ADO.NET is a widely adopted data access technology in the .NET ecosystem that enables applications to connect to and work with data from databases and big data platforms.
The Microsoft ADO.NET Driver for Fabric Data Engineering lets you connect, query, and manage Spark workloads in Microsoft Fabric with the reliability and simplicity of standard ADO.NET patterns. Built on Microsoft Fabric's Livy APIs, the driver provides secure and flexible Spark SQL connectivity to your .NET applications using familiar DbConnection, DbCommand, and DbDataReader abstractions.
Why this matters
As organizations increasingly rely on Apache Spark for scalable data engineering and analytics, seamless integration with enterprise platforms is critical. The new Microsoft ADO.NET Driver for Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering empowers developers, data engineers, and administrators to connect, query, and manage Spark workloads in Microsoft Fabric with the reliability and simplicity of the ADO.NET standard.
Figure: The screenshot shows an example of using ADO.NET driver.
Since this driver has been specifically designed and developed for Fabric Data Engineering, it has deep integration with lakehouse for data access in OneLake, allows using an environment item during execution of your jobs as well as allows different Spark configurations based on your unique needs.
Key Features
- ADO.NET Compliant: Full implementation of ADO.NET abstractions (DbConnection, DbCommand, DbDataReader, DbParameter, DbProviderFactory).
- Microsoft Entra ID Authentication: Multiple authentication flows including Azure CLI, interactive browser, client credentials, certificate-based, and access token authentication.
- Spark SQL Native Query Support: Direct execution of Spark SQL statements with parameterized queries.
- Comprehensive Data Type Support: Support for all Spark SQL data types including complex types (ARRAY, MAP, STRUCT)..
- Connection Pooling: Built-in connection pool management for improved performance.
- Session Reuse: Efficient Spark session management to reduce startup latency.
- Async Prefetch: Background data loading for improved performance with large result sets.
- Auto-Reconnect: Automatic session recovery after connection failures.
Next steps
We invite you to try it out, share your feedback, and unlock new possibilities for analytics and integration in Microsoft Fabric.To download and learn more about the Microsoft ADO.NET Driver for Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering, please refer to official documentation: Microsoft ADO.NET Driver for Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering.