@Ashley Betts​  Let me know if you found a way to backup/restore UC metastore. Its valuable feature because unlike EXTERNAL hive_metastore where I could go and see the meta data in the SQL server tables (my external hive metastore ran on SQL server ) , the UC metadata is not accessible to me (its stored in databricks control plane) . Here the metadata I am referring to is schema and table and column names and ADLS folder path where table-data is stored for external tables.

@Pat Sienkiewicz​  when creating a UC catalog or schema I provided an ADLS folder path (different from UC metastore ADLS account) and created external delta tables. ( because I want the storage cost go to the business team) But the upside using managed tables is auto-optimize and space clean up when table is dropped. Though Unity manages permission on SPN to the ADLS folder where table data lives , the permission is applied when use is trying to access the folder thru databricks workspace (the permission doesn't apply when a user runs py script using that same SPN against ADLS folder outside workspace , say azure function app)