How do I release a name of the deleted workspace, I need to recreate it in a different subscription

Question

How do I release a name of the deleted workspace, I need to recreate it in a different subscription

Dimitry Nechaev 50

I've created Databricks workspaces using bicep but forgot to change subscription when creating a production one. So I immediately deleted workspace that I accidentally created in the dev subscription and recreated in the prod one.

Unfortunately the metastore holds to the deleted name.

How can I release the name to reuse it?

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Swapnesh Panchal 1,380 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-28T00:50:10.35+00:00

Hi @Dimitry Nechaev,
Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.
Catalog names are managed at the Unity Catalog metastore level, not at the workspace or subscription level. When you delete a Databricks workspace, the associated metastore and its catalogs remain. If a catalog like bobjane_prod still exists in the metastore, attempts to create or rename another catalog to the same name will fail.

How to release:

Drop or rename the old catalog from a workspace attached to the same metastore:

-Drop: DROP CATALOG bobjane_prod CASCADE;

-Rename: ALTER CATALOG bobjane_prod RENAME TO bobjane_prod_old;

Reuse the existing catalog instead of creating a new one.

Deleting a workspace does not free catalog names because Unity Catalog objects are account-level and region-scoped. You must drop, rename, or reuse the existing catalog before the name becomes available.
Dimitry Nechaev 50 Reputation points

2025-11-28T01:03:54.41+00:00

hi @Swapnesh Panchal

Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately I'm getting an error:

PERMISSION_DENIED: Catalog 'bobjane_prod' is not accessible in current workspace

This is from the other workspace in the same region (on the same metastore). The original workspace is deleted, so can't run from under it.
VRISHABHANATH PATIL 2,070 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-28T05:47:09.2766667+00:00
When you delete a workspace, it doesn’t remove your Unity Catalog metastore or any objects inside it. The catalog name stays intact because it’s linked to the metastore and region, so the old catalog still exists. If you run into the error:

PERMISSION_DENIED: Catalog 'bobjane_prod' is not accessible in the current workspace, it typically means one of these things:

The catalog isn’t connected to the workspace you’re working with.

You don’t have the necessary permissions to access or modify the catalog.

The workspace is connected to a different metastore or region than the catalog.

What’s going on?

Here’s a breakdown of what might be happening:

Workspace isn’t attached to the correct metastore (region mismatch): Go to the Account Console → Catalog (or Data) → Metastores and check that your workspace is linked to the correct metastore for your region. If not, attach it (you’ll need Admin rights for this).

Catalog isn’t visible in the workspace: Even if your workspace is using the same metastore, the catalog might still be hidden. You need to explicitly bind the catalog to the workspace so it shows up. In the Account Console, open the catalog and link your workspace with READ_WRITE permissions (this is required if you want to rename or delete the catalog).

Lack of required permissions: To rename or drop a catalog, you need to be the Owner or have the MANAGE role, along with the USE CATALOG permission. If you don’t have these, an Admin can transfer ownership via the UI or SQL.

Steps to fix the issue:

Attach the workspace to the correct metastore (same region): Open the Account Console → Metastore → Attach the workspace to the correct metastore. Make sure the workspace is in the same region as the catalog.

Bind the catalog to the workspace: Go to the catalog in the Account Console and bind it to your workspace with READ_WRITE permissions. This makes the catalog visible and accessible to the workspace.

Ensure you have the necessary permissions: If you can’t modify the catalog, check your permissions. Make sure you’re the Owner or have the right roles (e.g., MANAGE and USE CATALOG).

Once you’ve taken care of these steps, you can either:

Drop the catalog to free up the name: DROP CATALOG IF EXISTS bobjane_prod CASCADE;

Rename the catalog to keep its contents but vacate the name: ALTER CATALOG bobjane_prod RENAME TO bobjane_prod_old;

After that, you can recreate the catalog in your production environment:

CREATE CATALOG bobjane_prod;

Why the error happens and how the steps solve it:

Not bound to the workspace: If the catalog isn’t bound to the workspace, bind it (Step 2). This will let the workspace access the catalog.

