...
Generally, the access to Metadata is done through JDBC DatabaseMetaData class. It should work always without issue.
But in some case, you can experience issue like with Oracle JDBC Drivers, where some of them are concerned by a bug where opened cursor are not closed, and on Jira Instance with numerous plugins, we can easily exceed the max cursor count when JDBC DatabaseMetaData accesses the Metatada, and all tables are not listed.
...
Depending on the Database type and its hosting Oeprating Operating System, the table may require to be quoted in SQL Statements or not.
...
In some cases, your Jira Instance may share the Database with other application, and then, you may need to access other Schema.
More current case is with One of them is when you have the Easy BI plugin ...
But , but sure that you will have some other case able to find many other cases on your side.