Connect to dbt Cloud

Article
10/14/2024

dbt (data build tool) is a development environment that enables data analysts and data engineers to transform data by simply writing select statements. dbt handles turning these select statements into tables and views. dbt compiles your code into raw SQL and then runs that code on the specified database in Azure Databricks. dbt supports collaborative coding patterns and best practices such as version control, documentation, and modularity.

dbt does not extract or load data. dbt focuses on the transformation step only, using a "transform after load" architecture. dbt assumes that you already have a copy of your data in your database.

This article focuses on dbt Cloud. dbt Cloud comes equipped with turnkey support for scheduling jobs, CI/CD, serving documentation, monitoring and alerting, and an integrated development environment (IDE).

A local version of dbt called dbt Core is also available. dbt Core enables you to write dbt code in the text editor or IDE of your choice on your local development machine and then run dbt from the command line. dbt Core includes the dbt Command Line Interface (CLI). The dbt CLI is free to use and open source. For more information, see Connect to dbt Core.

Because dbt Cloud and dbt Core can use hosted git repositories (for example, on GitHub, GitLab or BitBucket), you can use dbt Cloud to create a dbt project and then make it available to your dbt Cloud and dbt Core users. For more information, see Creating a dbt project and Using an existing project on the dbt website.

Connect to dbt Cloud manually

This section describes how to connect an Azure Databricks cluster or a Databricks SQL warehouse in your Azure Databricks workspace to dbt Cloud.

Important

Databricks recommends connecting to a SQL warehouse. If you don't have the Databricks SQL access entitlement, or if you want to run Python models, you can connect to a cluster instead.

Requirements

A cluster or SQL warehouse in your Azure Databricks workspace.
- Compute configuration reference.
- Create a SQL warehouse.
The connection details for your cluster or SQL warehouse, specifically the Server Hostname, Port, and HTTP Path values.
- Get connection details for an Azure Databricks compute resource.
An Azure Databricks personal access token. To create a personal access token, do the following:
1. In your Azure Databricks workspace, click your Azure Databricks username in the top bar, and then select Settings from the drop down.
2. Click Developer.
3. Next to Access tokens, click Manage.
4. Click Generate new token.
5. (Optional) Enter a comment that helps you to identify this token in the future, and change the token's default lifetime of 90 days. To create a token with no lifetime (not recommended), leave the Lifetime (days) box empty (blank).
6. Click Generate.
7. Copy the displayed token to a secure location, and then click Done.
Note

Be sure to save the copied token in a secure location. Do not share your copied token with others. If you lose the copied token, you cannot regenerate that exact same token. Instead, you must repeat this procedure to create a new token. If you lose the copied token, or you believe that the token has been compromised, Databricks strongly recommends that you immediately delete that token from your workspace by clicking the trash can (Revoke) icon next to the token on the Access tokens page.

If you are not able to create or use tokens in your workspace, this might be because your workspace administrator has disabled tokens or has not given you permission to create or use tokens. See your workspace administrator or the following topics:
- Enable or disable personal access token authentication for the workspace
- Personal access token permissions
Note

As a security best practice, when you authenticate with automated tools, systems, scripts, and apps, Databricks recommends that you use personal access tokens belonging to service principals instead of workspace users. To create tokens for service principals, see Manage tokens for a service principal.
To connect dbt Cloud to data managed by Unity Catalog, dbt version 1.1 or above.

The steps in this article create a new environment that uses the latest dbt version. For information about upgrading the dbt version for an existing environment, see Upgrading to the latest version of dbt in Cloud in the dbt documentation.

Go to dbt Cloud - Signup and enter your email, name, and company information. Create a password and click Create my account.

Step 2: Create a dbt project

In this step, you create a dbt project, which contains a connection to an Azure Databricks cluster or a SQL warehouse, a repository that contains your source code, and one or more environments (such as testing and production environments).

Sign in to dbt Cloud.
Click the settings icon, and then click Account Settings.
Click New Project.
For Name, enter a unique name for your project, and then click Continue.
For Choose a connection, click Databricks, and then click Next.
For Name, enter a unique name for this connection.
For Select Adapter, click Databricks (dbt-databricks).

Note

Databricks recommends using dbt-databricks, which supports Unity Catalog, instead of dbt-spark. By default, new projects use dbt-databricks. To migrate an existing project to dbt-databricks, see Migrating from dbt-spark to dbt-databricks in the dbt documentation.
Under Settings, for Server Hostname, enter the server hostname value from the requirements.
For HTTP Path, enter the HTTP path value from the requirements.
If your workspace is Unity Catalog-enabled, under Optional Settings, enter the name of the catalog for dbt Cloud to use.
Under Development Credentials, for Token, enter the personal access token or Microsoft Entra ID token from the requirements.
For Schema, enter the name of the schema where you want dbt Cloud to create the tables and views (for example, default).
Click Test Connection.
If the test succeeds, click Next.

