Synchronize outbound metadata to Databricks Unity Catalog

Synchronizing outbound metadata via the Databricks Unity Catalog integration is the process of propagating attribute and property values from Collibra Platform to Databricks Unity Catalog. Once you have set up a mapping, outbound synchronization runs automatically every 5 minutes if there are outbound events to process.

Map a Collibra attribute to a Databricks Unity Catalog tag: The integration applies the value as a tag value on the matching Databricks Unity Catalog object.
Map the Description attribute to the Databricks Unity Catalog description field (in preview): The integration applies the value to the description field on the matching Databricks Unity Catalog object.

The outbound flow is supported for Database, Schema, Table, Database View, and Column assets. If any tag name/value is left blank, the outbound synchronization will remove the tag from the asset in Databricks Unity Catalog. The integration supports mapping the following two types of tags to Databricks Unity Catalog:

Custom tags: Custom tags accept any user-defined key-value pair. These are suitable for asset attributes such as description or any other custom attributes where the possible values are not predefined.
Governed tags: Governed tags are a subset of custom tags. These are linked to tag policies in Databricks Unity Catalog that define allowed values. In contrast to custom tags, governed tags are ideal for attributes such as status, where all possible values are known in advance. Note that governed tags only accept predefined allowed values and reject any others. If you assign a tag value that is not allowed, it will not be propagated to the governed tag in Databricks Unity Catalog. In this case, the new value will appear in the asset attribute but the associated governed tag will remain unchanged. For attributes with multiple values, the combined, semicolon-separated value must itself match an allowed value, so use a custom tag or policy that allows the combined values. For more information on governed tags, go to the Databricks Unity Catalog documentation.

Note

Outbound synchronization is only supported for assets ingested through the Databricks Unity Catalog integration, and not for assets ingested through a JDBC data source using the scalable ingestion flow.
Support for outbound synchronization of attributes such as responsibilities, data classification, articulation scores, Collibra tags, and data quality scores from Collibra to Databricks Unity Catalog will be added in the future.
Description mapping is currently not supported for columns of database views.

Prerequisites

In your Collibra environment:

To configure outbound synchronization using the Databricks Unity Catalog integration, you need:
- Collibra Platform 2026.03 or newer.
- Edge 2026.3.21 or newer.
You have integrated metadata from Databricks Unity Catalog to Collibra Platform.
When you created the Databricks Unity Catalog connection, you granted the necessary permissions in Databricks Unity Catalog for outbound synchronization.
If you're using an Edge site older than version 2025.10.126, you must rerun the inbound metadata synchronization for tag mappings to be applied to database and schema assets in Databricks Unity Catalog.

Steps

Manually synchronize Databricks Unity Catalog:

On the main toolbar, click → Catalog.
The Catalog homepage opens.
Click Integrations.
The Integrations page opens.
Click the Integration configuration tab.
In the Integration column, click the link for your Databricks Unity Catalog integration.
The integration settings page opens.
Select the Metadata outbound tab and then click Add configuration.
Complete the fields as needed.

Field Action

Tag mappings

Field	Action
Tag mappings	Configure a tag mapping to send a Collibra attribute value to a Databricks Unity Catalog tag. To add an outbound tag mapping: In the Tag mappings section, click Add tag mapping to add a new tag mapping. In the Asset field, select the supported asset type to which you want to apply the tag mapping. If you do not specify an asset type, the tag mapping will apply to all applicable asset types by default. In the Attribute field, select the attribute whose value you want to send to Databricks Unity Catalog. Attributes with multiple values are also supported. Their selected values are combined into a single Databricks tag value joined with a semicolon (`;`). For example, `Finance;HR;Legal`. In the Tag key field, specify the value to be mapped in Databricks Unity Catalog for the selected attribute. For example, you map a `Security Classification` attribute to a `security_classification` tag in Databricks Unity Catalog. If you change the value from `Sensitive` to `Confidential` in Collibra, the next outbound synchronization updates the value of the tag in Databricks Unity Catalog. Note Attributes with a maximum cardinality greater than 1 are not supported for outbound tag mapping. Each value is stored as a separate attribute instance and propagated as a separate update, so only the most recently changed value is sent.
Collibra property to Databricks property mappings (In preview)	Configure a property mapping to send a Collibra property value to a native Databricks object property. Only Description mapping to the Databricks description property is currently supported. To add an outbound property mapping: In the Collibra property to Databricks property mappings (In preview) section, click Add Collibra property to Databricks property mapping to add a new property mapping. In the Asset field, select the supported asset type to which you want to apply the mapping. If you do not specify an asset type, the mapping applies to all applicable asset types by default. In the Collibra property field, select the attribute whose value you want to send to Databricks Unity Catalog. Currently, only Description is available. In the Databricks property field, select the native Databricks object property to receive the value. Currently, only description is available. For example, your team maintains certified descriptions for finance tables in Collibra. You map the Description attribute on Databricks Unity Catalog Table assets to the corresponding Databricks Unity Catalog `COMMENT` property. When you update a Databricks table's description in Collibra, the next outbound synchronization updates the description value on the table in Databricks Unity Catalog.

Configure a tag mapping to send a Collibra attribute value to a Databricks Unity Catalog tag.

To add an outbound tag mapping:

In the Tag mappings section, click Add tag mapping to add a new tag mapping.
In the Asset field, select the supported asset type to which you want to apply the tag mapping. If you do not specify an asset type, the tag mapping will apply to all applicable asset types by default.
In the Attribute field, select the attribute whose value you want to send to Databricks Unity Catalog. Attributes with multiple values are also supported. Their selected values are combined into a single Databricks tag value joined with a semicolon (;). For example, Finance;HR;Legal.
In the Tag key field, specify the value to be mapped in Databricks Unity Catalog for the selected attribute.

For example, you map a Security Classification attribute to a security_classification tag in Databricks Unity Catalog. If you change the value from Sensitive to Confidential in Collibra, the next outbound synchronization updates the value of the tag in Databricks Unity Catalog.

Note Attributes with a maximum cardinality greater than 1 are not supported for outbound tag mapping. Each value is stored as a separate attribute instance and propagated as a separate update, so only the most recently changed value is sent.

Collibra property to Databricks property mappings (In preview)

Configure a property mapping to send a Collibra property value to a native Databricks object property. Only Description mapping to the Databricks description property is currently supported.

To add an outbound property mapping:

In the Collibra property to Databricks property mappings (In preview) section, click Add Collibra property to Databricks property mapping to add a new property mapping.
In the Asset field, select the supported asset type to which you want to apply the mapping. If you do not specify an asset type, the mapping applies to all applicable asset types by default.
In the Collibra property field, select the attribute whose value you want to send to Databricks Unity Catalog. Currently, only Description is available.
In the Databricks property field, select the native Databricks object property to receive the value. Currently, only description is available.

For example, your team maintains certified descriptions for finance tables in Collibra. You map the Description attribute on Databricks Unity Catalog Table assets to the corresponding Databricks Unity Catalog COMMENT property. When you update a Databricks table's description in Collibra, the next outbound synchronization updates the description value on the table in Databricks Unity Catalog.

Click Save.
Outbound synchronization runs automatically every 5 minutes if there are outbound events to process.

What's next

The synchronization job synchronizes the Databricks Unity Catalog data.
After the outbound synchronization:

You can view a summary of the results in the Activities tab.
You can view the propagated attribute values in Databricks Unity Catalog.