What are init scripts?
An init script (initialization script) is a shell script that runs during startup of each cluster node before the Apache Spark driver or executor JVM starts.
Some examples of tasks performed by init scripts include:
Set system properties and environment variables used by the JVM.
Modify Spark configuration parameters.
Modify the JVM system classpath in special cases.
Install packages and libraries not included in Databricks Runtime. To install Python packages, use the Databricks
pipbinary located at/databricks/python/bin/pipto ensure that Python packages install into the Databricks Python virtual environment rather than the system Python environment. For example,/databricks/python/bin/pip install <package-name>.
Databricks recommends managing all init scripts as cluster-scoped init scripts stored in workspace files.
What types of init scripts does Databricks support?
Databricks supports two kinds of init scripts: cluster-scoped and global. Databricks only recommends using cluster-scoped init scripts. You can get behavior similar to global init script by associating cluster-scoped init scripts with cluster policies.
Cluster-scoped: run on every cluster configured with the script. This is the recommended way to run an init script. See Use cluster-scoped init scripts.
Global: run on all clusters in the workspace configured with Single User access mode or no-isolation shared access mode. Not run on clusters with shared access mode. They can help you to enforce consistent cluster configurations across your workspace. Use them carefully because they can cause unanticipated impacts, like library conflicts. Only workspace admin users can create global init scripts. See Use global init scripts.
Whenever you change any type of init script, you must restart all clusters affected by the script.