For more information, see Connecting to Databricks ODBC on the dbt website.

Tip

To view or change the settings for this project, or to delete the project altogether, click the settings icon, click Account Settings > Projects, and click the name of the project. To change the settings, click Edit. To delete the project, click Edit > Delete Project.

To view or change your Azure Databricks personal access token value for this project, click the "person" icon, click Profile > Credentials, and click the name of the project. To make a change, click Edit.

After you connect to an Azure Databricks cluster or a Databricks SQL warehouse, follow the on-screen instructions to Setup a Repository, and then click Continue.

After you set up the repository, follow the on-screen instructions to invite users and then click Complete. Or click Skip & Complete.

Tutorial

In this section, you use your dbt Cloud project to work with some sample data. This section assumes that you have already created your project and have the dbt Cloud IDE open to that project.

Step 1: Create and run models

In this step, you use the dbt Cloud IDE to create and run models, which are select statements that create either a new view (the default) or a new table in a database, based on existing data in that same database. This procedure creates a model based on the sample diamonds table from the Sample datasets.

Use the following code to create this table.

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS diamonds;

CREATE TABLE diamonds USING CSV OPTIONS (path "/databricks-datasets/Rdatasets/data-001/csv/ggplot2/diamonds.csv", header "true")

This procedure assumes this table has already been created in your workspace's default database.

With the project open, click Develop at the top of the UI.
Click Initialize dbt project.
Click Commit and sync, enter a commit message, and then click Commit.
Click Create branch, enter a name for your branch, and then click Submit.
Create the first model: Click Create New File.
In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This statement selects only the carat, cut, color, and clarity details for each diamond from the diamonds table. The config block instructs dbt to create a table in the database based on this statement.
```
{{ config(
  materialized='table',
  file_format='delta'
) }}
```
```
select carat, cut, color, clarity
from diamonds
```
Tip

For additional config options such as the merge incremental strategy, see Databricks configurations in the dbt documentation.
Click Save As.
For the filename, enter models/diamonds_four_cs.sql and then click Create.
Create a second model: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.
In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This statement selects unique values from the colors column in the diamonds_four_cs table, sorting the results in alphabetical order first to last. Because there is no config block, this model instructs dbt to create a view in the database based on this statement.
```
select distinct color
from diamonds_four_cs
sort by color asc
```
Click Save As.
For the filename, enter models/diamonds_list_colors.sql, and then click Create.
Create a third model: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.
In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This statement averages diamond prices by color, sorting the results by average price from highest to lowest. This model instructs dbt to create a view in the database based on this statement.
```
select color, avg(price) as price
from diamonds
group by color
order by price desc
```
Click Save As.
For the filename, enter models/diamonds_prices.sql and click Create.

Run the models: In the command line, run the dbt run command with the paths to the three preceding files. In the default database, dbt creates one table named diamonds_four_cs and two views named diamonds_list_colors and diamonds_prices. dbt gets these view and table names from their related .sql file names.

dbt run --model models/diamonds_four_cs.sql models/diamonds_list_colors.sql models/diamonds_prices.sql

...
... | 1 of 3 START table model default.diamonds_four_cs.................... [RUN]
... | 1 of 3 OK created table model default.diamonds_four_cs............... [OK ...]
... | 2 of 3 START view model default.diamonds_list_colors................. [RUN]
... | 2 of 3 OK created view model default.diamonds_list_colors............ [OK ...]
... | 3 of 3 START view model default.diamonds_prices...................... [RUN]
... | 3 of 3 OK created view model default.diamonds_prices................. [OK ...]
... |
... | Finished running 1 table model, 2 view models ...

Completed successfully

Done. PASS=3 WARN=0 ERROR=0 SKIP=0 TOTAL=3

Run the following SQL code to list information about the new views and to select all rows from the table and views.

If you are connecting to a cluster, you can run this SQL code from a notebook that is attached to the cluster, specifying SQL as the default language for the notebook. If you are connecting to a SQL warehouse, you can run this SQL code from a query.

