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UC Assets Ownership

You'll transfer ownership of existing UC assets (external locations, credentials, connections, catalogs) to the admin group in ~10 min.

Prereqs: Set admin group

What you'll build​

Every existing Unity Catalog asset owned by the metastore admin group rather than by individual users. That matches the governance model: the admin group owns infrastructure-level assets, and project teams own their own schemas.

Prerequisites​

  • Membership in the metastore admin group.
  • Access to a workspace attached to the metastore.

Steps​

1. Transfer external locations, credentials, and connections​

  1. In the workspace left panel, click Catalog.
  2. Click the gear icon (⚙️) to open External Locations.
  3. Work through each tab in turn (External Locations, Credentials, Connections, External Metadata) and change the owner of every asset to the admin group:
    • Click the asset.
    • On the far right, click the edit icon (✏️) next to the owner name.
    • Set the owner to Metastore Admins or Unity Admins.
warning

An empty External Locations or Credentials tab almost always means you are not a member of the metastore admin group. Check your group membership before going further.

Navigate to external locations via the gear icon External location owner transfer Storage credential owner transfer

2. Transfer catalog ownership​

  1. In the workspace left panel, click Catalog.
  2. For each catalog except the system catalog:
    • Click the catalog.
    • In the About this catalog section, find the Owner field.
    • Click the edit icon (✏️) and set the owner to the admin group.
Catalog owner transfer

3. Leave schema ownership to the project team​

Schemas are the exception. Don't hand these to the admin group. The team that owns a project should own that project's schemas.

For example, if data-engineers owns the c360 project, they own the c360_bronze, c360_silver, and c360_gold schemas.

Data Governance Strategy covers schema-level ownership in full.

Verify​

External locations, credentials, and connections​

Confirm every asset shows the admin group as the owner:

Expected output: external locations owned by admin group

Catalogs and schemas​

Confirm each catalog shows the admin group as the owner:

Expected output: catalogs owned by admin group

Where people trip​

Cannot see external locations or credentials

You have to be a member of the metastore admin group to see these assets. Ask a current metastore admin to add you, or check your membership in the account console.

Cannot change ownership of a catalog

Only the current owner or a metastore admin can transfer catalog ownership. If the current owner no longer has access, a metastore admin can reassign it from the account console.

Next​