Insufficient privileges: If you don’t have the right permissions, transfer ownership or grant the necessary roles (Step 3).

Wrong metastore or region: Attach the workspace to the correct metastore (Step 1).

UI-only Steps (no API/CLI):

Attach your workspace to the correct metastore: Go to the Metastore settings and make sure the workspace is linked to the right metastore for your region.

Bind the catalog to the workspace: In the Catalogs section, add your workspace with READ_WRITE permissions.

Change the owner: In Permissions, reassign ownership to a group or service principal that you control.

Drop, rename, or create the catalog: From your workspace, run the SQL commands to drop or rename the catalog, then recreate it in production.

Practical Tips:

External vs. Managed Data: Dropping a catalog doesn’t delete external data files, just the metadata. Managed tables are soft-deleted and cleaned up later, so review before using the CASCADE option.

Group ownership: Assign catalog ownership to a group (not an individual) for long-term stability and better management.

Multiple subscriptions: As long as the workspace and metastore share the same region within the same Databricks account, you can manage bindings and catalog names across different workspaces.

-- (Optional) reassign ownership to a durable group

ALTER CATALOG bobjane_prod OWNER TO data-platform-admins;

-- EITHER drop (to free the name immediately)
DROP CATALOG IF EXISTS bobjane_prod CASCADE;

OR rename (to vacate the name but keep content)
ALTER CATALOG bobjane_prod RENAME TO bobjane_prod_old;

-- Recreate in prod
CREATE CATALOG bobjane_prod;
Dimitry Nechaev 50 Reputation points

2025-11-28T10:17:40.9466667+00:00

hi @Vrishabhanath Patil

Proposed solution with attaching deleted workspace to a metastore is in fact a fantasy.

Once workspace is deleted, it is no longer displayed in the list of workspaces under the metastore. Also, see below what is happening when using API to query metastore data. You will find that deleted workspace is "locked" from any interaction, including getting its details.

Answer recommended by moderator

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Swapnesh Panchal 1,380 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-28T00:50:10.35+00:00

Hi @Dimitry Nechaev,
Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.
Catalog names are managed at the Unity Catalog metastore level, not at the workspace or subscription level. When you delete a Databricks workspace, the associated metastore and its catalogs remain. If a catalog like bobjane_prod still exists in the metastore, attempts to create or rename another catalog to the same name will fail.

How to release:

Drop or rename the old catalog from a workspace attached to the same metastore:

-Drop: DROP CATALOG bobjane_prod CASCADE;

-Rename: ALTER CATALOG bobjane_prod RENAME TO bobjane_prod_old;

Reuse the existing catalog instead of creating a new one.

Deleting a workspace does not free catalog names because Unity Catalog objects are account-level and region-scoped. You must drop, rename, or reuse the existing catalog before the name becomes available.
Dimitry Nechaev 50 Reputation points

2025-11-28T01:03:54.41+00:00

hi @Swapnesh Panchal

Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately I'm getting an error:

PERMISSION_DENIED: Catalog 'bobjane_prod' is not accessible in current workspace

This is from the other workspace in the same region (on the same metastore). The original workspace is deleted, so can't run from under it.
Dimitry Nechaev 50 Reputation points

2025-11-28T10:17:40.9466667+00:00

hi @Vrishabhanath Patil

Proposed solution with attaching deleted workspace to a metastore is in fact a fantasy.

Once workspace is deleted, it is no longer displayed in the list of workspaces under the metastore. Also, see below what is happening when using API to query metastore data. You will find that deleted workspace is "locked" from any interaction, including getting its details.

Answer 1

It appears to be something that Databricks currently does not expose neither though UI or API.

My solution was to delete the entire metastore. Once metastore was deleted, the workspace in this metastore was unable to show the catalog page. It was blinking and broken.

After deleting metastore I deleted the workspace.

Deleted metastore still can be queried via API, but all workspaces on it will throw error on getting. They only show in the account.workspaces.list command as a list of IDs. This metastore data seems to be going to sit there forever.

