title	Copy data from Spark
description	Learn how to copy data from Spark to supported sink data stores using a copy activity in an Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics pipeline.
titleSuffix	Azure Data Factory & Azure Synapse
ms.author	jianleishen
author	jianleishen
ms.subservice	data-movement
ms.topic	how-to
ms.custom	synapse
ms.date	08/19/2025

Copy data from Spark using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

[!INCLUDEappliesto-adf-asa-md]

This article outlines how to use the Copy Activity in an Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics pipeline to copy data from Spark. It builds on the copy activity overview article that presents a general overview of copy activity.

Important

The Spark connector version 1.0 is at removal stage. You are recommended to upgrade the Spark connector from version 1.0 to 2.0.

Supported capabilities

This Spark connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities	IR
Copy activity (source/-)	① ②
Lookup activity	① ②

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources/sinks by the copy activity, see the Supported data stores table.

The service provides a built-in driver to enable connectivity, therefore you don't need to manually install any driver using this connector.

Prerequisites

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-integration-runtime-requirements]

Getting started

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-connector-get-started]

Create a linked service to Spark using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to Spark in the Azure portal UI.

Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:

Azure Data Factory

:::image type="content" source="media/doc-common-process/new-linked-service.png" alt-text="Screenshot of creating a new linked service with Azure Data Factory UI.":::

Azure Synapse

:::image type="content" source="media/doc-common-process/new-linked-service-synapse.png" alt-text="Screenshot of creating a new linked service with Azure Synapse UI.":::
Search for Spark and select the Spark connector.

:::image type="content" source="media/connector-spark/spark-connector.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the Spark connector.":::
Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

:::image type="content" source="media/connector-spark/configure-spark-linked-service.png" alt-text="Screenshot of linked service configuration for Spark.":::

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to Spark connector.

Linked service properties

The Spark connector now supports version 2.0. Refer to this section to upgrade your Spark connector version from version 1.0. For the property details, see the corresponding sections.

Version 2.0
Version 1.0

Version 2.0

The following properties are supported for Spark linked service version 2.0:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: Spark	Yes
version	The version that you specify. The value is `2.0`.	Yes
host	IP address or host name of the Spark server	Yes
port	The TCP port that the Spark server uses to listen for client connections. If you connect to Azure HDInsight, specify port as 443.	Yes
serverType	The type of Spark server. The allowed value is: SparkThriftServer	No
thriftTransportProtocol	The transport protocol to use in the Thrift layer. The allowed value is: HTTP	No
authenticationType	The authentication method used to access the Spark server. Allowed values are: Anonymous, UsernameAndPassword, WindowsAzureHDInsightService	Yes
username	The user name that you use to access Spark Server.	No
password	The password corresponding to the user. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault.	No
httpPath	The partial URL corresponding to the Spark server. For WindowsAzureHDInsightService authentication type, the default value is `/sparkhive2`.	No
enableSsl	Specifies whether the connections to the server are encrypted using TLS. The default value is true.	No
enableServerCertificateValidation	Specify whether to enable server SSL certificate validation when you connect. Always use System Trust Store. The default value is true.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "SparkLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Spark",
        "version": "2.0",
        "typeProperties": {
            "host": "<cluster>.azurehdinsight.net",
            "port": "<port>",
            "authenticationType": "WindowsAzureHDInsightService",
            "username": "<username>",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<password>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Version 1.0

The following properties are supported for Spark linked service version 1.0:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: Spark	Yes
host	IP address or host name of the Spark server	Yes
port	The TCP port that the Spark server uses to listen for client connections. If you connect to Azure HDInsight, specify port as 443.	Yes
serverType	The type of Spark server. Allowed values are: SharkServer, SharkServer2, SparkThriftServer	No
thriftTransportProtocol	The transport protocol to use in the Thrift layer. Allowed values are: Binary, SASL, HTTP	No
authenticationType	The authentication method used to access the Spark server. Allowed values are: Anonymous, Username, UsernameAndPassword, WindowsAzureHDInsightService	Yes
username	The user name that you use to access Spark Server.	No
password	The password corresponding to the user. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault.	No
httpPath	The partial URL corresponding to the Spark server.	No
enableSsl	Specifies whether the connections to the server are encrypted using TLS. The default value is false.	No
trustedCertPath	The full path of the .pem file containing trusted CA certificates for verifying the server when connecting over TLS. This property can only be set when using TLS on self-hosted IR. The default value is the cacerts.pem file installed with the IR.	No
useSystemTrustStore	Specifies whether to use a CA certificate from the system trust store or from a specified PEM file. The default value is false.	No
allowHostNameCNMismatch	Specifies whether to require a CA-issued TLS/SSL certificate name to match the host name of the server when connecting over TLS. The default value is false.	No
allowSelfSignedServerCert	Specifies whether to allow self-signed certificates from the server. The default value is false.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "SparkLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Spark",
        "typeProperties": {
            "host": "<cluster>.azurehdinsight.net",
            "port": "<port>",
            "authenticationType": "WindowsAzureHDInsightService",
            "username": "<username>",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<password>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Spark dataset.

