Compute environments supported by Azure Data Factory and Synapse pipelines

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article explains different compute environments that you can use to process or transform data. It also provides details about different configurations (on-demand vs. bring your own) supported when configuring linked services linking these compute environments.

The following table provides a list of supported compute environments and the activities that can run on them.

Compute environment	Activities
On-demand HDInsight cluster or your own HDInsight cluster	Hive, Pig, Spark, MapReduce, Hadoop Streaming
Azure Batch	Custom
Azure Machine Learning	Azure Machine Learning Execute Pipeline
Azure SQL, Azure Synapse Analytics, SQL Server	Stored Procedure
Azure Databricks	Notebook, Jar, Python
Azure Synapse Analytics (Artifacts)	Synapse Notebook activity, Synapse Spark job definition
Azure Function	Azure Function activity

HDInsight compute environment

Refer to below table for details about the supported storage linked service types for configuration in On-demand and BYOC (Bring your own compute) environment.

In Compute Linked Service	Property Name	Description	Blob	ADLS Gen2	Azure SQL DB
On-demand	linkedServiceName	Azure Storage linked service to be used by the on-demand cluster for storing and processing data.	Yes	Yes	No
	additionalLinkedServiceNames	Specifies additional storage accounts for the HDInsight linked service so that the service can register them on your behalf.	Yes	No	No
	hcatalogLinkedServiceName	The name of Azure SQL linked service that point to the HCatalog database. The on-demand HDInsight cluster is created by using the Azure SQL database as the metastore.	No	No	Yes
BYOC	linkedServiceName	The Azure Storage linked service reference.	Yes	Yes	No
	additionalLinkedServiceNames	Specifies additional storage accounts for the HDInsight linked service so that the service can register them on your behalf.	No	No	No
	hcatalogLinkedServiceName	A reference to the Azure SQL linked service that points to the HCatalog database.	No	No	No

Azure HDInsight on-demand linked service

In this type of configuration, the computing environment is fully managed by the service. It is automatically created by the service before a job is submitted to process data and removed when the job is completed. You can create a linked service for the on-demand compute environment, configure it, and control granular settings for job execution, cluster management, and bootstrapping actions.

The service can automatically create an on-demand HDInsight cluster to process data. The cluster is created in the same region as the storage account (linkedServiceName property in the JSON) associated with the cluster. The storage account must be a general-purpose standard Azure Storage account.

Note the following important points about on-demand HDInsight linked service:

• The on-demand HDInsight cluster is created under your Azure subscription. You are able to see the cluster in your Azure portal when the cluster is up and running.
• The logs for jobs that are run on an on-demand HDInsight cluster are copied to the storage account associated with the HDInsight cluster. The clusterUserName, clusterPassword, clusterSshUserName, clusterSshPassword defined in your linked service definition are used to log in to the cluster for in-depth troubleshooting during the lifecycle of the cluster.
• You are charged only for the time when the HDInsight cluster is up and running jobs.
• You can use a Script Action with the Azure HDInsight on-demand linked service.

Example

The following JSON defines a Linux-based on-demand HDInsight linked service. The service automatically creates a Linux-based HDInsight cluster to process the required activity.

{
  "name": "HDInsightOnDemandLinkedService",
  "properties": {
    "type": "HDInsightOnDemand",
    "typeProperties": {
      "clusterType": "hadoop",
      "clusterSize": 1,
      "timeToLive": "00:15:00",
      "hostSubscriptionId": "<subscription ID>",
      "servicePrincipalId": "<service principal ID>",
      "servicePrincipalKey": {
        "value": "<service principal key>",
        "type": "SecureString"
      },
      "tenant": "<tenent id>",
      "clusterResourceGroup": "<resource group name>",
      "version": "3.6",
      "osType": "Linux",
      "linkedServiceName": {
        "referenceName": "AzureStorageLinkedService",
        "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
      }
    },
    "connectVia": {
      "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
      "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
    }
  }
}

