Sync Tables: Unity Catalog to Lakebase (Autoscaling)

When done, you will have:

• A synced table in Unity Catalog tracking the replication pipeline
• A read-only Postgres table in Lakebase queryable with sub-10ms latency from any standard Postgres client
• A managed Lakeflow pipeline keeping the data in sync via snapshot, triggered, or continuous mode

Prerequisites

This template creates a synced table that mirrors a Unity Catalog table into Lakebase Postgres. Verify these Databricks workspace features are enabled before starting.

• Lakebase Autoscaling available. Run databricks postgres list-projects --profile <PROFILE> and confirm your Autoscaling project is listed. A not enabled error means Lakebase is not available to this identity.
• Project created via the /database/ API (not the older /postgres/ API). Programmatic synced-table creation via databricks database create-synced-database-table only works on projects created through the newer /database/ API. If your Autoscaling project was created via the older /postgres/ endpoint, the CLI path in Step 1 is not available yet and you must create synced tables through the Databricks UI (Catalog → source table → Create synced table). This gap is expected to close in a future release.
• Unity Catalog source table with a primary key. Run databricks tables get <CATALOG>.<SCHEMA>.<SOURCE_TABLE> --profile <PROFILE> and confirm at least one column is declared as the table's primary key. Synced tables reject sources without a PK.
• External-storage catalog for the source (currently required for Sync Tables). Sync Tables today requires the source UC catalog to use external storage. If your source catalog uses the metastore's default managed storage, complete the Unity Catalog Setup template first and move the source table into an external-storage catalog.
• Change Data Feed enabled on the source table (for Triggered / Continuous mode only). Skip this check if you plan to use Snapshot mode. Otherwise run the ALTER TABLE <catalog>.<schema>.<table> SET TBLPROPERTIES (delta.enableChangeDataFeed = true); statement from Step 1 against your SQL warehouse.