Using Third-Party Products with Cloudera Director

Some products created by Cloudera partners are packaged as separate parcels, with or without accompanying CSDs. These can be included in clusters bootstrapped by Cloudera Director.

Required Information

The following information is needed to successfully include a third-party product in a Cloudera Director configuration file. If you cannot determine this information yourself, consult the partner documentation for the product.
  • The URL for the directory containing the desired product parcel. This is the parcel repository URL that must be included in the Cloudera Director cluster template. Parcels for different operating systems may be co-located in one repository. It is necessary that this directory also contain a standard manifest.json file that is interpreted by Cloudera Manager to select the appropriate parcel for a cluster.
  • The name of the product, which is usually the initial part of the parcel file name.
  • The URL for the product's corresponding CSD, if one is provided. Some products do not require CSDs.
  • The names of the services that comprise the product, and the roles that comprise each service. These are listed in the SDL file that is part of the CSD.
  • Any required configuration properties for services or roles.

Additions to a Cloudera Director Configuration File

To add a third-party product to a cluster bootstrapped by Cloudera Director, perform the following steps:
  1. List the name of the parcel product in the cluster template, providing its version number.
  2. Include the URL for the product's parcel repository in the list of parcel repositories for the cluster template. Be sure to also include the URL for the CDH parcel repository, even if it is the default repository that Cloudera Director uses when no parcel repositories are listed.
  3. Manually assign roles for each desired service in the product, as well as other services like those included in CDH, to instances in the cluster template.
  4. Provide the URL for the corresponding product CSD, if provided, in the list of CSDs in the deployment template.
  5. Provide any required configuration properties for the third-party services or roles.

Validation Warnings

Cloudera Director does not validate the services and roles that are part of a third-party product. It is normal for Cloudera Director to report validation warnings for them, for example, for a service named "EXTRA_SERVICE": 
```
* Unknown service type: EXTRA_SERVICE. Skipping role type validation.
```

These warnings are normal, and Cloudera Director will proceed with the bootstrap process. Check Cloudera Manager for details on any product installation or configuration errors.

Missing manifest.json File

Cloudera Director may fail with a validation error if the parcel repository URL for a third-party product is missing a manifest file. 
```
* Unsuccessful response from URL: http://archive.example.com/product/1.2.3/manifest.json, http code: 404
```

Verify that the correct parcel repository URL was provided in the cluster template; it should be the directory that contains the desired parcel. If the directory is correct, but no manifest.json file is present, then you can self-host the parcel(s) for the product and generate your own manifest.json file. See The parcel repository format on the Cloudera GitHub site for the specification of a parcel repository, including for the manifest.json file.

Seeking Help

Third-party products distributed via parcel for use with Cloudera Manager are supported by Cloudera partners. This support includes providing the necessary information for installing their products using CSDs and parcels, describing required service and role configurations, and general documentation on using the products. Please contact Cloudera partners' support organizations for help with any of these items.