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Full Iceberg authoring engine with built-in Polaris catalog, complete DML including MERGE, Arctic git-like branching, and Data Reflections acceleration
Key Features
Built-in Catalog Ecosystem
Polaris/Dremio Catalog (built-in REST, Nessie-backed), Generic Iceberg REST Catalog, Arctic (Nessie) sources, HMS, AWS Glue, Hadoop, Nessie stand-alone
Full Authoring Engine
Full DDL & DML (CREATE/ALTER/DROP, CTAS, INSERT, MERGE, UPDATE, DELETE) on Iceberg tables in S3/ADLS/GCS or Polaris/Arctic; HDFS/Hive may remain read-only
Complete DML Suite
INSERT, COPY INTO, UPDATE, DELETE (row & partition), MERGE (insert/update/delete branches since 25.1; uses MoR)
Configurable Storage Strategy
Default CoW; merge-on-read available via write.delete.mode=merge-on-read & write.merge.mode=merge-on-read (v25+). OPTIMIZE can merge delete files
No Streaming Support
No native streaming; queries always see latest committed snapshot. External engines ingest → Dremio queries/MERGE applies changes
Format V3 Roadmap
Planned (2025) - roadmap calls for reading Deletion Vectors & row-lineage columns first; writer support (DV emission) to follow once Iceberg 1.8+ library adopted
Arctic Git-like Versioning
Via Arctic/Nessie branches & tags (table@branch); or query $history/$snapshots tables to locate snapshot id, then ROLLBACK or branch/tag for analysis
Enterprise Governance
Honors catalog ACLs (Glue IAM, Hive Ranger, Nessie RBAC). Dremio role/column masking applies to Iceberg (v26). Arctic commit log gives audit trail
Advanced Optimization
OPTIMIZE TABLE (file + manifest compaction, delete-file rewriting), VACUUM CATALOG (snapshot expiry), Data Reflections accelerate Iceberg queries, Arctic git-like branching
Production Limitations
Parquet only (no ORC/Avro writes), HDFS-backed Iceberg still read-only, Global equality-delete files not read, Concurrent commits require manual retry
Dremio Iceberg Feature Matrix
Comprehensive breakdown of Iceberg capabilities in Dremio v26
Dimension | Support Level | Implementation Details | Since Version |
|---|---|---|---|
Catalog Types | FullBuilt-in Polaris + REST | Polaris/Dremio Catalog (built-in), Generic REST, Arctic/Nessie, HMS, AWS Glue, Hadoop | v26 |
SQL Analytics | FullComplete Authoring | Full DDL & DML (CREATE/ALTER/DROP, CTAS, INSERT, MERGE, UPDATE, DELETE) on cloud storage | v25+ |
DML Operations | FullMERGE ✓ v25.1 | INSERT, COPY INTO, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE (insert/update/delete branches) with MoR optimization | v25.1 |
Storage Strategy | FullCoW + MoR | Default CoW; configurable MoR via write.delete.mode/write.merge.mode; OPTIMIZE merges delete files | v25+ |
Streaming Support | LimitedExternal + MERGE | No native streaming; external engines ingest → Dremio MERGE applies changes efficiently | N/A |
Format Support | Limitedv1/v2 Only | Reads/writes v1/v2; v3 planned 2025 (read DV/lineage first, write DV after Iceberg 1.8+) | v25+ |
Time Travel | FullArctic Branches + Snapshots | Arctic/Nessie branches & tags (table@branch); snapshot-based rollback and analysis | v25+ |
Schema Evolution | FullAuto Refresh | ALTER TABLE ADD/DROP/RENAME columns; partition-spec changes; auto metadata refresh | v25+ |
Security & Governance | FullRBAC + Audit | Catalog ACLs (Glue, Ranger, Nessie) + Dremio RBAC/column masking + Arctic audit logs | v26 |
Advanced Features | FullData Reflections | OPTIMIZE/VACUUM, Data Reflections acceleration, Arctic git-like branching, multi-table commits | v25+ |
Known Limitations | MinorParquet Only | Parquet only writes; HDFS read-only; global eq-deletes not read; concurrent commit retry | v25+ |
Maturity Level | ProductionGA since v25 | GA writes since v25.0; v26 adds generic REST catalog & governance improvements | v25+ |
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For issues, click here (GitHub)Use Cases
Modern Data Lakehouse Platform
Complete Iceberg authoring with built-in catalog and versioning
- Full data lakehouse implementations with built-in catalog
- Git-like data versioning and branch-based development
- Multi-table atomic commits across related datasets
- Data Reflections for automatic query acceleration
Advanced Data Engineering Workflows
Sophisticated DML operations and change data processing
- CDC processing with efficient MERGE operations
- Complex data transformation pipelines
- Slowly changing dimension processing
- Real-time data correction and quality workflows
Enterprise Governance and Security
Comprehensive security and audit for regulated environments
- Multi-tenant data lake deployments
- Fine-grained RBAC with column masking
- Comprehensive audit trails with Arctic commit logs
- Compliance-heavy industries requiring detailed governance
Performance-Critical Analytics
High-performance analytical workloads with optimization
- Large-scale analytical queries with Data Reflections
- Automated table optimization and maintenance
- Interactive business intelligence and reporting
- Complex analytical queries requiring acceleration
Resources & Documentation
Official Documentation
Complete API reference and guides
Getting Started Guide
Quick start tutorials and examples
Apache Iceberg Documentation
Documentation
Dremio v26 Release Notes
Documentation
SQL Commands for Iceberg
Documentation
MERGE Operations Guide
Documentation
Table Optimization Guide
Documentation
Iceberg REST Catalog Setup
Documentation
Governance and Security Guide
Documentation
CDC Processing Guide
Documentation