Troubleshoot: Failure to create or delete a database or table in Azure Data Explorer

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In Azure Data Explorer, you regularly work with databases and tables. This article provides troubleshooting steps for issues that can come up.

Creating a database

  1. Ensure you have adequate permissions. To create a database, you must be a member of the Contributor or Owner role for the Azure subscription. If necessary, work with your subscription administrator so they can add you to the appropriate role.

  2. Ensure that there are no name validation errors for the database name. The name must be alphanumeric, with a maximum length of 260 characters.

  3. Ensure that the database retention and caching values are within allowable ranges. Retention must be between 1 and 36500 days (100 years). Caching must be between 1 and the maximum value set for retention.

Deleting or renaming a database

Ensure you have adequate permissions. To delete or rename a database, you must be a member of the Contributor or Owner role for the Azure subscription. If necessary, work with your subscription administrator so they can add you to the appropriate role. You can also delete or rename a database if you have the database admin role.

To learn how to delete a database, see Delete a database.

Creating a table

  1. Ensure you have adequate permissions. To create a table, you must be a member of the database admin or database user role in the database or the Contributor or Owner role for the Azure subscription. If necessary, work with your subscription or cluster administrator so they can add you to the appropriate role.

    For more information about permissions, see Manage database permissions.

  2. Ensure that a table with the same name doesn't already exist. If it exists, then you can: Create a table with a different name; rename the existing table (requires table admin role); or drop the existing table (requires database admin role). Use the following commands.

    .drop table <TableName>

.rename table <OldTableName> to <NewTableName>

  3. Ensure you use table and column names that are not reserved keywords or literals, such as 1day or 2hours. When you try to create a table using keywords or literals, you'll get a syntax error. To reference entities with reserved keywords or literals, use the syntax as described in Reference identifiers in queries.

Deleting or renaming a table

Ensure you have adequate permissions. To delete or rename a table, you must be a member of the database admin or table admin role in the database. If necessary, work with your subscription or cluster administrator so they can add you to the appropriate role.

For more information about permissions, see Manage database permissions.

General guidance

  1. Check the Azure service health dashboard. Look for the status of Azure Data Explorer in the region where you're trying to work with a database or table.

    If the status isn't Good (green check mark), try again after the status improves.

  2. If you still need assistance solving your issue, please open a support request in the Azure portal.

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