What are SQL Warehouses?

A SQL warehouse is a compute resource that lets you run SQL commands on data objects within Databricks SQL. Compute resources are infrastructure resources that provide processing capabilities in the cloud. Your SQL warehouse connects you to the compute and data that you use to run your SQL queries. For information on creating SQL warehouses, see Configure SQL warehouses.

Available warehouse types

Databricks SQL supports two warehouse types, each with different levels of performance and feature support.

Note

For pricing for each warehouse type and a detailed feature comparison, see <DBSQL>. To learn about the latest Databricks SQL features, see Databricks SQL release notes.

  • Pro: Supports additional Databricks SQL performance features (compared to classic) and supports all Databricks SQL functionality.

  • Classic: Supports entry level performance features and a limited set of Databricks SQL functionality. The classic SQL warehouse type is not enabled by default.

What are the warehouse type defaults?

  • Using the UI, the default SQL warehouse type is pro.

  • Using the SQL Warehouses API with default parameters, the default SQL warehouse type is classic.

Databricks SQL and third party BI tools

Databricks SQL supports many third party BI and visualization tools that can connect to SQL Warehouses. See also Databricks and PowerBI and Databricks and Tableau.

Databricks SQL APIs

Databricks SQL also provides a robust API for your programming needs.

Developer tools

You can use a variety of developer tools to run SQL commands and scripts and to browse database objects in Databricks. See Use a SQL database tool.