topic Re: Control Databricks Platform version in Data Engineering

Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 07:03:03 GMT

Hello there! ✌️

I have noticed that my Databricks UI has been changed from time to time, I was wondering how can I control the Databricks Platform version so I don't keep having new changes and new ways/names in my UI.

I have found a release page https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/release-notes where they explain what it is included in each release. Although, I have not found any documentation for how to control this changes and versions.

From my point of view, we should be able to control what is changed and when it is changed, so I was wondering if someone from this community knows how to control it.

PS. we are using Terraform to control the deployment of our Databricks Platform, so maybe we need to control it from there ¿?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 08:22:42 GMT

Hello @juanjomendez96

Updates to the control plane and user interface are typically automatically rolled out in staged deployments across regions and workspaces because Databricks manages the core platform, including the user interface, as a SaaS service.

This means that, unlike self-hosted software, you cannot directly pin or control the version of the entire platform.
As you can see from the release notes, there is no built-in way to opt out of platform UI general availability (GA) updates.

Manage/resistrick your databricks account

As a workspace or account admin, go to the Previews page in your workspace (accessible via the admin settings menu under your username in the top bar). More details on this can be found on the website :

https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/admin/workspace-settings/manage-previews#manage-previews

If you are trying to toggle between databricks sql current to preview or vice versa

If you want to switch between versions (Current → Preview or vice versa), you need to restart the SQL Warehouse. This works similarly to Databricks Runtime, but if the warehouse is set to Current, it will automatically update when Databricks releases a new stable version

Now, as you mentioned about terraform being used to control the deployment, may be see if there is any code which has databricks_runtime_version is showing preview rather than current.

I am also open for other solutions for this case.

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 08:31:47 GMT

Hello @Khaja_Zaffer !

thanks for the fast response, really appreciate it.

It is a pity that we do not have such control over what is deployed in our control plane, but I'm sure Databricks has a heavy reason to do this way.

Anyhow, I will talk with our Devops team to see if there is such option in the Terraform code, but AFAIK, there is not any way to control it from it (in the past they told me that there were not such option, maybe it has changed, who knows...)

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 08:38:15 GMT

Hello @juanjomendez96

Do you have any specific example where you dont want to see the changes and you feel like this changes are not required on your workspace?

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:10:38 GMT

well, for example, it seems the latest version of the Databricks Control Plane does not work properly for the apps, now I cannot assign any new permissions or revoke the existing ones. One week ago it worked like a charm, so I assume is due to the latest update in the Control Plane, that is why I would like to control the version used for the control plane...

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:24:31 GMT

Can you please share any screenshot that can help us.

There must be a workaround for sure. Because the updates don't over kill such things

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:30:24 GMT

unluckily I cannot share any screenshot, but the problem is as follows:

We click in the 'Permissions' button.

Then we add the groups to grant access.

Click on 'Add'.

Click on 'Save' button.

After this, we go again to the permissions section and the groups granted previously are not there.

Not sure if this has anything to do with the control plane version, but it seems that databricks team is changing a lot of things and we cannot track every new feature changed from the past. Another example could be the naming they follow, you learn something as it is right now and nothing confirms you that it will never change unexpectedly, we should be able to control the version of the control plane to avoid this kind of situations...

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:01:14 GMT

I understand your frustaton @juanjomendez96 but thats how the data world these days very much changing everyday to meet demands.

Anyhow, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/databricks/dev-tools/databricks-apps/permissions is the way to change the things which you are looking for.

If you are unable to make the changes by UI

You have alternative way!

Open a SQL Editor or Notebook in the workspace.

Run:

sql

-- Grant to a group (replace placeholders)
GRANT CAN_USE ON APP '<app-name-or-id>' TO `group-name`;

-- to Verify
SHOW GRANTS ON APP '<app-name-or-id>';

-- for revoke
REVOKE CAN_USE ON APP '<app-name-or-id>' FROM `group-name`;

This directly hits the backend and should persist if the UI is the culprit. Apps support group-based grants like users.

I hope this works.

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:26:02 GMT

Thanks for the response @Khaja_Zaffer , I have tried it but I cannot make it work. It keeps telling me that I have a syntax error in the SQL command (my application is called 'django-poc' and the group 'data_scientists')

GRANT CAN_USE ON APP 'django-poc' TO `data_scientists`;

And the error I receive is: Syntax error at or near ''django-poc''. SQLSTATE: 42601

Not sure what I'm doing wrong to be honest, do you have any clue by any chance?

Thanks in advance for your support, you have been really helpful.

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:33:19 GMT

@Khaja_Zaffer reviewing the documentation it seems the type APP does not exists yet (see options in https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-privileges#securable-objects).

I will wait for them to fix the permissions UI issue or for them to add the type APP to the GRANT command.

Thanks anyways for your efforts.

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:45:38 GMT

I think to enable a app via sql there is some limitation. I am sorry for that.

Do you have any idea enabiling via API?

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:48:06 GMT

Yeah, we can only do it by UI/API for apps.

I thought it would work via sql just like we do it for tables/schema.

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:54:19 GMT

Hello @juanjomendez96 (edited)

yes indeed you are right. There were some updates

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/dev-tools/databricks-apps/permissions

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/dev-tools/databricks-apps/auth

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

Khaja_Zaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:58:26 GMT

As per the document which is new:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/dev-tools/databricks-apps/auth#app-authorization

GRANT CAN USE ON APP `django-poc` TO `data_scientists`; should have worked! not sure what it is.

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

georgeb — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 10:53:29 GMT

Hi,

Can we get an official feedback when the issue with adding new users/groups in Databricks apps UI (not working) will be fixed? I tried with python SDK as well and it does not work.

The issue was posted previously and applies to my case as well.

unluckily I cannot share any screenshot, but the problem is as follows:

We click in the 'Permissions' button.

Then we add the groups to grant access.

Click on 'Add'.

Click on 'Save' button.

After this, we go again to the permissions section and the groups granted previously are not there.

Thank you,

George

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

juanjomendez96 — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 11:39:06 GMT

Hello @georgeb , after talking with Databricks team, I was able to grant and remove the access again. What they suggested was to add momentarily the user to the workspace that he's not part, remove the access from the application and then remove the user from the workspace permissions.

In this way, I was able to grant access to new groups and removing the existing ones. Before that, the permission control broke and I was unable to remove or grant permissions. Hope this works for you as well 😀

Re: Control Databricks Platform version

georgeb — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 11:42:44 GMT

Hi @juanjomendez96 ,

I had the same issue and solved it yesterday. However in the drop down list we should see only members of the specific workspace,not all members of the databricks account.

Thanks for the support!

George