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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​

All existing Unity Catalog assets owned by the metastore admin group instead of individual users. This aligns with the governance model where the admin group controls infrastructure-level assets and project teams own their 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. For each tab — External Locations, Credentials, Connections, External Metadata — 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

If the External Locations or Credentials tab appears empty, you are likely not a member of the metastore admin group. Verify your group membership before proceeding.

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. Schema ownership (different rule)​

Schemas follow a different ownership rule. The group responsible for a project should own that project's schemas.

Example: if data-engineers owns the c360 project, they should own c360_bronze, c360_silver, and c360_gold schemas.

Governance best practices for schema-level ownership are covered in Data Governance Strategy.

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

Troubleshoot​

Cannot see external locations or credentials

You must be a member of the metastore admin group to view these assets. Ask a current metastore admin to add you, or check your group 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 is a user who no longer has access, a metastore admin can reassign ownership from the account console.

Next​