Databricks provides a role-based access control (RBAC) model to manage permissions across workspaces, data, and administrative functions. Knowing what each role does is essential for governance, security, and efficient platform management.
The main roles are:
1. Account Administrator
Scope: Manages the entire Databricks account.
Responsibilities:
- Manage workspaces (creation, deletion, configuration).
- Configure metastores for Unity Catalog.
- Control user onboarding and permission assignments across the account.
2. Metastore Administrator
Scope: Governs the Unity Catalog and related metadata.
Responsibilities:
- Manage catalogs, schemas, and data objects.
- Apply permissions to secure access to tables and views.
- Ensure data governance policies are followed.
3. Workspace Administrator
Scope: Oversees an individual Databricks workspace.
Responsibilities:
- Manage workspace-level admin settings.
- Control user access within that workspace.
- Handle workspace assets like clusters, notebooks, jobs, and dashboards.
4. Owner
Scope: Object-level ownership (tables, schemas, jobs, clusters, etc.).
Responsibilities:
- Full control over the specific object owned.
- Grant or revoke permissions to other users for that object.
Hierarchy of Permissions
- Account Admin → Global platform-wide control.
- Metastore Admin → Catalog and data governance.
- Workspace Admin → Workspace-specific admin rights.
- Owner → Full rights over a specific asset.
