Difference between username and account_id

[edmundsecho]

I have a web app that can read files from a person's cloud-based drive (e.g., OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox).  The app gets access to the files using OAuth2. The app only ever has access to the files for that user.  Part of the configuration requires that I register my web app with the cloud-based drive provider. 

I'm looking at the databricks sdk docs to figure out how to accomplish the same.  In this case, the app would gain access to the tables where the user has a select grant.  The scope of the ask would include `sql`.  I'm trying to figure out how to register my client app with databricks.  To that end, I wonder what the difference is between the account_id and username.  Are all usernames guaranteed to be unique when logging into databricks?  If so, that would be sufficient to identify what privileges that user/principal has.  And thus, what is the purpose of account_id? 

[Yeshwanth · Accepted solution]

Hey @edmundsecho 

Databricks Account Id: 

All the databricks workspaces will be linked to an Account and the account_id is the unique identifier for the Account.

Read more about Databricks Account here: https://docs.databricks.com/en/administration-guide/account-settings/index.html#manage-your-databric...

User name:

This doc will help you understand this better: https://docs.databricks.com/en/administration-guide/users-groups/users.html

[edmundsecho]

The provided links were helpful.  The take-away

* usernames are "globally" unique to an individual; the username is the person's email.

* a username can be associated with up to 50 accounts; account_ids track the resources available to the user.

This closes out on this question.