Known Issues and Workarounds in Altus Director

The following sections describe the current known issues in Altus Director.

Hue service in CDH 6 that uses the wrong version of Python fails to start

The Hue service included in CDH 6.x requires Python 2.7 and the psycopg2 PostgreSQL database adapter library. The Psycopg adapter required by the Hue service is a newer version than the Psycopg adapter version used by the Cloudera Manager 6.0 agent package. The Python version required by Hue may be different from the versions provided in the operating systems.

If the Python and Psycopg adapter versions available to CDH 6.x and the Hue service are not the required versions, the Hue service fails to start. The error shows as a First Run failure where the Hue Server role fails to start, sending Altus Director into a failure state for the cluster.

Workaround: If you are using Cloudera Manager 6.0.x or if Hue is installed on RHEL or CentOS 6.x, Altus Director provides a bootstrap script that installs the correct version of Python and the Psycopg adapter library. You can use the bootstrap script provided by Altus Director to bootstrap CDH 6.x clusters with the Hue service.

You can use the bootstrap script in one of the following ways:

  • Use the bootstrap script in a configuration file or in the Altus Director web UI.

    For information about how to use the script file with a configuration file or the web UI, see the details about how the script works in the readme file.

  • Perform the work done in the bootstrap script on a preloaded AMI.

    When the work is done ahead of time, the bootstrap script is not needed.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-8665

Added instance groups are not configured based on their instance type

Newly added instance groups are not automatically configured. Roles on the new instances will be given the same configuration as existing roles even if the new instance uses a different instance type than the old instances.

Workaround: Update the role group in Cloudera Manager after the cluster update completes.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-5102

Edited or cloned Altus Director 2.8 instance templates for Azure do not work as expected

In Altus Director 6.0, the Azure instance template defaults to using managed disks.

If you edit and save an instance template created in Altus Director 2.8 that uses storage account, the saved template changes the settings to use managed disks instead of storage disks.

If you clone an instance template created in Altus Director 2.8 that uses storage account, the new template changes the settings to use managed disks instead of storage disks.

Workaround: Use instance templates created in Altus Director 2.8 without editing or cloning. If you need to change a template, use the CLI to deploy clusters with storage accounts.

Environment deletion fails with a 500 response code

Altus Director evicts terminated deployment, cluster, and external database server entities from its database before removing the environment. Altus Director also performs the same eviction on a periodic basis. A 500 response may be returned if the two evictions occur concurrently.

Workaround: Retry environment deletion.

Maximum length of environment name is misleading

Parsing of a Altus Director configuration file can produce errors indicating that the environment name and, sometimes additionally, the deployment name are too long, even though the names were not specified in the file. This is a consequence of Altus Director automatically generating those names, based on the cluster name, when they are not explicitly given in the file. When the cluster name is long, the automatically-generated names exceed the length limits.

Workaround: Provide explicit names for the environment and deployment in the configuration file. Examples: 
environmentName: MyEnvironment
deploymentName: MyDeployment

Cloudera Issue: DIR-6301

AWS rate limiting due to large number of EBS volumes

Standing up a cluster with a large number of EBS volumes might trigger rate limiting on EBS allocation requests. The effect can spread to other calls from Altus Director to AWS.

Workaround: No more than 10 EBS volumes should be attached at a time.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-4283

Altus Director cannot deploy Cloudera Navigator Key Trustee Server

Cloudera Navigator Key Trustee Server cannot be one of the services deployed by Altus Director.

Workaround: Set up Cloudera Navigator Key Trustee Server via Cloudera Manager if using Altus Director 2.4 and above.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-1757

Changes to Cloudera Manager username and password must also be made in Altus Director

If the Cloudera Manager username and password are changed directly in Cloudera Manager, Altus Director can no longer add new instances or authenticate with Cloudera Manager. Username and password changes must be implemented in Altus Director as well. For more information on keeping Altus Director and Cloudera Manager in sync, see CDH Cluster Management Tasks.

Workaround: Use the Altus Director web UI to update the Cloudera Manager username and password.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-690

Altus Director might use AWS credentials from instance of Altus Director server

Altus Director Server uses the AWS credentials from a configured Environment, as defined in a client configuration file or through the Altus Director web UI. If the Environment is not configured with credentials in Altus Director, the Altus Director server instead uses the AWS credentials that are configured on the instance on which the Altus Director server is running. When those credentials differ from the intended ones, EC2 instances might be allocated under unexpected accounts. Ensure that the Altus Director server instance is not configured with AWS credentials.

Severity: Medium

Workaround: Ensure that the Altus Director Environment has correct values for the keys. Alternatively, use IAM profiles for the Altus Director server instance.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-1040

Root partition resize fails on CentOS 6.5 (HVM)

Altus Director cannot resize the root partition on Centos 6.5 HVM AMIs. This is caused by a bug in the AMIs. For more information, see the CentOS Bug Tracker.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-757

When using RDS and MySQL, Hive Metastore canary can fail in Cloudera Manager

If you include Hive in your clusters and configure the Hive metastore to be installed on MySQL, Cloudera Manager might report, "The Hive Metastore canary failed to create a database." This is caused by a MySQL bug in MySQL 5.6.5 or higher that is exposed when used with the MySQL JDBC driver (used by Altus Director) version 5.1.19 or lower. For information on the MySQL bug, see the MySQL bug description.

Workaround: Depending on the driver version installed by Altus Director from your platform's software repositories, select an older MySQL version that does not have this bug.

Cloudera Issue: DIR-923