---
title: "Setup guide"
slug: "databricks-source-setup-guide"
updated: 2026-08-21T06:27:41Z
published: 2026-08-21T06:27:41Z
canonical: "bobsled.com/databricks-source-setup-guide"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://bobsled.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Setup guide

This article will describe the steps for a Provider to configure **Bobsled** access to a Databricks workspace to be used as a **source** in **Bobsled**.

> [!NOTE]
> **Availability:** Databricks as a source is currently supported **only for Sledhouse**
> 
> Databricks as a source is currently supported **only for Sledhouse** (Sledhouse Tables and Data Products). It is not yet available as a source for Bobsled Transfers. If you need Databricks as a source for Transfers, reach out to your Bobsled account team.

---

## Prerequisites

- A Databricks workspace on AWS, Azure, or GCP with **Unity Catalog** enabled.
- Access to a Databricks user with the privileges required to create recipients and create/modify shares in Unity Catalog.

---

## Choose an authentication method

Bobsled supports two ways to authenticate to your Databricks source. Choose one when you create the source:

- **Token (activation link)** — you create an Open Sharing recipient with a token, and Databricks gives you an activation link that you paste into Bobsled. Simplest to set up, but the token is long-lived and you are responsible for rotating it. Follow **Setup instructions — Token (activation link)** below.
- **OIDC federation** *(recommended)* — Bobsled authenticates with short-lived, automatically-rotating tokens, and no credential is stored. Set-up is a two-way exchange: Bobsled gives you values to configure on your Databricks recipient, and you give Bobsled the recipient’s endpoints. Follow **Setup instructions — OIDC federation** below.

---

## Setup instructions — Token (activation link)

### Step 1: Create an Open Sharing recipient in Databricks

1. In your Databricks workspace, open the **Catalog** explorer and navigate to **Delta Sharing → Shared by me**.
2. Click the **Recipients** tab, then click **New recipient**.
3. Provide a **Recipient name** (e.g. `bobsled_source`).
4. For **Recipient type**, select **Open** and **Token**. Set the token lifetime: Open Sharing tokens have an expiration set at recipient creation time. Set this long enough to cover your expected usage, or plan to rotate it.
5. Click **Create**.
6. Databricks will display an **Activation link** (a URL containing an embedded token) with an expiration time. **Copy the activation link** — you will paste this into Bobsled in Step 3. You will not be able to retrieve the same link again after closing the dialog; if you lose it, you can rotate the token on the recipient to generate a new one.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/87a415ff-4d6a-4c0c-adbb-26c563a2d9a8/Images/Documentation/Screenshot 2026-03-04 at 14.22.15.png)

![](https://cdn.document360.io/87a415ff-4d6a-4c0c-adbb-26c563a2d9a8/Images/Documentation/Screenshot 2026-04-23 at 18.23.56.png)

> [!NOTE]
> Rotating the recipient token
> 
> If the activation link is leaked, expired, or otherwise needs to be rotated, rotate the token on the recipient in Databricks (Shared by me → Recipients → your recipient → Rotate token). This produces a new activation link. Edit the Bobsled source and paste in the new link.

### Step 2: Create a Delta Share granted to the recipient

1. Still under **Delta Sharing → Shared by me**, click **Share Data**.
2. Provide a **Share name** (e.g. `bobsled_share`). **Write this name down** — you will enter it into Bobsled in Step 4.
3. Open the newly created share and click **Manage assets → Add data assets**.
4. Select the **tables**, **views**, or **schemas** you want to send to Bobsled, and confirm. You can return here later to add or remove assets.
5. You can leave the “**Add notebooks**” step blank, and click **Save and continue**.
6. In the **Add recipients** step, add the newly created Bobsled recipient. Click **Share data** to finish creating the share.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/87a415ff-4d6a-4c0c-adbb-26c563a2d9a8/Images/Documentation/Screenshot 2026-04-23 at 18.25.21.png)

> [!NOTE]
> Delta Sharing limitation — no cross-share references
> 
> Tables and views added to a Delta Share cannot reference data from another inbound share. This is enforced by Databricks on the delta sharing protocol, on the provider side. If you need to share a view that joins objects from different shares, materialize the result into a table in your own metastore.

At this point your Databricks side is fully configured. You should have two values ready to enter into Bobsled:

- The **Share name** (e.g. `bobsled_share`)
- The **Activation link** (e.g. `https://<workspace-host>/api/2.0/unity-catalog/public/data_sharing_activation/<token>`)

### Step 3: Configure source in Bobsled

1. **Log in** to your Bobsled Environment.
2. Select **Data Sources** in the left sidebar and then **Add source** at the top right of the page.
3. Enter a human-readable **name** to describe the source.
4. Select **Databricks** and the **cloud** and **region** of your Databricks account. Click **Continue** to move to the next step.
5. Enter the **Share name** from Step 2 in the `Share Name` field.
6. Paste the **Activation link** from Step 1 into the `Activation Link` field.
7. Click **Save**.

