Limits a catalog to specific workspaces, with the option of read-only access, instead of the default where every workspace on the metastore can use it. It takes precedence over grants, so the catalog can't be reached from a workspace that isn't bound.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Workspace-catalog binding in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Catalog
The first level of Unity Catalog's
catalog.schema.tablenaming and the primary boundary for isolating data. Privileges granted on a catalog flow down to every schema and object it contains. - WHERE
Limits a SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE to just the rows meeting a condition. Omit it, and the statement hits every row.
- Workspace
Teams in Power BI and Microsoft Fabric collaborate in this folder-style container, which groups items such as reports, semantic models and lakehouses, controls who can access them and is assigned a capacity.
- Metastore
The highest-level Unity Catalog container, holding metadata and permissions for a single cloud region. Each region has only one, which every workspace in that region shares, and it is not meant to be the usual boundary for isolating data.
- OVER
Gives a T-SQL window function its window: PARTITION BY, ORDER BY and, if wanted, a ROWS or RANGE frame. Rankings and running totals can then be worked out while every row is kept.