Selecting the metastore

A metastore is a system that stores metadata for a data platform and can be thought of as the top-level container of objects. It registers a variety of information about databases, tables, views, User-Defined Functions (UDFs), and other data assets. Metadata includes details such as storage location and the permissions that govern access to each asset.

Two types of metastores are natively available in the DI Platform: Unity Catalog (UC) and the Hive Metastore (HMS). UC has a three-level namespace consisting of a catalog, a database (also called a schema), and a table name. In contrast, the HMS only uses a two-level namespace containing just a database and table name. A metastore is required for your Databricks Workspace instance, as this is the component that organizes and governs data access. Deciding on the right metastore is an early decision in your DI Platform journey, and we recommend Unity Catalog. Let’s talk about why.

Notice in Figure 2...