When resource management is not enabled, defines the maximum amount of memory a query can allocate on each node. If query processing exceeds the specified memory limit on any node, Impala cancels the query automatically. Memory limits are checked periodically during query processing, so the actual memory in use might briefly exceed the limit without the query being cancelled.

When resource management is enabled in CDH 5, the mechanism for this option changes. If set, it overrides the automatic memory estimate from Impala. Impala requests this amount of memory from YARN on each node, and the query does not proceed until that much memory is available. The actual memory used by the query could be lower, since some queries use much less memory than others. With resource management, the MEM_LIMIT setting acts both as a hard limit on the amount of memory a query can use on any node (enforced by YARN and a guarantee that that much memory will be available on each node while the query is being executed. When resource management is enabled but no MEM_LIMIT setting is specified, Impala estimates the amount of memory needed on each node for each query, requests that much memory from YARN before starting the query, and then internally sets the MEM_LIMIT on each node to the requested amount of memory during the query. Thus, if the query takes more memory than was originally estimated, Impala detects that the MEM_LIMIT is exceeded and cancels the query itself.

Default: 0