Bundle bind does not support Unity Catalog resources (catalogs, external locations)

[tkorba1]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Describe the issue                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The databricks bundle bind command does not support Unity Catalog resource types such as catalogs and external_locations. This makes it impossible to bind pre-existing UC assets to bundle resource definitions, so DAB always attempts to create new resources rather than manage
the existing ones.

Configuration

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Define an external_location or Unity Catalog resource in a bundle YAML file.
2. Deploy the bundle: databricks bundle deploy --target dev
3. Attempt to bind the resource to an existing asset: databricks bundle bind external_location
4. Observe that the bind subcommand does not accept external_location or catalog as a valid resource type.

Expected Behavior

databricks bundle bind external_location should work analogously to binding jobs or pipelines, allowing the bundle to manage a pre-existing UC external location instead of failing.

The same should apply to catalog resources.

Actual Behavior

The bind subcommand does not recognise external_location (or catalog) as a supported resource type. The CLI either returns an error.
This causes conflicts when the external location or catalog already exists in the workspace.

OS and CLI version

• OS: Windows 11 Pro
• Databricks CLI version: Databricks CLI v0.295.0

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[andrewnester]

@tkorba1 could you please clarify which command exactly are you running and what is the error?
bind command does not expect the type as an input but actual name of the resource, like

databricks bundle bind my_external_location 123456

[tkorba1]

databricks bundle deployment bind ext_corpreporting_data ext_corpreportingdev_data -t dev -p dev-sp
Error: cannot plan resources..ext_corpreporting_data: getting adapter: internal error: bad node: resources..ext_corpreporting_data

Error: planning failed

databricks bundle deployment bind external_locations.ext_corpreporting_data ext_corpreportingdev_data -t dev -p dev-sp
Error: no such resource: external_locations.ext_corpreporting_data
s> databricks bundle deployment bind resources.external_locations.ext_corpreporting_data ext_corpreportingdev_data -t dev -p dev-sp
Error: no such resource: resources.external_locations.ext_corpreporting_data

[tkorba1]

External location and unity catalogs are not supported in bind command, so it would be an enhancement issue

[PowdyPowPow]

Binding a catalog:

databricks bundle deployment bind my_catalog 123456 -t dev -p SP

Error: no converter for resource type catalogs```

[andrewnester]

A few notes:

1. You don't need prefix the resource key with the type like external_locations.ext_corpreporting_dat, you should just use ext_corpreporting_dat
2. Catalogs and Extrenal locations are only supported in Direct mode. Can you make sure you're using the ine, because the error seems to point to using TF deployment mode

[tkorba1]

I have that specified in bundle, isn't that enough?

bundle:
name: my bundle
engine: direct

[tkorba1]

I am using direct mode, it is specified in bundle. I have also env variable specified DATABRICKS_BUNDLE_ENGINE=direct. I am able to create new external_location and new catalogs but I cant bind existing UC catalogs and ext.

[andrewnester]

Thanks for all the details. Indeed this is an issue on our side, this fix will address it #4850