Apache Polaris Course
A hands-on course on Apache Polaris, the Apache Iceberg REST catalog. Nine lessons, one concept each, in order — each builds on the previous one's entities and credentials, so work through them in sequence rather than skipping around. Lessons 1–6 were run for real against a live local Polaris + Spark Docker stack; Lessons 7–9 cover newer/heavier capabilities as close-reading exercises against the primary docs.
Foundations
- 01 What Polaris Is and the Problem It Solves The catalog-service model, the Iceberg REST Catalog spec, and the multi-engine interoperability payoff. ~7 min
- 02 The Entity Model Catalog, Namespace, Table, Principal, Principal Role, Catalog Role — and where the two trees connect. ~8 min
Getting Hands-On
- 03 Running Polaris and Bootstrapping a Realm Start Polaris, find the bootstrap root credentials, and understand what a realm is. ~6 min
- 04 The Iceberg REST Catalog API OAuth client credentials, creating a catalog and namespace, using nothing but curl. ~9 min
- 05 Connecting a Query Engine (Spark) Configure Spark's Iceberg REST catalog integration, and confirm both clients agree on the same table. ~9 min
Security
Beyond Iceberg
- 07 Generic Tables What a Generic Table is, and what it gives up (commit coordination, credential vending) versus Iceberg. ~7 min
- 08 Catalog Federation How Polaris fronts an existing Hive Metastore or BigQuery Metastore without migrating data. ~7 min
Production
Reference
Course: Apache Polaris Course - 9 lessons on the Iceberg REST catalog, its entity model, RBAC, and its wider ecosystem (Generic Tables, Federation, production topology).
Total course time: ~71 minutes · 9 lessons · Interactive checks in each lesson