Properties

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property should be set to HDInsightOnDemand.	Yes
clusterSize	Number of worker/data nodes in the cluster. The HDInsight cluster is created with 2 head nodes along with the number of worker nodes you specify for this property. The nodes are of size Standard_D3 that has 4 cores, so a 4 worker node cluster takes 24 cores (4*4 = 16 cores for worker nodes, plus 2*4 = 8 cores for head nodes). See Set up clusters in HDInsight with Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, and more for details.	Yes
linkedServiceName	Azure Storage linked service to be used by the on-demand cluster for storing and processing data. The HDInsight cluster is created in the same region as this Azure Storage account. Azure HDInsight has limitation on the total number of cores you can use in each Azure region it supports. Make sure you have enough core quotas in that Azure region to meet the required clusterSize. For details, refer to Set up clusters in HDInsight with Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, and more Currently, you cannot create an on-demand HDInsight cluster that uses an Azure Data Lake Storage (Gen 2) as the storage. If you want to store the result data from HDInsight processing in an Azure Data Lake Storage (Gen 2), use a Copy Activity to copy the data from the Azure Blob Storage to the Azure Data Lake Storage (Gen 2).	Yes
clusterResourceGroup	The HDInsight cluster is created in this resource group.	Yes
timetolive	The allowed idle time for the on-demand HDInsight cluster. Specifies how long the on-demand HDInsight cluster stays alive after completion of an activity run if there are no other active jobs in the cluster. The minimal allowed value is 5 minutes (00:05:00). For example, if an activity run takes 6 minutes and timetolive is set to 5 minutes, the cluster stays alive for 5 minutes after the 6 minutes of processing the activity run. If another activity run is executed with the 6-minutes window, it is processed by the same cluster. Creating an on-demand HDInsight cluster is an expensive operation (could take a while), so use this setting as needed to improve performance of the service by reusing an on-demand HDInsight cluster. If you set timetolive value to 0, the cluster is deleted as soon as the activity run completes. Whereas, if you set a high value, the cluster can stay idle for you to log on for some troubleshooting purpose but it could result in high costs. Therefore, it is important that you set the appropriate value based on your needs. If the timetolive property value is appropriately set, multiple pipelines can share the instance of the on-demand HDInsight cluster.	Yes
clusterType	The type of the HDInsight cluster to be created. Allowed values are "hadoop" and "spark". If not specified, default value is hadoop. Enterprise Security Package enabled cluster cannot be created on-demand, instead use an existing cluster/ bring your own compute.	No
version	Version of the HDInsight cluster. If not specified, it's using the current HDInsight defined default version.	No
hostSubscriptionId	The Azure subscription ID used to create HDInsight cluster. If not specified, it uses the Subscription ID of your Azure login context.	No
clusterNamePrefix	The prefix of HDI cluster name, a timestamp automatically appends at the end of the cluster name	No
sparkVersion	The version of spark if the cluster type is "Spark"	No
additionalLinkedServiceNames	Specifies additional storage accounts for the HDInsight linked service so that the service can register them on your behalf. These storage accounts must be in the same region as the HDInsight cluster, which is created in the same region as the storage account specified by linkedServiceName.	No
osType	Type of operating system. Allowed values are: Linux and Windows (for HDInsight 3.3 only). Default is Linux.	No
hcatalogLinkedServiceName	The name of Azure SQL linked service that point to the HCatalog database. The on-demand HDInsight cluster is created by using the Azure SQL Database as the metastore.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to dispatch the activities to this HDInsight linked service. For on-demand HDInsight linked service, it only supports Azure Integration Runtime. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No
clusterUserName	The username to access the cluster.	No
clusterPassword	The password in type of secure string to access the cluster.	No
clusterSshUserName	The username to SSH remotely connects to cluster's node (for Linux).	No
clusterSshPassword	The password in type of secure string to SSH remotely connect cluster's node (for Linux).	No
scriptActions	Specify script for HDInsight cluster customizations during on-demand cluster creation. Currently, the UI authoring tool supports specifying only 1 script action, but you can get through this limitation in the JSON (specify multiple script actions in the JSON).	No

• additionalLinkedServiceNames JSON example

"additionalLinkedServiceNames": [{
    "referenceName": "MyStorageLinkedService2",
    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"          
}]

Service principal authentication

The On-Demand HDInsight linked service requires a service principal authentication to create HDInsight clusters on your behalf. To use service principal authentication, register an application entity in Microsoft Entra ID and grant it the Contributor role of the subscription or the resource group in which the HDInsight cluster is created. For detailed steps, see Use portal to create a Microsoft Entra application and service principal that can access resources. Make note of the following values, which you use to define the linked service:

• Application ID
• Application key
• Tenant ID

Use service principal authentication by specifying the following properties:

Property	Description	Required
servicePrincipalId	Specify the application's client ID.	Yes
servicePrincipalKey	Specify the application's key.	Yes
tenant	Specify the tenant information (domain name or tenant ID) under which your application resides. You can retrieve it by hovering the mouse in the upper-right corner of the Azure portal.	Yes

Advanced Properties

You can also specify the following properties for the granular configuration of the on-demand HDInsight cluster.

