is just a snippet away. Embed all of Metabase in your app, or just a dashboard.
  • Export charts and dashboards to PDF, CSV, or share via a public link.
  • Set up subscriptions for regularly scheduled updates. Even to people without a Metabase login.
  • Get alerts when things change unexpectedly.

Keep your data in Databricks

Metabase runs queries directly in Databricks, so your reports are always up-to-date.

Metabase features with Databricks


Available with all data sources

  • Unlimited queries, charts, and dashboards
  • Send dashboards and reports via email and Slack
  • Connect to multiple data sources and integrations
  • Single sign on via SAML, LDAP, or JWT
  • Interactive embedding with white label customization
  • Granular row- and column level permissions
See all features

Frequently asked questions

What’s the best business intelligence tool to connect to Databricks?

Databricks plays well with most reputable BI tools. Metabase is the most effective way to let everyone in the team start working with data. * Because of sophisticated but easy-to-use data tools like the query builder, which lets people ask questions without SQL, Metabase has a low learning curve. Simple drill-through, zoom-in, and breakout functionality lets people learn more from data with just a few clicks.

You can set up and connect Metabase to Databricks in about 5 minutes and begin querying immediately, with drill-through functionality automatically generated and ready for people to start uncovering insights. Metabase is also open source and affordable, with plans and pricing that scales with you.

How does Metabase connect to Databricks?

You can connect to Databricks when you’re setting up a new Metabase instance, or add a database connection any time in your admin settings:

To add a database connection, click on the gear icon in the top right, and navigate to Admin settings > Databases > Add a database.

For the full details on connecting Metabase to Databricks, check out our documentation.

Can I use permissions from my Databricks database in Metabase?

Databricks permissions can't be impersonated in Metabase (This is currently possible for PostgreSQL, Redshift, ClickHouse, and Snowflake databases).

With granular row-level permissions and user group mapping, you can effectively set up permissions to match those applied in Databricks.

Learn more about Metabase permissions in our documentation.

How can you visualize tables in Databricks?

Metabase fits with Databricks as a querying and visualization layer on top of your data. With Metabase you can query data in Databricks - with or without SQL - to create a broad range of data visualizations and types and tell a story with interactive dashboards. Viewers can filter and drill-through to get what’s most relevant, and dig deeper on what’s important to them. Visualizations and dashboards can even be shared or embedded in your app.

How can you query data in Databricks?

Metabase makes it possible for everyone in the team to run their own reports, without data skills or relying on someone else to write SQL for them. People used to working in Excel can leverage skills usually reserved for spreadsheets to get the answers they need from data in Databricks.

How to create dashboards using Databricks?

Metabase lets you bring together charts, visualizations, and questions into interactive dashboards that can be shared with your team and customers.

The automatically generated drill-through menu lets people click on charts to zero in on a particular category or parameter for further analysis; view individual records, or zoom in on a targeted date range. You can also add filters to let people slice the data on what’s most important to them, and add custom-click behaviors to guide data discovery (e.g. send people to a related dashboard).