Databricks Terraform Provider Error: AccountClient Permission Issues

If you've recently upgraded your Databricks Terraform provider, particularly beyond version 1.93.0, and you're working with AccountClient authentication, you might have run into a rather perplexing error. The specific issue revolves around errors when attempting to read permission assignments and access control rule sets. The traceback often includes a stark warning: "WorkspaceId must not be set when using AccountClient". This error essentially halts your Terraform operations, leaving you in a state of confusion, especially if everything was working perfectly just moments before the upgrade. It's a classic case of a seemingly small version bump leading to significant operational hurdles. This article aims to delve into this particular problem, explore its potential causes, and offer solutions to get your Databricks infrastructure managed by Terraform back on track.

Understanding the AccountClient and WorkspaceID Conflict

To truly grasp the issue, it's crucial to understand how Databricks Terraform provider handles authentication and resource management. The AccountClient is a powerful feature that allows you to manage resources across your entire Databricks account, rather than being tied to a specific workspace. This is incredibly useful for managing things like user groups, service principals, and account-level settings that apply across multiple workspaces. When you configure your provider to use AccountClient, you typically provide credentials that give it broad access to your Databricks account.

The error message, "WorkspaceId must not be set when using AccountClient", directly points to a conflict in how the provider is attempting to interact with Databricks resources. When you're using the AccountClient, the intention is to operate at the account level. In this context, specifying a WorkspaceId becomes redundant and, in fact, misleading. The Databricks API, and by extension the Terraform provider, expects that if you're using account-level credentials, you should not be trying to scope those operations to a specific workspace. It's like trying to tell your account manager to change a setting only for one specific branch office when they are authorized to make changes across the entire company. The system flags this as a logical inconsistency.

Why the Change in Behavior Post-1.93.0?

Terraform providers, like the databricks/databricks provider, are continuously updated to align with Databricks API changes, improve functionality, and fix bugs. The versions between 1.93.0 and 1.99.0 (and potentially others in between) saw updates that likely refined how the provider enforces authentication and resource scoping. It's probable that in earlier versions, the provider was more lenient, allowing a WorkspaceId to be specified even when using AccountClient, perhaps relying on the Databricks API to implicitly ignore it or use it in a way that didn't cause a conflict. However, as the provider matured and potentially as the Databricks APIs themselves became stricter about authentication contexts, this leniency was removed. The newer versions are more rigorously enforcing the principle that AccountClient operations should not be constrained by a WorkspaceId. This strict enforcement, while causing a temporary hiccup, ultimately leads to a more robust and less error-prone management of your Databricks environment.

This change in behavior highlights the importance of staying aware of provider updates. While upgrades are generally beneficial, they can sometimes introduce breaking changes that require adjustments to your Terraform configurations. Understanding the underlying authentication mechanisms is key to navigating these changes effectively. The AccountClient is designed for account-wide management, and its configuration should reflect that intention by omitting workspace-specific parameters when not relevant to the operation.

Pinpointing the Source of the Error in Your Configuration

The error message "WorkspaceId must not be set when using AccountClient" is quite explicit, but pinpointing exactly where in your Terraform configuration this is happening can sometimes be a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack, especially in larger projects. The traceback provided by Terraform is your best friend here. It will typically point to the specific resource that is causing the issue. Common culprits include resources related to permission assignments (databricks_mws_permission_assignment) and access control rule sets (databricks_access_control_rule_set).

When you're using the AccountClient for authentication, the provider will attempt to manage these resources at the account level. However, if your configuration for these resources, or perhaps an intermediate data source or variable, is inadvertently passing a WorkspaceId to the AccountClient context, this conflict arises. It's essential to examine the specific resource blocks that Terraform identifies in its error output. Look for any arguments within these blocks, or within any referenced variables or data sources, that might be setting a workspace_id or similar parameter when you intend to use the AccountClient.

Common Scenarios and How to Check Them

1. Directly Specified workspace_id in Resource Block: The most straightforward cause is hardcoding a workspace_id directly into a resource that is intended to be managed at the account level using AccountClient. For example, if you have a databricks_mws_permission_assignment resource, you would typically not specify a workspace_id within it if you're using AccountClient authentication for the provider. The AccountClient implicitly operates at the account level.

2. Inherited workspace_id from Provider Configuration: Sometimes, the workspace_id might be set in the `provider