Unable to Delete Data Catalog in Amazon Athena

The issue you're experiencing with deleting the data catalog in Amazon Athena is unusual and suggests a potential inconsistency between Athena and AWS Glue. Here are some insights and steps you can take to address this problem:

1. Data Catalog Types: It's important to note that Athena supports different types of data catalogs, including AWS Glue Catalog, Hive metastore, and federated catalogs. The catalog you're trying to delete (Athena-ttbzeq3m) might not be a Glue catalog, which could explain why it's not visible in the AWS Glue console.

2. Federated Catalog: Given the name format (Athena-ttbzeq3m), it's possible this is a federated catalog. Federated catalogs in Athena are managed differently from Glue catalogs.

3. DeleteCatalogOnly Option: For federated catalogs, Athena provides a 'DeleteCatalogOnly' option when deleting. You might try using this option with the AWS CLI:

   aws athena delete-data-catalog --name Athena-ttbzeq3m --region eu-central-1 --delete-catalog-only

4. Verify Catalog Type: Before deletion, you can try to get information about the catalog using the Athena API or CLI to confirm its type and status:

   aws athena get-data-catalog --name Athena-ttbzeq3m --region eu-central-1

5. Asynchronous Deletion: Keep in mind that when you delete a catalog, the related resources might be deleted asynchronously. It's possible that the catalog is in an intermediate state during this process.

6. AWS Support: If these steps don't resolve the issue, it may be worth contacting AWS Support. They can help investigate if there's an internal consistency issue between Athena and Glue, or if there's a problem with the catalog's metadata.

7. Check CloudTrail: Review AWS CloudTrail logs for any recent operations on this catalog. This might provide insights into its creation or any failed deletion attempts.

8. Athena Workgroups: Ensure you're in the correct Athena workgroup when trying to manage this catalog, as catalog visibility can be workgroup-specific.

If standard deletion methods continue to fail, AWS Support would be the best resource to help resolve this issue, as they can directly investigate the state of the catalog in Athena's backend systems.

Sources
delete-data-catalog — AWS CLI 2.23.7 Command Reference
DELETE FROM does not work on AWS Data Catalog table | AWS re:Post
DeleteDataCatalog - Amazon Athena
delete-catalog — AWS CLI 2.23.7 Command Reference

Hi, I believe I have a similar issue because, in the Athena UI, specifically in the "DataSource" dropdown of the query editor, I keep seeing data sources that I have personally deleted. I can only find them there and nowhere else (I am an administrator). Looking at the requests made by the browser, I see that the data catalogs are being returned even if they are in the DELETE_COMPLETED state.

API: AmazonAthena.ListDataCatalogs RESPONSE: {"DataCatalogsSummary":[{"CatalogName":"AwsDataCatalog","Status":"CREATE_COMPLETE","Type":"GLUE"},{"CatalogName":"OMITTED","Status":"CREATE_COMPLETE","Type":"LAMBDA"},{"CatalogName":"OMITTED","ConnectionType":"OPENSEARCH","Status":"DELETE_COMPLETE","Type":"FEDERATED"},{"CatalogName":"OMITTED","ConnectionType":"DYNAMODB","Status":"DELETE_COMPLETE","Type":"FEDERATED"},{"CatalogName":"OMITTED","ConnectionType":"DYNAMODB","Status":"DELETE_COMPLETE","Type":"FEDERATED"}]}

Maybe these references are deleted asynchronously, but as I write this, almost 24 hours have already passed. Perhaps it is a UI issue that should filter out the deleted ones. Maybe my issue and yours have the same root cause, and in that case, the only solution might be to wait or contact technical support.

Cheers