Hue Database

The Hue server requires an SQL database to store small amounts of data, including user account information as well as history of job submissions and Hive queries. The Hue server supports a lightweight embedded database and several types of external databases. If you elect to configure Hue to use an external database, upgrades may require more manual steps.

Prerequisites

Before using an external database, with Hue, install all of the support libraries required by your operating system. See Development Preferences in the Hue documentation for the full list.

Embedded Database

By default, Hue is configured to use the embedded database SQLite for this purpose, and should require no configuration or management by the administrator.

Inspecting the Embedded Hue Database

The default SQLite database used by Hue is located in /var/lib/hue/desktop.db. You can inspect this database from the command line using the sqlite3 program. For example:

# sqlite3 /var/lib/hue/desktop.db
SQLite version 3.6.22
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> select username from auth_user;
admin
test
sample
sqlite>

Backing up the Embedded Hue Database

If you use the default embedded SQLite database, copy the desktop.db file to another node for backup. Cloudera recommends that you backup regularly, and also that you backup before upgrading to a new version of Hue.

External Database

Although SQLite is the default database, some advanced users may prefer to have Hue access an external database. Hue supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. See Supported Databases for the supported versions.

Configuring the Hue Server to Store Data in MySQL

  1. Shut down the Hue server if it is running.
  2. Dump the existing database data to a text file. Note that using the .json extension is required. 
    $ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue dumpdata > <some-temporary-file>.json
  3. Open <some-temporary-file>.json and remove all JSON objects with useradmin.userprofile in the model field. Here are some examples of JSON objects that should be deleted. 
    {
    "pk": 1,
     "model":  "useradmin.userprofile",
     "fields": {
       "creation_method":  "HUE",
       "user": 1,
       "home_directory":  "/user/alice"
    }
  },
  {
     "pk": 2,
     "model":  "useradmin.userprofile",
     "fields": {
       "creation_method":  "HUE",
       "user": 1100714,
       "home_directory":  "/user/bob"
    }
  },
.....
  4. Start the Hue server.
  5. Install the MySQL client developer package.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo yum install mysql-devel

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo zypper install mysql-devel

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
  6. Install the MySQL connector.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo yum install mysql-connector-java

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo zypper install mysql-connector-java

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo apt-get install libmysql-java
  7. Install and start MySQL.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo yum install mysql-server

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo zypper install mysql
$ sudo zypper install libmysqlclient_r15

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
  8. Change the /etc/my.cnf file as follows: 
    [mysqld]
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
bind-address=<ip-address>
default-storage-engine=InnoDB
sql_mode=STRICT_ALL_TABLES
  9. Start the mysql daemon.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo service mysqld start

    SLES and Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo service mysql start
  10. Configure MySQL to use a strong password. In the following procedure, your current root password is blank. Press the Enter key when you're prompted for the root password. 
    $ sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
[...]
Enter current password for root (enter for none):
OK, successfully used password, moving on...
[...]
Set root password? [Y/n] y
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
[...]
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] N
[...]
Remove test database and access to it [Y/n] Y
[...]
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y
All done!
  11. Configure MySQL to start at boot.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo /sbin/chkconfig mysqld on
$ sudo /sbin/chkconfig --list mysqld
mysqld          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo chkconfig --add mysql

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo chkconfig mysql on
  12. Create the Hue database and grant privileges to a hue user to manage the database. 
    mysql> create database hue;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> grant all on hue.* to 'hue'@'localhost' identified by '<secretpassword>';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
  13. Open the Hue configuration file in a text editor.
  14. Edit the Hue configuration file hue.ini. Directly below the [[database]] section under the [desktop] line, add the following options (and modify accordingly for your setup): 
    host=localhost
port=3306
engine=mysql
user=hue
password=<secretpassword>
name=hue
  15. As the hue user, load the existing data and create the necessary database tables using syncdb and migrate commands. When running these commands, Hue will try to access a logs directory, located at /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs, which might be missing. If that is the case, first create the logs directory and give the hue user and group ownership of the directory. 
    $ sudo mkdir /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs
$ sudo chown hue:hue /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs
$ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue syncdb --noinput
$ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue migrate
$ mysql -u hue -p <secretpassword>
mysql > SHOW CREATE TABLE auth_permission;
  16. (InnoDB only) Drop the foreign key. 
    mysql > ALTER TABLE auth_permission DROP FOREIGN KEY content_type_id_refs_id_XXXXXX;
  17. Delete the rows in the django_content_type table. 
    mysql > DELETE FROM hue.django_content_type;
  18. Load the data. 
    $ <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue loaddata <some-temporary-file>.json
  19. (InnoDB only) Add the foreign key. 
    $ mysql -u hue -p <secretpassword>
mysql > ALTER TABLE auth_permission ADD FOREIGN KEY (`content_type_id`) REFERENCES `django_content_type` (`id`);

Configuring the Hue Server to Store Data in PostgreSQL

  1. Shut down the Hue server if it is running.
  2. Dump the existing database data to a text file. Note that using the .json extension is required. 
    $ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue dumpdata > <some-temporary-file>.json
  3. Open <some-temporary-file>.json and remove all JSON objects with useradmin.userprofile in the model field. Here are some examples of JSON objects that should be deleted. 
    {
    "pk": 1,
     "model":  "useradmin.userprofile",
     "fields": {
       "creation_method":  "HUE",
       "user": 1,
       "home_directory":  "/user/alice"
    }
  },
  {
     "pk": 2,
     "model":  "useradmin.userprofile",
     "fields": {
       "creation_method":  "HUE",
       "user": 1100714,
       "home_directory":  "/user/bob"
    }
  },
.....
  4. Install required packages.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo yum install postgresql-devel gcc python-devel

