Apache Iceberg on Databricks

Databricks provides multiple ways to work with Apache Iceberg: native managed Iceberg tables, UniForm for Delta-to-Iceberg interoperability, and the Iceberg REST Catalog (IRC) for external engine access.

Critical Rules (always follow)

MUST use Unity Catalog — all Iceberg features require UC-enabled workspaces
MUST NOT install an Iceberg library into Databricks Runtime (DBR includes built-in Iceberg support; adding a library causes version conflicts)
MUST NOT set write.metadata.path or write.metadata.previous-versions-max — Databricks manages metadata locations automatically; overriding causes corruption
MUST determine which Iceberg pattern fits the use case before writing code — see the When to Use section below
MUST know that both PARTITIONED BY and CLUSTER BY produce the same Iceberg metadata for external engines — UC maintains an Iceberg partition spec with partition fields corresponding to the clustering keys, so external engines reading via IRC see a partitioned Iceberg table (not Hive-style, but proper Iceberg partition fields) and can prune on those fields; internally UC uses those fields as liquid clustering keys; the only differences between the two syntaxes are: (1) PARTITIONED BY is standard Iceberg DDL (any engine can create the table), while CLUSTER BY is DBR-only DDL; (2) PARTITIONED BY auto-handles DV/row-tracking properties, while CLUSTER BY requires manual TBLPROPERTIES on v2
MUST NOT use expression-based partition transforms (bucket(), years(), months(), days(), hours()) with PARTITIONED BY on managed Iceberg tables — only plain column references are supported; expression transforms cause errors
MUST disable deletion vectors and row tracking when using CLUSTER BY on Iceberg v2 tables — set 'delta.enableDeletionVectors' = false and 'delta.enableRowTracking' = false in TBLPROPERTIES (Iceberg v3 handles this automatically; PARTITIONED BY handles this automatically on both v2 and v3)

Key Concepts

Concept	Summary
Managed Iceberg Table	Native Iceberg table created with `USING ICEBERG` — full read/write in Databricks and via external Iceberg engines
External Iceberg Reads (Uniform)	Delta table that auto-generates Iceberg metadata — read as Iceberg externally, write as Delta internally
Compatibility Mode	UniForm variant for streaming tables and materialized views in SDP pipelines
Iceberg REST Catalog (IRC)	Unity Catalog's built-in REST endpoint implementing the Iceberg REST Catalog spec — lets external engines (Spark, PyIceberg, Snowflake) access UC-managed Iceberg data
Iceberg v3	Next-gen format (Beta, DBR 17.3+) — deletion vectors, VARIANT type, row lineage

Quick Start

Create a Managed Iceberg Table

-- No clustering
CREATE TABLE my_catalog.my_schema.events
USING ICEBERG
AS SELECT * FROM raw_events;

-- PARTITIONED BY (recommended for cross-platform): standard Iceberg syntax, works on EMR/OSS Spark/Trino/Flink
-- auto-disables DVs and row tracking — no TBLPROPERTIES needed on v2 or v3
CREATE TABLE my_catalog.my_schema.events
USING ICEBERG
PARTITIONED BY (event_date)
AS SELECT * FROM raw_events;

-- CLUSTER BY on Iceberg v2 (DBR-only syntax): must manually disable DVs and row tracking
CREATE TABLE my_catalog.my_schema.events
USING ICEBERG
TBLPROPERTIES (
  'delta.enableDeletionVectors' = false,
  'delta.enableRowTracking' = false
)
CLUSTER BY (event_date)
AS SELECT * FROM raw_events;

-- CLUSTER BY on Iceberg v3 (DBR-only syntax): no TBLPROPERTIES needed
CREATE TABLE my_catalog.my_schema.events
USING ICEBERG
TBLPROPERTIES ('format-version' = '3')
CLUSTER BY (event_date)
AS SELECT * FROM raw_events;

Enable UniForm on an Existing Delta Table

ALTER TABLE my_catalog.my_schema.customers
SET TBLPROPERTIES (
  'delta.columnMapping.mode' = 'name',
  'delta.enableIcebergCompatV2' = 'true',
  'delta.universalFormat.enabledFormats' = 'iceberg'
);

