Customer-managed keys for encryption

This article provides an overview of customer-managed keys for encryption.

Note

This feature requires the Premium plan.

To configure customer-managed keys for encryption, see Configure customer-managed keys for encryption.

Customer-managed keys for encryption overview

Some services and data support adding a customer-managed key to help protect and control access to encrypted data. You can use the key management service in your cloud to maintain a customer-managed encryption key.

Databricks has two customer-managed key use cases that involve different types of data and locations:

• Managed services: Data in the Databricks control plane (notebooks, secrets, and Databricks SQL query data).

• Workspace storage: The two workspace storage buckets and the GCE Persistent Disk volumes of compute resources.

To configure customer-managed keys for workspace storage, see Configure customer-managed keys for encryption.

Customer-managed keys for managed services

Managed services data in the Databricks control plane is encrypted at rest. You can add a customer-managed key for managed services to help protect and control access to the following types of encrypted data:

• Notebook source in the Databricks control plane.

• Notebook results for notebooks run interactively (not as jobs) that are stored in the control plane. By default, larger results are also stored in your workspace root bucket. You can configure Databricks to store all interactive notebook results in your cloud account.

• Secrets stored in Databricks secrets.

• AI/BI dashboards.

• Databricks SQL queries and query history.

• Personal access tokens (PAT) or other credentials used to set up Git integration with Databricks Git folders.

To configure customer-managed keys for managed services, see Configure customer-managed keys for encryption.

Important

Only AI/BI dashboards created after November 1, 2024 are encrypted and compatible with customer-managed keys.

Customer-managed keys for workspace storage

You can add a customer-managed key for workspace storage to protect and control access to the following types of encrypted data:

• Your workspace storage buckets: If you add a workspace storage encryption key, Databricks encrypts the data on the two GCS buckets associated with the Google Cloud project that Databricks created when you created your workspace. These are known as the workspace storage buckets. One bucket contains DBFS root, which includes the FileStore area, MLflow Models, and Delta Live Table data in your DBFS root (not DBFS mounts). Another bucket contains workspace system data, which includes job results, Databricks SQL results, notebook revisions, and other workspace data.

• Your cluster’s GCE persistent disks: Your workspace storage encryption key is used to encrypt the GCE persistent disks of Databricks Runtime cluster nodes and other compute resources in the classic compute plane.

Compare customer-managed keys use cases

The following table lists which customer-managed key features are used for which types of data.

Type of data	Location	Which customer-managed key feature to use
AI/BI dashboards	Control plane	Managed services
Notebook source and metadata	Control plane	Managed services
Personal access tokens (PAT) or other credentials used for Git integration with Databricks Git folders	Control plane	Managed services
Secrets stored by the secret manager APIs	Control plane	Managed services
Databricks SQL queries and query history	Control plane	Managed services
The remote GCE Persistent Disk volumes for Databricks Runtime cluster nodes and other compute resources.	Classic compute plane in your Google Cloud account.	Workspace storage
Customer-accessible DBFS root data	DBFS root in your workspace storage bucket. This also includes the FileStore area.	Workspace storage
Job results	Workspace storage buckets in your Google Cloud account	Workspace storage
Databricks SQL query results	Workspace storage buckets in your Google Cloud account	Workspace storage
MLflow Models	Workspace storage buckets in your Google Cloud account	Workspace storage
Delta Live Table	If you use a DBFS path in your DBFS root, this is stored in the workspace storage buckets in your Google Cloud account. This does not apply to DBFS paths that represent mount points to other data sources.	Workspace storage
Interactive notebook results	By default, when you run a notebook interactively (rather than as a job) results are stored in the control plane for performance with some large results stored in your workspace storage bucket in your Google Cloud account. You can choose to configure Databricks to store all interactive notebook results in your Google Cloud account. See Configure the storage location for interactive notebook results.	For partial results in the control plane, use a customer-managed key for managed services. For results in the two GCS buckets, which you can configure for all result storage, use a customer-managed key for workspace storage. See Configure the storage location for interactive notebook results.