SHOW views IN default

+-----------+----------------------+-------------+
| namespace | viewName             | isTemporary |
+===========+======================+=============+
| default   | diamonds_list_colors | false       |
+-----------+----------------------+-------------+
| default   | diamonds_prices      | false       |
+-----------+----------------------+-------------+

SELECT * FROM diamonds_four_cs

+-------+---------+-------+---------+
| carat | cut     | color | clarity |
+=======+=========+=======+=========+
| 0.23  | Ideal   | E     | SI2     |
+-------+---------+-------+---------+
| 0.21  | Premium | E     | SI1     |
+-------+---------+-------+---------+
...

SELECT * FROM diamonds_list_colors

+-------+
| color |
+=======+
| D     |
+-------+
| E     |
+-------+
...

SELECT * FROM diamonds_prices

+-------+---------+
| color | price   |
+=======+=========+
| J     | 5323.82 |
+-------+---------+
| I     | 5091.87 |
+-------+---------+
...

Step 2: Create and run more complex models

In this step, you create more complex models for a set of related data tables. These data tables contain information about a fictional sports league of three teams playing a season of six games. This procedure creates the data tables, creates the models, and runs the models.

Run the following SQL code to create the necessary data tables.

The tables and views in this step start with zzz_ to help identify them as part of this example. You do not need to follow this pattern for your own tables and views.

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS zzz_game_opponents;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS zzz_game_scores;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS zzz_games;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS zzz_teams;

CREATE TABLE zzz_game_opponents (
game_id INT,
home_team_id INT,
visitor_team_id INT
) USING DELTA;

INSERT INTO zzz_game_opponents VALUES (1, 1, 2);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_opponents VALUES (2, 1, 3);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_opponents VALUES (3, 2, 1);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_opponents VALUES (4, 2, 3);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_opponents VALUES (5, 3, 1);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_opponents VALUES (6, 3, 2);

-- Result:
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+
-- | game_id | home_team_id | visitor_team_id |
-- +=========+==============+=================+
-- | 1       | 1            | 2               |
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+
-- | 2       | 1            | 3               |
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+
-- | 3       | 2            | 1               |
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+
-- | 4       | 2            | 3               |
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+
-- | 5       | 3            | 1               |
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+
-- | 6       | 3            | 2               |
-- +---------+--------------+-----------------+

CREATE TABLE zzz_game_scores (
game_id INT,
home_team_score INT,
visitor_team_score INT
) USING DELTA;

INSERT INTO zzz_game_scores VALUES (1, 4, 2);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_scores VALUES (2, 0, 1);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_scores VALUES (3, 1, 2);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_scores VALUES (4, 3, 2);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_scores VALUES (5, 3, 0);
INSERT INTO zzz_game_scores VALUES (6, 3, 1);

-- Result:
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+
-- | game_id | home_team_score | visitor_team_score |
-- +=========+=================+====================+
-- | 1       | 4               | 2                  |
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+
-- | 2       | 0               | 1                  |
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+
-- | 3       | 1               | 2                  |
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+
-- | 4       | 3               | 2                  |
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+
-- | 5       | 3               | 0                  |
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+
-- | 6       | 3               | 1                  |
-- +---------+-----------------+--------------------+

CREATE TABLE zzz_games (
game_id INT,
game_date DATE
) USING DELTA;

INSERT INTO zzz_games VALUES (1, '2020-12-12');
INSERT INTO zzz_games VALUES (2, '2021-01-09');
INSERT INTO zzz_games VALUES (3, '2020-12-19');
INSERT INTO zzz_games VALUES (4, '2021-01-16');
INSERT INTO zzz_games VALUES (5, '2021-01-23');
INSERT INTO zzz_games VALUES (6, '2021-02-06');

-- Result:
-- +---------+------------+
-- | game_id | game_date  |
-- +=========+============+
-- | 1       | 2020-12-12 |
-- +---------+------------+
-- | 2       | 2021-01-09 |
-- +---------+------------+
-- | 3       | 2020-12-19 |
-- +---------+------------+
-- | 4       | 2021-01-16 |
-- +---------+------------+
-- | 5       | 2021-01-23 |
-- +---------+------------+
-- | 6       | 2021-02-06 |
-- +---------+------------+

CREATE TABLE zzz_teams (
team_id INT,
team_city VARCHAR(15)
) USING DELTA;

INSERT INTO zzz_teams VALUES (1, "San Francisco");
INSERT INTO zzz_teams VALUES (2, "Seattle");
INSERT INTO zzz_teams VALUES (3, "Amsterdam");

-- Result:
-- +---------+---------------+
-- | team_id | team_city     |
-- +=========+===============+
-- | 1       | San Francisco |
-- +---------+---------------+
-- | 2       | Seattle       |
-- +---------+---------------+
-- | 3       | Amsterdam     |
-- +---------+---------------+

Create the first model: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.

