Azure DB Workspace Not Connected to DB Account Unity Catalog & Admin Console Missing (identity=null)

kashif_dev — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:00:33 GMT

Hi team,

I created a brand-new Azure environment and an Azure Databricks workspace, but the workspace appears to be in classic (legacy) mode and is not connected to a Databricks Account, so Unity Catalog cannot be enabled.

Below are all the details and logs.

Environment

Azure Free Trial subscription
Logging in using personal Gmail-based Microsoft Entra ID tenant
Workspace created using ARM template (API version 2023-02-01)
Region: East US
SKU: Premium

Symptoms

Workspace UI shows no Admin Console
No Manage Account link
Cannot create or attach a metastore
Unity Catalog options are missing
Cluster creation shows the “Unity Catalog” capability label, but UC is not actually active
Workspace identity =null
Trying to assign a managed identity fails

Identity Issue

CLI output: "identity": null

Trying to attach User Assigned Identity:
CannotSetResourceIdentity
Resource type 'Microsoft.Databricks/workspaces' does not support creation of 'UserAssigned' identity.
Supported types: 'None'

Role Assignments

Workspace IAM:[] empty

Storage Account IAM:

Only my service principal has Storage Blob Data Contributor.

What I Attempted

Added user-assigned identity manually → fails with error above
Tried attaching Access Connector → not supported
Tried ARM template with identity block → deployment fails
Tried patching workspace identity via CLI az rest → error persists
Tried logging in via Incognito / different browsers
No option for Account Console appears at all

What I suspect

Workspace has been provisioned in legacy classic mode
Free-tier + Gmail-based tenant may prevent Account-level registration
Unity Catalog provisioning might be restricted for this tenant type
Workspace cannot attach any form of managed identity

Questions & Doubts

Are Azure Free Trial + personal Gmail Entra tenants restricted from Unity Catalog provisioning?
Is there any supported method to convert this workspace into a UC-enabled workspace?
Are there any workaround this issue or anyone has faced is earlier ?

Re: Azure DB Workspace Not Connected to DB Account Unity Catalog & Admin Console Missing (identi

Coffee77 — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:28:34 GMT

I think you need a "corporate" account with Azure Global Administrator role to enable/access Databricks account. For instance, in some of my demo workspaces I can't access to UC with my "hotmail" account. I haven't looked deeper into it so far. So, as a workaround, I access with a "guest" account with corporate email and proper permissions in my demo tenant. Take a look here for more info on Databricks accounts https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/admin/admin-concepts#account-admins

On the other hand, concerning managed identities, you can use the one assigned to Azure Connector for Databricks for whatever action you need. I use indeed that identity to integrate catalogs in ADLS. I explain that in my youtube channel but only in Spanish so far. However, you can search on Databricks channel as well.

topic Azure DB Workspace Not Connected to DB Account Unity Catalog & Admin Console Missing (identity=null) in Administration & Architecture