Read/Write Capability Matrix

Table Type	Databricks Read	Databricks Write	External IRC Read	External IRC Write
Managed Iceberg (`USING ICEBERG`)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Delta + UniForm	Yes (as Delta)	Yes (as Delta)	Yes (as Iceberg)	No
Delta + Compatibility Mode	Yes (as Delta)	Yes	Yes (as Iceberg)	No

Reference Files

File	Summary	Keywords
1-managed-iceberg-tables.md	Creating and managing native Iceberg tables — DDL, DML, Liquid Clustering, Predictive Optimization, Iceberg v3, limitations	CREATE TABLE USING ICEBERG, CTAS, MERGE, time travel, deletion vectors, VARIANT
2-uniform-and-compatibility.md	Making Delta tables readable as Iceberg — UniForm for regular tables, Compatibility Mode for streaming tables and MVs	UniForm, universalFormat, Compatibility Mode, streaming tables, materialized views, SDP
3-iceberg-rest-catalog.md	Exposing Databricks tables to external engines via the IRC endpoint — auth, credential vending, IP access lists	IRC, REST Catalog, credential vending, EXTERNAL USE SCHEMA, PAT, OAuth
4-snowflake-interop.md	Bidirectional Snowflake-Databricks integration — catalog integration, foreign catalogs, vended credentials	Snowflake, catalog integration, external volume, vended credentials, REFRESH_INTERVAL_SECONDS
5-external-engine-interop.md	Connecting PyIceberg, OSS Spark, AWS EMR, Apache Flink, and Kafka Connect via IRC	PyIceberg, OSS Spark, EMR, Flink, Kafka Connect, pyiceberg.yaml

When to Use

Creating a new Iceberg table → 1-managed-iceberg-tables.md
Making an existing Delta table readable as Iceberg → 2-uniform-and-compatibility.md
Making a streaming table or MV readable as Iceberg → 2-uniform-and-compatibility.md (Compatibility Mode section)
Choosing between Managed Iceberg vs UniForm vs Compatibility Mode → decision table in 2-uniform-and-compatibility.md
Exposing Databricks tables to external engines via REST API → 3-iceberg-rest-catalog.md
Integrating Databricks with Snowflake (either direction) → 4-snowflake-interop.md
Connecting PyIceberg, OSS Spark, Flink, EMR, or Kafka → 5-external-engine-interop.md

Common Issues

Issue	Solution
No Change Data Feed (CDF)	CDF is not supported on managed Iceberg tables. Use Delta + UniForm if you need CDF.
UniForm async delay	Iceberg metadata generation is asynchronous. After a write, there may be a brief delay before external engines see the latest data. Check status with `DESCRIBE EXTENDED table_name`.
Compression codec change	Managed Iceberg tables use `zstd` compression by default (not `snappy`). Older Iceberg readers that don't support zstd will fail. Verify reader compatibility or set `write.parquet.compression-codec` to `snappy`.
Snowflake 1000-commit limit	Snowflake's Iceberg catalog integration can only see the last 1000 Iceberg commits. High-frequency writers must compact metadata or Snowflake will lose visibility of older data.
Deletion vectors with UniForm	UniForm requires deletion vectors to be disabled (`delta.enableDeletionVectors = false`). If your table has deletion vectors enabled, disable them before enabling UniForm.
No shallow clone for Iceberg	`SHALLOW CLONE` is not supported for Iceberg tables. Use `DEEP CLONE` or `CREATE TABLE ... AS SELECT` instead.
Version mismatch with external engines	Ensure external engines use an Iceberg library version compatible with the format version of your tables. Iceberg v3 tables require Iceberg library 1.9.0+.

Related Skills

databricks-unity-catalog — catalog/schema management, governance, system tables
databricks-spark-declarative-pipelines — SDP pipelines (streaming tables, materialized views with Compatibility Mode)
databricks-python-sdk — Python SDK and REST API for Databricks operations
databricks-dbsql — SQL warehouse features, query patterns

Resources

Iceberg Overview — main hub for Iceberg on Databricks
UniForm — Delta Universal Format
Iceberg REST Catalog — IRC endpoint and external engine access
Compatibility Mode — UniForm for streaming tables and MVs
Iceberg v3 — next-gen format features (Beta)
Foreign Tables — reading external catalog data

databricks-iceberg