Property	Description	Required
coreConfiguration	Specifies the core configuration parameters (as in core-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster to be created.	No
hBaseConfiguration	Specifies the HBase configuration parameters (hbase-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No
hdfsConfiguration	Specifies the HDFS configuration parameters (hdfs-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No
hiveConfiguration	Specifies the hive configuration parameters (hive-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No
mapReduceConfiguration	Specifies the MapReduce configuration parameters (mapred-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No
oozieConfiguration	Specifies the Oozie configuration parameters (oozie-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No
stormConfiguration	Specifies the Storm configuration parameters (storm-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No
yarnConfiguration	Specifies the Yarn configuration parameters (yarn-site.xml) for the HDInsight cluster.	No

• Example - On-demand HDInsight cluster configuration with advanced properties

{
    "name": " HDInsightOnDemandLinkedService",
    "properties": {
      "type": "HDInsightOnDemand",
      "typeProperties": {
          "clusterSize": 16,
          "timeToLive": "01:30:00",
          "hostSubscriptionId": "<subscription ID>",
          "servicePrincipalId": "<service principal ID>",
          "servicePrincipalKey": {
            "value": "<service principal key>",
            "type": "SecureString"
          },
          "tenant": "<tenent id>",
          "clusterResourceGroup": "<resource group name>",
          "version": "3.6",
          "osType": "Linux",
          "linkedServiceName": {
              "referenceName": "AzureStorageLinkedService",
              "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
            },
            "coreConfiguration": {
                "templeton.mapper.memory.mb": "5000"
            },
            "hiveConfiguration": {
                "templeton.mapper.memory.mb": "5000"
            },
            "mapReduceConfiguration": {
                "mapreduce.reduce.java.opts": "-Xmx4000m",
                "mapreduce.map.java.opts": "-Xmx4000m",
                "mapreduce.map.memory.mb": "5000",
                "mapreduce.reduce.memory.mb": "5000",
                "mapreduce.job.reduce.slowstart.completedmaps": "0.8"
            },
            "yarnConfiguration": {
                "yarn.app.mapreduce.am.resource.mb": "5000",
                "mapreduce.map.memory.mb": "5000"
            },
            "additionalLinkedServiceNames": [{
                "referenceName": "MyStorageLinkedService2",
                "type": "LinkedServiceReference"          
            }]
        }
    },
      "connectVia": {
      "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
      "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
    }
}

Node sizes

You can specify the sizes of head, data, and zookeeper nodes using the following properties:

Property	Description	Required
headNodeSize	Specifies the size of the head node. The default value is: Standard_D3. See the Specifying node sizes section for details.	No
dataNodeSize	Specifies the size of the data node. The default value is: Standard_D3.	No
zookeeperNodeSize	Specifies the size of the Zoo Keeper node. The default value is: Standard_D3.	No

• Specifying node sizes See the Sizes of Virtual Machines article for string values you need to specify for the properties mentioned in the previous section. The values need to conform to the CMDLETs & APIS referenced in the article. As you can see in the article, the data node of Large (default) size has 7-GB memory, which might not be good enough for your scenario.

If you want to create D4 sized head nodes and worker nodes, specify Standard_D4 as the value for headNodeSize and dataNodeSize properties.

"headNodeSize": "Standard_D4",    
"dataNodeSize": "Standard_D4",

If you specify a wrong value for these properties, you might receive the following error: Failed to create cluster. Exception: Unable to complete the cluster create operation. Operation failed with code '400'. Cluster left behind state: 'Error'. Message: 'PreClusterCreationValidationFailure'. When you receive this error, ensure that you are using the CMDLET & APIS name from the table in the Sizes of Virtual Machines article.

Bring your own compute environment

In this type of configuration, users can register an already existing computing environment as a linked service. The computing environment is managed by the user and the service uses it to execute the activities.

This type of configuration is supported for the following compute environments:

• Azure HDInsight
• Azure Batch
• Azure SQL DB, Azure Synapse Analytics, SQL Server

Azure HDInsight linked service

You can create an Azure HDInsight linked service to register your own HDInsight cluster with a data factory or Synapse workspace.

