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

[kashif_dev]

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

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

What I suspect

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

Questions & Doubts 

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

[Coffee77]

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.