In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This statement creates a table that provides the details of each game, such as team names and scores. The config block instructs dbt to create a table in the database based on this statement.

-- Create a table that provides full details for each game, including
-- the game ID, the home and visiting teams' city names and scores,
-- the game winner's city name, and the game date.

{{ config(
  materialized='table',
  file_format='delta'
) }}

-- Step 4 of 4: Replace the visitor team IDs with their city names.
select
  game_id,
  home,
  t.team_city as visitor,
  home_score,
  visitor_score,
  -- Step 3 of 4: Display the city name for each game's winner.
  case
    when
      home_score > visitor_score
        then
          home
    when
      visitor_score > home_score
        then
          t.team_city
  end as winner,
  game_date as date
from (
  -- Step 2 of 4: Replace the home team IDs with their actual city names.
  select
    game_id,
    t.team_city as home,
    home_score,
    visitor_team_id,
    visitor_score,
    game_date
  from (
    -- Step 1 of 4: Combine data from various tables (for example, game and team IDs, scores, dates).
    select
      g.game_id,
      go.home_team_id,
      gs.home_team_score as home_score,
      go.visitor_team_id,
      gs.visitor_team_score as visitor_score,
      g.game_date
    from
      zzz_games as g,
      zzz_game_opponents as go,
      zzz_game_scores as gs
    where
      g.game_id = go.game_id and
      g.game_id = gs.game_id
  ) as all_ids,
    zzz_teams as t
  where
    all_ids.home_team_id = t.team_id
) as visitor_ids,
  zzz_teams as t
where
  visitor_ids.visitor_team_id = t.team_id
order by game_date desc

Click Save As.
For the filename, enter models/zzz_game_details.sql and then click Create.
Create a second model: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.

In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This statement creates a view that lists team win-loss records for the season.

-- Create a view that summarizes the season's win and loss records by team.

-- Step 2 of 2: Calculate the number of wins and losses for each team.
select
  winner as team,
  count(winner) as wins,
  -- Each team played in 4 games.
  (4 - count(winner)) as losses
from (
  -- Step 1 of 2: Determine the winner and loser for each game.
  select
    game_id,
    winner,
    case
      when
        home = winner
          then
            visitor
      else
        home
    end as loser
  from zzz_game_details
)
group by winner
order by wins desc

Click Save As.
For the filename, enter models/zzz_win_loss_records.sql and then click Create.

Run the models: In the command line, run the dbt run command with the paths to the two preceding files. In the default database (as specified in your project settings), dbt creates one table named zzz_game_details and one view named zzz_win_loss_records. dbt gets these view and table names from their related .sql file names.

dbt run --model models/zzz_game_details.sql models/zzz_win_loss_records.sql

...
... | 1 of 2 START table model default.zzz_game_details.................... [RUN]
... | 1 of 2 OK created table model default.zzz_game_details............... [OK ...]
... | 2 of 2 START view model default.zzz_win_loss_records................. [RUN]
... | 2 of 2 OK created view model default.zzz_win_loss_records............ [OK ...]
... |
... | Finished running 1 table model, 1 view model ...

Completed successfully

Done. PASS=2 WARN=0 ERROR=0 SKIP=0 TOTAL=2

Run the following SQL code to list information about the new view and to select all rows from the table and view.

SHOW VIEWS FROM default LIKE 'zzz_win_loss_records';

+-----------+----------------------+-------------+
| namespace | viewName             | isTemporary |
+===========+======================+=============+
| default   | zzz_win_loss_records | false       |
+-----------+----------------------+-------------+

SELECT * FROM zzz_game_details;

+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+
| game_id | home          | visitor       | home_score | visitor_score | winner        | date       |
+=========+===============+===============+============+===============+===============+============+
| 1       | San Francisco | Seattle       | 4          | 2             | San Francisco | 2020-12-12 |
+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+
| 2       | San Francisco | Amsterdam     | 0          | 1             | Amsterdam     | 2021-01-09 |
+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+
| 3       | Seattle       | San Francisco | 1          | 2             | San Francisco | 2020-12-19 |
+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+
| 4       | Seattle       | Amsterdam     | 3          | 2             | Seattle       | 2021-01-16 |
+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+
| 5       | Amsterdam     | San Francisco | 3          | 0             | Amsterdam     | 2021-01-23 |
+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+
| 6       | Amsterdam     | Seattle       | 3          | 1             | Amsterdam     | 2021-02-06 |
+---------+---------------+---------------+------------+---------------+---------------+------------+

SELECT * FROM zzz_win_loss_records;

+---------------+------+--------+
| team          | wins | losses |
+===============+======+========+
| Amsterdam     | 3    | 1      |
+---------------+------+--------+
| San Francisco | 2    | 2      |
+---------------+------+--------+
| Seattle       | 1    | 3      |
+---------------+------+--------+

Step 3: Create and run tests

In this step, you create tests, which are assertions you make about your models. When you run these tests, dbt tells you if each test in your project passes or fails.