Example

{
    "name": "HDInsightLinkedService",
    "properties": {
      "type": "HDInsight",
      "typeProperties": {
        "clusterUri": " https://<hdinsightclustername>.azurehdinsight.cn/",
        "userName": "username",
        "password": {
            "value": "passwordvalue",
            "type": "SecureString"
          },
        "linkedServiceName": {
              "referenceName": "AzureStorageLinkedService",
              "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
      },
      "connectVia": {
        "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
        "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
      }
    }
  }

Properties

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property should be set to HDInsight.	Yes
clusterUri	The URI of the HDInsight cluster.	Yes
username	Specify the name of the user to be used to connect to an existing HDInsight cluster.	Yes
password	Specify password for the user account.	Yes
linkedServiceName	Name of the Azure Storage linked service that refers to the Azure blob storage used by the HDInsight cluster. Currently, you cannot specify an Azure Data Lake Storage (Gen 2) linked service for this property. If the HDInsight cluster has access to the Data Lake Store, you may access data in the Azure Data Lake Storage (Gen 2) from Hive/Pig scripts.	Yes
isEspEnabled	Specify 'true' if the HDInsight cluster is Enterprise Security Package enabled. Default is 'false'.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to dispatch the activities to this linked service. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime. For Enterprise Security Package (ESP) enabled HDInsight cluster use a self-hosted integration runtime, which has a line of sight to the cluster or it should be deployed inside the same Virtual Network as the ESP HDInsight cluster.	No

Azure Batch linked service

You can create an Azure Batch linked service to register a Batch pool of virtual machines (VMs) to a data or Synapse workspace. You can run Custom activity using Azure Batch.

See following articles if you are new to Azure Batch service:

• Azure Batch basics for an overview of the Azure Batch service.
• New-AzBatchAccount cmdlet to create an Azure Batch account (or) Azure portal to create the Azure Batch account using Azure portal. See Using PowerShell to manage Azure Batch Account article for detailed instructions on using the cmdlet.
• New-AzBatchPool cmdlet to create an Azure Batch pool.

Example

{
    "name": "AzureBatchLinkedService",
    "properties": {
      "type": "AzureBatch",
      "typeProperties": {
        "accountName": "batchaccount",
        "accessKey": {
          "type": "SecureString",
          "value": "access key"
        },
        "batchUri": "https://batchaccount.region.batch.azure.cn",
        "poolName": "poolname",
        "linkedServiceName": {
          "referenceName": "StorageLinkedService",
          "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
      },
      "connectVia": {
        "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
        "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
      }
    }
  }

Properties

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property should be set to AzureBatch.	Yes
accountName	Name of the Azure Batch account.	Yes
accessKey	Access key for the Azure Batch account.	Yes
batchUri	URL to your Azure Batch account, in format of https://batchaccountname.region.batch.azure.cn.	Yes
poolName	Name of the pool of virtual machines.	Yes
linkedServiceName	Name of the Azure Storage linked service associated with this Azure Batch linked service. This linked service is used for staging files required to run the activity.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to dispatch the activities to this linked service. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Azure Machine Learning linked service

You create an Azure Machine Learning linked service to connect an Azure Machine Learning workspace to a data factory or Synapse workspace.

Example

{
    "name": "AzureMLServiceLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureMLService",
        "typeProperties": {
            "subscriptionId": "subscriptionId",
            "resourceGroupName": "resourceGroupName",
            "mlWorkspaceName": "mlWorkspaceName",
            "servicePrincipalId": "service principal id",
            "servicePrincipalKey": {
                "value": "service principal key",
                "type": "SecureString"
            },
            "tenant": "tenant ID"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime?",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Properties

Property	Description	Required
Type	The type property should be set to: AzureMLService.	Yes
subscriptionId	Azure subscription ID	Yes
resourceGroupName	name	Yes
mlWorkspaceName	Azure Machine Learning workspace name	Yes
servicePrincipalId	Specify the application's client ID.	Yes
servicePrincipalKey	Specify the application's key.	Yes
tenant	Specify the tenant information (domain name or tenant ID) under which your application resides. You can retrieve it by hovering the mouse in the upper-right corner of the Azure portal.	Required if updateResourceEndpoint is specified
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to dispatch the activities to this linked service. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Azure Databricks linked service

You can create Azure Databricks linked service to register Databricks workspace that you use to run the Databricks workloads(notebook, jar, python).

Example - Using new job cluster in Databricks

{
    "name": "AzureDatabricks_LS",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureDatabricks",
        "typeProperties": {
            "domain": "https://adb-xxxxxxxxx.xx.databricks.azure.cn",
            "newClusterNodeType": "Standard_D3_v2",
            "newClusterNumOfWorker": "1:10",
            "newClusterVersion": "4.0.x-scala2.11",
            "accessToken": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "YourAccessToken"
            }
        }
    }
}

Example - Using existing Interactive cluster in Databricks

{
    "name": " AzureDataBricksLinkedService",
    "properties": {
      "type": " AzureDatabricks",
      "typeProperties": {
        "domain": "https://adb-xxxxxxxxx.xx.databricks.azure.cn",
        "accessToken": {
            "type": "SecureString", 
            "value": "YourAccessToken"
          },
        "existingClusterId": "{clusterId}"
        }
}

