You have an Azure Databricks workspace named Workspace1 that contains a lakehouse and is enabled for Unity Catalog. You have a connection to a…

The proposed solution is correct. Creating a foreign catalog is the specific mechanism within Databricks Lakehouse Federation designed to meet these requirements. A foreign catalog mirrors the metadata of an external database, such as schemas and tables from Microsoft SQL Server, and registers them in Unity Catalog. This allows users to query the data in place using standard Databricks interfaces and SQL commands. Queries are delegated to the source SQL Server database, which fulfills the critical requirement that data is not copied into Databricks-managed storage. The objects appear alongside native Unity Catalog objects, providing a unified governance and discovery experience.

B. No: This option is incorrect. The solution is valid because creating a foreign catalog is the precise and intended method provided by Databricks Lakehouse Federation to achieve the stated goals of querying external data through Unity Catalog without data migration.

1. Microsoft Azure Databricks Documentation

"What is Lakehouse Federation": This document introduces the concept. It states

"Lakehouse Federation is the query federation platform for Azure Databricks... enable users and systems to run queries against multiple siloed data sources without needing to migrate all data to a unified system." This directly supports the "data is NOT copied" requirement.

Section: Introduction.

2. Microsoft Azure Databricks Documentation

"Create a foreign catalog": This guide details the implementation. It specifies

"A foreign catalog is a Unity Catalog object that mirrors a database in an external data system... You can use Catalog Explorer to view the schemas and tables in the foreign catalog and to manage permissions on them

just as you do with regular catalogs." This confirms that the objects appear alongside other Unity Catalog objects and can be queried.

Section: "What is a foreign catalog?".

3. Microsoft Azure Databricks Documentation

"Data sources supported by Lakehouse Federation": This page lists Microsoft SQL Server as a supported data source for creating connections and foreign catalogs

confirming the technical feasibility of the proposed solution.

Section: Table of supported data sources.