topic Re: Is there a way to register S3 compatible tables? in Administration & Architecture

Is there a way to register S3 compatible tables?

tabasco — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 01:59:10 GMT

Hi everyone,
I have successfully registered AWS S3 tables in unity catalog, but I would like to register S3-compatible as well.

But, to create an EXTERNAL LOCATION in unity catalog, it seems I must register a credential. But the only suported credential type for S3 is IAM Role ARN. Since S3-compatible systems don't have a role ARN, it appears unity catalog does not support S3-compatible external locations.

Is there another way to register S3-compatible tables in UC?

Thank you in advance for any guidance.

Re: Is there a way to register S3 compatible tables?

BS_THE_ANALYST — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 07:59:20 GMT

Hey @tabasco, did you check out the External Table documentation in the Databricks AWS docs?

External Location
https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-external-locations

Credentials
https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-storage-credentials

@tabasco it does appear that it's supporting an AWS IAM role. What would you be looking for instead?

All the best,
BS

Re: Is there a way to register S3 compatible tables?

tabasco — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 01:59:46 GMT

Thank you for your kind response.

My point is that for S3-compatible storage, we can access objects with an S3 endpoint, access key, and secret key instead of using a roleARN.

But currently, it seems that only roleARN are supported for creating credentials.

Also, I did see a similar question before, but that was from two years ago, so I was just wondering if there have been any updates since there.

https://community.databricks.com/t5/administration-architecture/setup-unity-catalog-external-location-to-minio/td-p/49895

Re: Is there a way to register S3 compatible tables?

szymon_dybczak — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 06:31:42 GMT

Hi @tabasco ,

And I can confirm. If you want to use S3 storage in UC the storage needs to support roleARN. I think you can still try to use S3-compatible storage in the old way - via mounts.

Re: Is there a way to register S3 compatible tables?

tabasco — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 06:42:10 GMT

Hi, @szymon_dybczak

Thank you for your kind reply.
It was very helpful for me.

Have a Good day !