April 2024

These features and Databricks platform improvements were released in April 2024.

Note

Releases are staged. Your Databricks account might not be updated until a week or more after the initial release date.

Databricks Runtime 15.1 is GA

April 30, 2024

Databricks Runtime 15.1 and Databricks Runtime 15.1 ML are now generally available.

See Databricks Runtime 15.1 (EoS) and Databricks Runtime 15.1 for Machine Learning (EoS).

Databricks Assistant: Threads & history

April 29, 2024

Databricks Assistant now offers an opt-in experience that tracks query threads and history throughout editor contexts in your session. You can continue in the same thread, or start a new one if you want. See For an account: Disable or enable Databricks Assistant features for how to enable this experience.

Data lineage now captures reads on tables with column masks and row-level security

April 25, 2024

Data lineage now captures reads on tables that include column masks and row-level security. See Filter sensitive table data using row filters and column masks and Capture and view data lineage using Unity Catalog.

Notebooks now automatically detect SQL

April 24, 2024

Databricks notebooks automatically add the %sql magic command when you enter SQL in a notebook set to a default language other than SQL. Previously, to prevent an error, you needed to manually add the %sql magic command.

New columns added to the billable usage system table (Public Preview)

April 24, 2024

The billable usage system table (system.billing.usage) now includes new columns that help you identify the specific product and features associated with the usage. See Billable usage system table reference.

Delta Sharing supports tables that use column mapping (Public Preview)

April 23, 2024

Delta Sharing now supports the sharing of tables that use column mapping. Recipients can read tables that use column mapping using a SQL warehouse, a cluster running Databricks Runtime 14.1 or above, or compute that is running open source delta-sharing-spark 3.1 or above.

See Add tables with deletion vectors or column mapping to a share, Read tables with deletion vectors or column mapping enabled, and Read tables with deletion vectors or column mapping enabled.

Creation and installation of workspace libraries is no longer available

April 22, 2024

Workspace libraries, which have been deprecated since November 2023, can no longer be created or installed on compute. Note that storing libraries as workspace files is distinct from workspace libraries and is still fully supported. You can install libraries stored as workspace files directly to compute or job tasks. See Libraries.

Jobs created through the UI are now queued by default

April 18, 2024

Queueing of job runs is now automatically enabled when a job is created in the Databricks Jobs UI. When queueing is enabled, and a concurrency limit is reached, job runs are placed in a queue until capacity is available. See Enable queueing of job runs.

Lakehouse Federation supports foreign tables with case-sensitive identifiers

April 15, 2024

Lakehouse Federation is now able to federate foreign tables with case-sensitive identifiers for MySQL, SQL Server, BigQuery, Snowflake, and Postgres connections. See What is Lakehouse Federation?.

Serverless SQL warehouses (Public Preview)

April 12, 2024

Serverless SQL warehouses are now in Public Preview. Using the Databricks serverless architecture, a serverless SQL warehouse supports all of the performance features of Databricks SQL. With a serverless SQL warehouse and its performance features, you get:

  • Rapid startup time (typically between 2 and 6 seconds).

  • Rapid upscaling to acquire more compute when needed for maintaining low latency.

  • Query admittance closer to the hardware’s limitation rather than the virtual machine.

  • Quick downscaling to minimize costs when demand is low, providing consistent performance with optimized costs and resources.

See Enable serverless SQL warehouses.

Delta Live Tables notebook developer experience improvements (Public Preview)

April 3, 2024

Databricks has released a set of Public Preview features in Databricks notebooks that assist in the development and debugging of Delta Live Tables code. See Develop and debug Delta Live Tables pipelines in notebooks.