topic Delta sharing to pandas error in Data Engineering

Delta sharing to pandas error

pogo — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 15:25:29 GMT

we are on a trial databricks premium workspace (fully managed by databricks)
we are trying to test Delta Sharing feature, where we are sharing UC table with a recipient using python client (outside of databricks). We are using `delta-sharing` python library, and setting up the client using very basic `delta_sharing.SharingClient(profile_file)` to setup the client.

We have no issues listing tables with this client, however when attempting to load data (eg client.to_pandas(table_url)) or check metadata from any of the shared tables we get this error:

'error_code': 'INVALID_PARAMETER_VALUE', 'message': 'DS_UNSUPPORTED_TABLE_TYPE: Could not retrieve ' 'dbdemos_sharing_air_linedata.fli**ghts from Share ' 'dbdemos_somename_air_lines because table with type [Databricks ' 'managed storage] is currently unsupported in delta sharing ' 'queries.'}

the error does not make a lot of sense, since you would think a table fully managed by Databricks would work with a Databricks core feature. the table is setup as a regular Delta table in UC (followed tutorial delta sharing air_lines)
perhaps this is a limitation of a trial subscription? or do we need to be on the "enterprise" version of workspace/databricks?
thank you.

Re: Delta sharing to pandas error

SP_6721 — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:24:36 GMT

Hi @pogo ,

Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I understand, this doesn’t seem to be an issue with the trial workspace. For Delta Sharing to work with external clients, the tables need to be stored in supported external locations, like a cloud object store. Managed tables under Unity Catalog aren’t currently supported for this use case.

Re: Delta sharing to pandas error

pogo — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 21:24:53 GMT

Yes - you are right, works on trial - i was able to setup S3 as an external location and configured the UC schema to use this S3 ext location, and then was able to query data from an external python client.