There are two type of tests. Schema tests, written in YAML, return the number of records that do not pass an assertion. When this number is zero, all records pass, therefore the tests pass. Data tests are specific queries that must return zero records to pass.

Create the schema tests: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.

In the text editor, enter the following content. This file includes schema tests that determine whether the specified columns have unique values, are not null, have only the specified values, or a combination.

version: 2

models:
  - name: zzz_game_details
    columns:
      - name: game_id
        tests:
          - unique
          - not_null
      - name: home
        tests:
          - not_null
          - accepted_values:
              values: ['Amsterdam', 'San Francisco', 'Seattle']
      - name: visitor
        tests:
          - not_null
          - accepted_values:
              values: ['Amsterdam', 'San Francisco', 'Seattle']
      - name: home_score
        tests:
          - not_null
      - name: visitor_score
        tests:
          - not_null
      - name: winner
        tests:
          - not_null
          - accepted_values:
              values: ['Amsterdam', 'San Francisco', 'Seattle']
      - name: date
        tests:
          - not_null
  - name: zzz_win_loss_records
    columns:
      - name: team
        tests:
          - unique
          - not_null
          - relationships:
              to: ref('zzz_game_details')
              field: home
      - name: wins
        tests:
          - not_null
      - name: losses
        tests:
          - not_null

Click Save As.
For the filename, enter models/schema.yml, and then click Create.
Create the first data test: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.

In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This file includes a data test to determine whether any games happened outside of the regular season.

-- This season's games happened between 2020-12-12 and 2021-02-06.
-- For this test to pass, this query must return no results.

select date
from zzz_game_details
where date < '2020-12-12'
or date > '2021-02-06'

Click Save As.
For the filename, enter tests/zzz_game_details_check_dates.sql, and then click Create.
Create a second data test: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.

In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This file includes a data test to determine whether any scores were negative or any games were tied.

-- This sport allows no negative scores or tie games.
-- For this test to pass, this query must return no results.

select home_score, visitor_score
from zzz_game_details
where home_score < 0
or visitor_score < 0
or home_score = visitor_score

Click Save As.
For the filename, enter tests/zzz_game_details_check_scores.sql, and then click Create.
Create a third data test: Click (Create New File) in the upper-right corner.
In the text editor, enter the following SQL statement. This file includes a data test to determine whether any teams had negative win or loss records, had more win or loss records than games played, or played more games than were allowed.
```
-- Each team participated in 4 games this season.
-- For this test to pass, this query must return no results.

select wins, losses
from zzz_win_loss_records
where wins < 0 or wins > 4
or losses < 0 or losses > 4
or (wins + losses) > 4
```
Click Save As.
For the filename, enter tests/zzz_win_loss_records_check_records.sql, and then click Create.
Run the tests: In the command line, run the dbt test command.

Step 4: Clean up

You can delete the tables and views you created for this example by running the following SQL code.

DROP TABLE zzz_game_opponents;
DROP TABLE zzz_game_scores;
DROP TABLE zzz_games;
DROP TABLE zzz_teams;
DROP TABLE zzz_game_details;
DROP VIEW zzz_win_loss_records;

DROP TABLE diamonds;
DROP TABLE diamonds_four_cs;
DROP VIEW diamonds_list_colors;
DROP VIEW diamonds_prices;

Next steps

Learn more about dbt models.
Learn how to test your dbt projects.
Learn how to use Jinja, a templating language, for programming SQL in your dbt projects.
Learn about dbt best practices.

Connect to dbt Cloud

Connect to dbt Cloud manually

Requirements

Step 2: Create a dbt project

Tutorial

Step 1: Create and run models

Step 2: Create and run more complex models

Step 3: Create and run tests

Step 4: Clean up

Next steps

Additional resources

Additional resources

Connect to dbt Cloud

Connect to dbt Cloud manually

Requirements

Step 1: Sign up for dbt Cloud

Step 2: Create a dbt project

Tutorial

Step 1: Create and run models

Step 2: Create and run more complex models

Step 3: Create and run tests

Step 4: Clean up

Next steps

Additional resources

Additional resources