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Overview
- Connect to Databricks Unity Catalog and read Delta Lake tables
- Reference a table directly by
catalog.schema.table - Refresh on a schedule with standard cron expressions
What you'll need
Four pieces of information connect Ridge to your workspace. Collect these from Databricks before you start — the whole setup takes about five minutes.
Set up the connection
Step 1 — Create a Connection. On the Data page, click New Connection and choose Databricks. Enter the four credentials above, then save.
Step 2 — Create a Data Set. Click New, select Connection source, and pick the Databricks connection. A Data Set points at a specific table and carries its own refresh schedule.
Step 3 — Select a table. Pick the table Ridge reads from Unity Catalog, referenced as catalog.schema.table.
Step 4 — Schedule ingestion. Set an ingestion schedule with standard cron syntax, then save.
Cron schedule examples
| Schedule | Cron |
|---|---|
| Daily at midnight | 0 0 * * * |
| Every hour | 0 * * * * |
| Weekdays at 8am | 0 8 * * 1-5 |
What happens on each run: 1) Ridge reads the table from Databricks Unity Catalog. 2) The results are stored in Ridge's cloud. 3) The Data Set becomes available for visualization and the Data Agent.
Best practices
A few habits keep ingestion fast, secure, and predictable.
Supported features & limitations
Supported
- Unity Catalog tables — external and Delta external
- Delta Lake format
- Standard SQL data types
- Direct table references
- Scheduled, cron-based ingestion
- AWS-hosted workspaces only — Azure Databricks and Databricks on Google Cloud are not supported; a connection requires an AWS region.
- Unity Catalog required — legacy Hive metastore is not supported.
- One catalog per connection — a connection reads within the catalog you configure; add another connection for another catalog.
- Full refresh only — no incremental loading; use
WHEREto limit volume. - No streaming — data refreshes on your schedule, not in real time.
- No Delta Sharing — external tables only.
Troubleshooting
Most connection issues fall into four buckets. Expand the one that matches your error.
Invalid credentials
401, "invalid access token", "unauthorized", "Invalid token", "Authentication failed"
Your token is wrong or expired. Rotate or re-enter it, and check that you copied the token completely with no extra spaces. For service principals, confirm the principal has catalog access.
Insufficient permissions
403, "permission denied"
The token lacks rights on the catalog. Grant the principal access to the catalog or schema.
Resource not found
404, "resource does not exist", "catalog '…'"
The catalog or table name is wrong. Fix the catalog or table identifier.
Network unreachable
"could not resolve host", "timed out", "connection refused"
The endpoint is unreachable or egress is blocked. Check the endpoint URL and any egress allowlist.