Skip to main content

Use Unity Catalog

Specifies if the table create scripts should use Unity Catalog's three-level namespace (catalog.schema.table). This is the most impactful Databricks setting and controls how BimlFlex generates all DDL and notebook object references. When set to Y (default), generated scripts use the full catalog.schema.table form, which is the standard for Databricks Unity Catalog-enabled workspaces. When set to N, BimlFlex concatenates the schema and table names with an underscore — for example, raw.hub_customer becomes raw_hub_customer — which is compatible with legacy Hive metastore workspaces that do not support Unity Catalog.

This setting also controls whether two dependent features are active: DatabricksUseStoredProcedures and DatabricksMaterialiseCurrentViews are both silently disabled when Use Unity Catalog is set to N, regardless of their own setting values. When Use Unity Catalog is Y and Use Managed Tables is N, the ExternalLocation field on each Databricks connection becomes required (validation CON_21005007).

Notes:

  • This setting is part of the Databricks settings category.
  • The default value for this setting is Y.
  • When set to Y, table references use three-level namespace: catalog.schema.table.
  • When set to N, schema and table names are concatenated with underscores: schema_table.
  • This setting enables DatabricksUseStoredProcedures and DatabricksMaterialiseCurrentViews — both are inactive when this setting is N.
  • When combined with Use Managed Tables set to N, the connection's ExternalLocation field is required.