Unity Catalog Error: PERMISSION_DENIED: Can not move tables across arclight catalogs (Free Edition)
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02-24-2026 06:11 PM
Subject: Unity Catalog Error: PERMISSION_DENIED: Can not move tables across arclight catalogs (Free Edition)
Body: Hi everyone,
I'm trying to set up a Spark Declarative Pipeline (SDP) using a streaming table on Databricks Free Edition, but I'm hitting a persistent initialization error during the pipeline setup.
The Error: UNITY_CATALOG_INITIALIZATION_FAILED: PERMISSION_DENIED: Can not move tables across arclight catalogs. SQL state: 56000
Context & Setup:
Environment: Databricks Free Edition (Community/Free tier).
Source Table: stream.stream_learning.source_data_stream (Streaming Table)
Target Table: stream.stream_learning.processed_data_ingest (Defined via SDP function decorator)
Cluster: 0225-015320-jpn6b927-v2n.
Both the source and the destination are within the same Catalog and Schema (stream.stream_learning).
It seems like the internal process that moves the data from the temporary/staging area to the final Unity Catalog destination is being flagged as a "cross-catalog move," even though everything is logically in the same namespace.
Has anyone encountered this "arclight catalogs" restriction on the Free Tier? Is there a specific configuration required for SDP when both source and sink are in Unity Catalog, or is this a known limitation of the Free Edition's UC implementation?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated!