Manage Iceberg tables - Data Lake Formation - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Data Lake Formation (DLF) provides fully managed Apache Iceberg tables that follow the Apache Iceberg REST Catalog API standard. DLF manages both metadata and data. Storage paths are auto-generated using UUIDs, so no manual path configuration is required. Use the Apache Iceberg client to read and write data directly.

Create a table in the console

Log on to the DLF console.
In the left navigation menu, select Catalogs, and click your catalog name.
In the Database section, click your database name.
Click Create Table.

Configure the following parameters, then click OK.

Configuration item	Description
Table Format	Select Iceberg Table.
Table Name	Enter a table name. The name must be unique within the database.
Table Description	Enter a description.
Columns	Define the columns of the table.
User-defined Table Properties	Define custom properties as needed. During table creation, these properties overwrite default DLF properties. For more information, see Configuration in the Apache Iceberg documentation.

Create a table using SQL

When a DLF catalog is registered in platforms like EMR Serverless Spark or Realtime Compute for Apache Flink, create databases and tables through SQL. Metadata is written directly to DLF. For more information, see Engine integration.

Flink SQL

CREATE TABLE iceberg_table (
    id BIGINT,
    data STRING,
    category STRING,
    ts TIMESTAMP)
PARTITIONED BY (category);

For more examples, see Flink DDL in the Apache Iceberg documentation.

Spark SQL

CREATE TABLE iceberg_table (
    id BIGINT,
    data STRING,
    category STRING,
    ts TIMESTAMP)
USING iceberg
PARTITIONED BY (bucket(16, id), days(ts), category);

For more examples, see Spark SQL in the Apache Iceberg documentation.

View a table

In the Database section, click your database name.
On the Tables tab, click your table name.
On the Table Details tab, view the table's basic information and columns.
Note
On the Table Details tab, you can modify the storage class for partitioned and non-partitioned tables. For more information, see Manually change the storage class.
On the Permissions tab, grant table permissions to DLF users or roles. For more information, see Data authorization management.

Delete a table

Warning

Deleted table data is retained for 1 day to prevent accidental deletion. Data is permanently deleted afterward.

In the Database section, click your database name.
On the Tables tab, click Delete in the Actions column of the target table.
In the dialog box, click OK to confirm the deletion.

Next steps

Engine integration -- Connect DLF to compute engines such as EMR Serverless Spark and Realtime Compute for Apache Flink.
Data authorization management -- Control access to tables by granting permissions to DLF users and roles.
Manually change the storage class -- Optimize storage costs by changing the storage class of table data.