To copy data from Spark, set the type property of the dataset to SparkObject. The following properties are supported:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the dataset must be set to: SparkObject	Yes
schema	Name of the schema.	No (if "query" in activity source is specified)
table	Name of the table.	No (if "query" in activity source is specified)
tableName	Name of the table with schema. This property is supported for backward compatibility. Use `schema` and `table` for new workload.	No (if "query" in activity source is specified)

Example

{
    "name": "SparkDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SparkObject",
        "typeProperties": {},
        "schema": [],
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<Spark linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Spark source.

Spark as source

To copy data from Spark, set the source type in the copy activity to SparkSource. The following properties are supported in the copy activity source section:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity source must be set to: SparkSource	Yes
query	Use the custom SQL query to read data. For example: `"SELECT * FROM MyTable"`.	No (if "tableName" in dataset is specified)

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromSpark",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Spark input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "SparkSource",
                "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Data type mapping for Spark

When you copy data from and to Spark, the following interim data type mappings are used within the service. To learn about how the copy activity maps the source schema and data type to the sink, see Schema and data type mappings.

Spark data type	Interim service data type (for version 2.0)	Interim service data type (for version 1.0)
BooleanType	Boolean	Boolean
ByteType	Sbyte	Int16
ShortType	Int16	Int16
IntegerType	Int32	Int32
LongType	Int64	Int64
FloatType	Single	Single
DoubleType	Double	Double
DateType	DateTime	DateTime
TimestampType	DateTimeOffset	DateTime
StringType	String	String
BinaryType	Byte[]	Byte[]
DecimalType	Decimal	Decimal String (precision > 28)
ArrayType	String	String
StructType	String	String
MapType	String	String
TimestampNTZType	DateTime	DateTime
YearMonthIntervalType	String	Not supported.
DayTimeIntervalType	String	Not supported.

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Spark connector lifecycle and upgrade

The following table shows the release stage and change logs for different versions of the Spark connector:

Version	Release stage	Change log
Version 1.0	Removed	Not applicable.
Version 2.0	GA version available	• `enableServerCertificateValidation` is supported. • The default value of `enableSSL` is true. • For WindowsAzureHDInsightService authentication type, the default value of `httpPath` is `/sparkhive2`. • DecimalType is read as Decimal data type. • TimestampType is read as DateTimeOffset data type. • YearMonthIntervalType, DayTimeIntervalType are read as String data type. • `trustedCertPath`, `useSystemTrustStore`, `allowHostNameCNMismatch` and `allowSelfSignedServerCert` are not supported. • SharkServer and SharkServer2 are not supported for `serverType`. • Binary and SASL are not supported for `thriftTransportProtocl`. • Username authentication type is not supported.

Upgrade the Spark connector from version 1.0 to version 2.0

In Edit linked service page, select 2.0 for version and configure the linked service by referring to Linked service properties version 2.0.
The data type mapping for the Spark linked service version 2.0 is different from that for the version 1.0. To learn the latest data type mapping, see Data type mapping for Spark.

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Copy data from Spark using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Create a linked service to Spark using UI

Azure Data Factory

Azure Synapse

Connector configuration details

Linked service properties

Version 2.0

Version 1.0

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

Spark as source

Data type mapping for Spark

Lookup activity properties

Spark connector lifecycle and upgrade

Upgrade the Spark connector from version 1.0 to version 2.0

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Copy data from Spark using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Create a linked service to Spark using UI

Azure Data Factory

Azure Synapse

Connector configuration details

Linked service properties

Version 2.0

Version 1.0

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

Spark as source

Data type mapping for Spark

Lookup activity properties

Spark connector lifecycle and upgrade

Upgrade the Spark connector from version 1.0 to version 2.0

Related content