I've created new workspace, after none left. New workspace sits in the different instance of the metastore, and so it does not have naming conflict anymore.

I would say this situation is very difficult to resolve, and I would have had a weirdly named default catalog forever if I already had other workspaces in the region.

Perhaps having own metastore storage is a better solution to it.

Answer 2

Adam Zachary 2,025

I ran into this same problem a while ago.

The confusing part is that deleting the Databricks workspace does not delete anything in Unity Catalog. The catalog name stays locked at the metastore level, so when you try to recreate it in another subscription, Databricks thinks the name still exists.

To fix it, you have to remove the catalog from the metastore itself.

The quickest way is:

Option 1: Delete it in the Databricks Account Console Go to Account Console → Unity Catalog → Catalogs, find the old catalog, and delete it. Once it is removed there, the name becomes available immediately.

Option 2: Drop it with SQL (if you still have a workspace attached to that metastore):

DROP CATALOG bobjane_prod CASCADE;

After the catalog is actually removed from the metastore, you can recreate it in the correct subscription with no issues.

Dimitry Nechaev 50 Reputation points

2025-11-28T02:38:21.72+00:00

hi Adam

I don't have that UI

It only shows metastores, there is no "Unity Catalog" menu.

The metastore shows only active, not deleted, workspaces.

I also looked up some youtube vides, and its the same

Am I on the wrong page?
Adam Zachary 2,025 Reputation points

2025-11-28T03:03:32.7233333+00:00
I just double checked the Databricks and Unity Catalog docs to see if there is any supported way to fix this through the Accounts API and unfortunately what you are seeing is exactly how it behaves today.

The metastore_assignments API is only meant to link workspaces to a metastore. It does not manage or delete catalogs and it does not clean up stale workspace ids.

Catalog lifecycle operations are only documented as SQL operations issued from a workspace that is attached to the metastore, for example DROP CATALOG … CASCADE.

So, your code is basically exposing that mismatch. The metastore still has assignment records for deleted workspaces, but the workspaces table no longer has those rows, which is why workspaces.get throws ResourceDoesNotExist.

There is no extra Accounts API that will fix that.

The only workaround that actually frees the catalog name, and the one Databricks documents, is to attach a live workspace to that metastore and drop the catalog from there

DROP CATALOG bobjane_prod CASCADE;

Once you run that from any workspace that is attached to the metastore, the catalog is removed from the metastore and the name is immediately available again. Please check and let me know
Dimitry Nechaev 50 Reputation points

2025-11-28T03:26:56.69+00:00

hey Adam

There is a conceptual issue. The metastore is created automatically. It is attached to all workspaces in this region. I had "dev" workspace still there and when I ran the "drop catalog" command in the sql warehouse or serverless, they both said PERMISSION_DENIED: Catalog 'bobjane_prod' is not accessible in current workspace

This solution does not work either.

I fixed it though - though dropping the metastore. It was only possible because of the blank workspace, before i put any stuff into it.

Answer 3

I have also tried using Accounts API

Authentication with service principal is almost impossible task with Postman, but I figured using Python and SDK

from databricks.sdk import AccountClient

a = AccountClient(
  host          = 'https://accounts.azuredatabricks.net',
  account_id    = 'b8166482-c2ea-4988-a5fc-c705a73b6507',
  client_id     = '<>',
  client_secret = '<>'
)

metastore_id = '24e64710-e14c-4292-83ca-e14490dcce4c'
workspaces = a.metastore_assignments.list(metastore_id)

print(workspaces)
# outputs [1622024750688706, 2788133036224279, 3381495709332788]

workspace = a.workspaces.get('2788133036224279')
^^^ ERROR databricks.sdk.errors.platform.ResourceDoesNotExist: Workspace with id 2788133036224279 does not exist in the workspaces table

So even though metastore clearly shows the deleted workspace, accessing it for get/delete functions throws error "databricks.sdk.errors.platform.ResourceDoesNotExist: Workspace with id 2788133036224279 does not exist in the workspaces table"

It really sucks.

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How do I release a name of the deleted workspace, I need to recreate it in a different subscription

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