Technology1 min read

Push-based CDC into Unity Catalog with Zerobus Ingest and Debezium

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The new Zerobus Ingest sink, introduced in Debezium Server 3.7, captures write-ahead log events and writes them straight to Unity Catalog. NVIDIA provided envelope mode support alongside delivery safeguards like idempotency keys and durable acknowledgments that verify successful ingestion before advancing source offsets. Databricks contributed the typed sink implementation to simplify the end-to-end streaming process. The solution preserves pre- and post-change row states alongside operation metadata to support both historical records and current-state analytical tables.

Key points

  • Direct write-ahead log streaming eliminates secondary lakehouse ingestion jobs and reduce…: Direct write-ahead log streaming eliminates secondary lakehouse ingestion jobs and reduces overall system complexity.
  • Outbound push architecture permits database teams to export records safely from networks…: Outbound push architecture permits database teams to export records safely from networks that prohibit inbound external connections.
  • Retained raw event metadata enables downstream consumers to assemble either historical tr…: Retained raw event metadata enables downstream consumers to assemble either historical tracking tables or current-state lakehouse representations.

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Send change events from open-source Debezium Server straight to Delta tables, with no broker to run

by Victoria Bukta, Omkar Mehta and Wagner Santos

Data in operational databases drives business decisions, and much of that analysis happens in the lakehouse. Getting the data there is hard when the database sits in a private corporate network, a customer-controlled environment or a restricted subnet whose network policies block inbound connections from external services.

Many teams need their PostgreSQL changes in Databricks, but the team that owns the database also wants to own the capture. That team runs the process that reads the write-ahead log and decides which connections leave its network. On the other side, the changes land in governed Delta tables that pipelines and analysts can build on.

Debezium is a common open source tool that teams can own the full deployment to extract a change data capture feed from a database. It sits next to the database, reads its write-ahead log and pushes events outward. Zerobus Ingest is the destination, a push interface that writes records directly into Unity Catalog…

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