---

## Setup instructions — OIDC federation

With OIDC federation, Bobsled authenticates to Databricks using short-lived tokens it mints on demand — nothing is stored as a credential. Because the setup is a two-way exchange, you start in Bobsled to get the values you configure on your Databricks recipient, then return to Bobsled with the recipient’s endpoints.

### Step 1: Start the source in Bobsled to get your federation values

1. **Log in** to your Bobsled Environment.
2. Select **Data Sources** in the left sidebar, then **Add source** at the top right.
3. Enter a human-readable **name**, select **Databricks** and the **cloud** and **region** of your Databricks account, and click **Continue**.
4. For the authentication method, choose **OIDC**.
5. Under **Configure your Databricks recipient**, Bobsled shows the values you’ll configure on your Databricks recipient in Step 2. Keep this tab open:

- **Issuer URL** — e.g. `https://<your-bobsled-domain>/oidc/<your-slug>`
- **Subject claim** — `sub`
- **Subject** — `bobsled-source-connect@<project>.iam.gserviceaccount.com`
- **Audience** — `databricks-source:<source-id>`

Bobsled also shows a **Recipient federation policy** block you can copy these values from.

> 📷 **Screenshot:** Bobsled OIDC source form showing the four recipient-federation values (Issuer URL, Subject claim = `sub`, Subject, Audience).

### Step 2: Create an OIDC federation recipient in Databricks

1. In your Databricks workspace, open the **Catalog** explorer and navigate to **Delta Sharing → Shared by me → Recipients**, then click **New recipient**.
2. Provide a **Recipient name** (e.g. `bobsled_source`).
3. For **Recipient type**, select **Open**.
4. For the authentication method, select **OIDC Federation**.
5. Add an **OIDC federation policy** and fill it with the values from Step 1:

- **Issuer URL** → Bobsled’s **Issuer URL**
- **Subject claim** → **sub**
- **Subject** → Bobsled’s **Subject**
- **Audiences** → Bobsled’s **Audience**

Save the policy, then click **Create**.

> 📷 **Screenshot:** Databricks **Create a new recipient** dialog with **Recipient type = Open** and authentication **OIDC Federation**.

> 📷 **Screenshot:** Databricks **Add OIDC federation policy** dialog (Issuer URL, Subject claim = `sub`, Subject, Audiences).

### Step 3: Create a Delta Share granted to the recipient

This is identical to the Token method. Follow **Step 2: Create a Delta Share granted to the recipient** above, adding the OIDC recipient you just created. Write down the **Share name**.

### Step 4: Copy the recipient’s endpoints from Databricks

1. On the recipient’s **Overview** page, copy the **Recipient endpoint** — this is your **Delta Sharing endpoint**: `https://<workspace-host>/api/2.0/delta-sharing/metastores/<metastoreId>/recipients/<recipientId>`
2. For the **Iceberg endpoint**, open the **Iceberg OIDC profile** for the recipient, download the `oauth_config.share` file, and copy the `endpoint` value from inside it.

> [!NOTE]
> Use the Recipient endpoint — not the profile-generation portal links
> 
> Databricks also shows **OIDC profile generation portal** and **Iceberg OIDC profile generation portal** links (`…/delta-sharing/oidc-profile-generation?…`). Those are download links for the profile file, **not** the sharing endpoint. Pasting one into Bobsled makes the connection test fail, because the URL returns an HTML page instead of the Delta Sharing API.

> 📷 **Screenshot:** Databricks recipient **Recipient endpoint** field.

### Step 5: Finish the source in Bobsled

1. Return to the Bobsled source form and enter the **Share name** from Step 3.
2. Paste the **Recipient endpoint** into the **Delta Sharing endpoint** field, and the **Iceberg endpoint** into the **Iceberg endpoint** field. Alternatively, upload the `oauth_config.share` file and Bobsled reads the endpoints from it.
3. Click **Save**.

Bobsled mints a short-lived token and tests the connection. The source moves to **Connected** once Databricks validates it.

> 📷 **Screenshot:** Bobsled Data Sources list showing the OIDC source **Connected**.

> [!NOTE]
> Troubleshooting
> 
> Connection test fails with `Unexpected token '<' … not valid JSON` → you used a profile-generation portal URL as the endpoint. Use the **Recipient endpoint** (`…/api/2.0/delta-sharing/metastores/…/recipients/…`) instead. `401`/`403` from Databricks → a federation-policy value doesn’t match. Re-check that **Subject claim** is `sub` and that the **Issuer URL**, **Subject**, and **Audience** are copied exactly from Bobsled.

---

Once you’ve successfully configured your Source, you can start syncing [Sledhouse Tables](/v2/docs/create-and-manage-sledhouse-tables) and defining [Data Products](/v2/docs/create-and-manage-data-products).