Create a Looker user

Looker authenticates to Databricks by personal access tokens. Follow the Databricks documentation to create a personal access token for a Databricks user to use in Looker.

Add permissions to this user with GRANT.

At a minimum, the Looker user should have SELECT and READ_METADATA.

Server information

Follow the Databricks documentation to find the HTTP Path for your Databricks cluster. This will be referred to as <YOUR_HTTP_PATH> on this page.

Setting up persistent derived tables

To use persistent derived tables, create a separate database.

This will also require addional write-based user permissions to be granted.

Setting up the Looker connection

In the Admin section of Looker, select Connections, and then select New Connection.

• Name: Specify the name of the connection. This is how you will refer to the connection in LookML projects.
• Dialect: Specify the dialect Databricks.
• Host: Specify the hostname.
• Port: Specify the database port. The default is 443.
• Database: Specify the database name. The default is default.
• Username: Enter the value token (do not enter the Databricks user email in this field).
• Password: Enter the personal access token created earlier.
• Persistent Derived Tables: Check this box to enable persistent derived tables. This reveals the Temp Database field and the PDT Overrides column.
• Temp Database: Enter the database you would like to use to store PDTs.
• Max PDT Builder Connections: Specify the number of possible concurrent PDT builds on this connection. Setting this value too high could negatively impact query times. For more information, see the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page.
• Additional Params: Add any additional Spark JDBC parameters.
  • The following parameters are required: transportMode=http;httpPath=<YOUR_HTTP_PATH>
• PDT And Datagroup Maintenance Schedule: A cron expression that indicates when Looker should check datagroups and persistent derived tables. Read more about this setting in our PDT and datagroup maintenance schedule documentation.
• SSL: Check to use SSL connections.
• Verify SSL Cert: Check to enforce strict SSL certificate verification.
• Max Connections: Can be left at the default value initially. Read more about this setting in the Max Connections section of the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page.
• Connection Pool Timeout: Can be left at the default value initially. Read more about this setting in the Connection Pool Timeout section of the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page.
• SQL Runner Precache: To cause SQL Runner not to preload table information and to load table information only when a table is selected, uncheck this option. Read more about this setting in the SQL Runner Precache section of the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page.
• Database Time Zone: Specify the time zone used in the database. Leave this field blank if you do not want time zone conversion. See the Using time zone settings documentation page for more information.

Click Test These Settings to test the connection and make sure that it is configured correctly. If you see Can Connect, then press Add Connection. This runs the rest of the connection tests to verify that the service account was set up correctly and with the proper roles.

For more information about connection settings, see the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page.

Feature support

For Looker to support some features, your database dialect must also support them.

Databricks supports the following Looker features:

Next steps

After you have completed the database configuration, connect to the database from Looker.