Properties

Property	Description	Required
name	Name of the Linked Service	Yes
type	The type property should be set to: Azure Databricks.	Yes
domain	Specify the Azure Region accordingly based on the region of the Databricks workspace. Example: https://adb-xxxxxxxxx.xx.databricks.azure.cn	Yes
accessToken	Access token is required for the service to authenticate to Azure Databricks. Access token needs to be generated from the databricks workspace. More detailed steps to find the access token can be found here	No
MSI	Use the service's managed identity (system-assigned) to authenticate to Azure Databricks. You do not need Access Token when using 'MSI' authentication. More details about Managed Identity authentication can be found here	No
existingClusterId	Cluster ID of an existing cluster to run all jobs on this. This should be an already created Interactive Cluster. You might need to manually restart the cluster if it stops responding. Databricks suggest running jobs on new clusters for greater reliability. You can find the Cluster ID of an Interactive Cluster on Databricks workspace -> Clusters -> Interactive Cluster Name -> Configuration -> Tags. More details	No
instancePoolId	Instance Pool ID of an existing pool in databricks workspace.	No
newClusterVersion	The Spark version of the cluster. It creates a job cluster in databricks.	No
newClusterNumOfWorker	Number of worker nodes that this cluster should have. A cluster has one Spark Driver and num_workers Executors for a total of num_workers + 1 Spark nodes. A string formatted Int32, like "1" means numOfWorker is 1 or "1:10" means autoscale from 1 as min and 10 as max.	No
newClusterNodeType	This field encodes, through a single value, the resources available to each of the Spark nodes in this cluster. For example, the Spark nodes can be provisioned and optimized for memory or compute intensive workloads. This field is required for new cluster	No
newClusterSparkConf	a set of optional, user-specified Spark configuration key-value pairs. Users can also pass in a string of extra JVM options to the driver and the executors via spark.driver.extraJavaOptions and spark.executor.extraJavaOptions respectively.	No
newClusterInitScripts	a set of optional, user-defined initialization scripts for the new cluster. You can specify the init scripts in workspace files (recommended) or via the DBFS path (legacy).	No

Azure SQL Database linked service

You create an Azure SQL linked service and use it with the Stored Procedure Activity to invoke a stored procedure from a pipeline. See Azure SQL Connector article for details about this linked service.

Azure Synapse Analytics linked service

You create an Azure Synapse Analytics linked service and use it with the Stored Procedure Activity to invoke a stored procedure from a pipeline. See Azure Synapse Analytics Connector article for details about this linked service.

SQL Server linked service

You create a SQL Server linked service and use it with the Stored Procedure Activity to invoke a stored procedure from a pipeline. See SQL Server connector article for details about this linked service.

Azure Synapse Analytics (Artifacts) linked service

You create an Azure Synapse Analytics (Artifacts) linked service and use it with the Synapse Notebook Activity and Synapse Spark job definition Activity.

Example

{
    "name": "AzureSynapseArtifacts",
    "type": "Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/linkedservice",
    "properties": {
      "properties": {
        "a":{
          "type": "String"
        }
      },
        "annotations": [],
        "type": "AzureSynapseArtifacts",
        "typeProperties": {
            "endpoint": "@{linkedService().a}",
            "authentication": "MSI",
            "workspaceResourceId": ""
        },
        "ConnectVia":{
          "referenceName": "integrationRuntime1",
          "type": "IntergrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Properties

Property	Description	Required
name	Name of the Linked Service	Yes
description	description of the Linked Service	No
annotations	annotations of the Linked Service	No
type	The type property should be set to AzureSynapseArtifacts	Yes
endpoint	The Azure Synapse Analytics URL	Yes
authentication	The default setting is System Assigned Managed Identity	Yes
workspaceResourceId	workspace Resource Id	Yes
connectVia	The integration runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime. The self-hosted integration runtime is not currently supported.	Yes

Azure Function linked service

You create an Azure Function linked service and use it with the Azure Function activity to run Azure Functions in a pipeline. The return type of the Azure function has to be a valid JObject. (Keep in mind that JArray is not a JObject.) Any return type other than JObject fails and raises the user error Response Content is not a valid JObject.

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: AzureFunction	yes
function app url	URL for the Azure Function App. Format is https://<accountname>.chinacloudsites.cn. This URL is the value under URL section when viewing your Function App in the Azure portal	yes
function key	Access key for the Azure Function. Click on the Manage section for the respective function, and copy either the Function Key or the Host key. Find out more here: Azure Functions HTTP triggers and bindings	yes

Related content

For a list of the supported transformation activities, see Transform data.