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo zypper install postgresql-devel gcc python-devel

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo apt-get install postgresql-devel gcc python-devel
  5. Install the module that provides the connector to PostgreSQL. 
    sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/pip install setuptools
sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/pip install psycopg2
  6. Install the PostgreSQL server.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo yum install postgresql-server

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo zypper install postgresql-server

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo apt-get install postgresql
  7. Initialize the data directories: 
    $ service postgresql initdb
  8. Configure client authentication.
    1. Edit /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.
    2. Set the authentication methods for local to trust and for host to password and add the following line at the end. 
      host
hue
hue
0.0.0.0/0
md5
  9. Start the PostgreSQL server. 
    $ su - postgres
# /usr/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/pgsql/data > logfile 2>&1 &
  10. Configure PostgreSQL to listen on all network interfaces.
    Edit /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf and set list_addresses: 
    listen_addresses = '0.0.0.0'    # Listen on all addresses
  11. Create the hue database and grant privileges to a hue user to manage the database. 
    # psql -U postgres
postgres=# create database hue;
postgres=# \c hue;
You are now connected to database 'hue'.
postgres=# create user hue with password '<secretpassword>';
postgres=# grant all privileges on database hue to hue;
postgres=# \q
  12. Restart the PostgreSQL server. 
    $ sudo service postgresql restart
  13. Verify connectivity. 
    psql -h localhost -U hue -d hue 
Password for user hue: <secretpassword>
  14. Configure the PostgreSQL server to start at boot.
    OS Command

    RHEL

    		 
    $ sudo /sbin/chkconfig postgresql on
$ sudo /sbin/chkconfig --list postgresql
postgresql          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

    SLES

    		 
    $ sudo chkconfig --add postgresql

    Ubuntu or Debian

    		 
    $ sudo chkconfig postgresql on
  15. Open the Hue configuration file in a text editor.
  16. Edit the Hue configuration file hue.ini. Directly below the [[database]] section under the [desktop] line, add the following options (and modify accordingly for your setup): 
    host=localhost
port=5432
engine=postgresql_psycopg2
user=hue
password=<secretpassword>
name=hue
  17. As the hue user, configure Hue to load the existing data and create the necessary database tables. You will need to run both the migrate and syncdb commands. When running these commands, Hue will try to access a logs directory, located at /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs, which might be missing. If that is the case, first create the logs directory and give the hue user and group ownership of the directory. 
    $ sudo mkdir /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs
$ sudo chown hue:hue /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs
$ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue syncdb --noinput
$ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue migrate
  18. Determine the foreign key ID. 
    bash# su - postgres
$ psql -h localhost -U hue -d hue
postgres=# \d auth_permission;
  19. Drop the foreign key that you retrieved in the previous step. 
    postgres=# ALTER TABLE auth_permission DROP CONSTRAINT content_type_id_refs_id_<XXXXXX>;
  20. Delete the rows in the django_content_type table. 
    postgres=# TRUNCATE django_content_type CASCADE;
  21. Load the data. 
    $ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue loaddata <some-temporary-file>.json
  22. Add back the foreign key you dropped. 
    bash# su - postgres
$ psql -h localhost -U hue -d hue 
postgres=# ALTER TABLE auth_permission ADD CONSTRAINT content_type_id_refs_id_<XXXXXX> FOREIGN KEY (content_type_id) REFERENCES django_content_type(id) DEFERRABLE INITIALLY DEFERRED;

Configuring the Hue Server to Store Data in Oracle

  1. Ensure Python 2.6 or higher is installed on the server Hue is running on.
  2. Download the Oracle client libraries at Instant Client for Linux x86-64 Version 11.1.0.7.0, Basic and SDK (with headers) zip files to the same directory.
  3. Unzip the zip files.
  4. Set environment variables to reference the libraries. 
    $ export ORACLE_HOME=<download directory>
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME
  5. Create a symbolic link for the shared object: 
    $ cd $ORACLE_HOME
$ ln -sf libclntsh.so.11.1 libclntsh.so
  6. Get a data dump by executing: 
    $ <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue dumpdata > <some-temporary-file>.json --indent 2
  7. Edit the Hue configuration file hue.ini. Directly below the [[database]] section under the [desktop] line, add the following options (and modify accordingly for your setup): 
    host=localhost
port=1521
engine=oracle
user=hue
password=<secretpassword>
name=<SID of the Oracle database, for example, 'XE'>
    To use the Oracle service name instead of the SID, use the following configuration instead: 
    port=0
engine=oracle
user=hue
password=password
name=oracle.example.com:1521/orcl.example.com

    The directive port=0 allows Hue to use a service name. The name string is the connect string, including hostname, port, and service name.

    To add support for a multithreaded environment, set the threaded option to true under the [desktop]>[[database]] section.

    options={'threaded':true}
  8. Grant required permissions to the Hue user in Oracle: 
    grant alter any index to hue;
grant alter any table to hue;
grant alter database link to hue;
grant create any index to hue;
grant create any sequence to hue;
grant create database link to hue;
grant create session to hue;
grant create table to hue;
grant drop any sequence to hue;
grant select any dictionary to hue;
grant drop any table to hue;
grant create procedure to hue;
grant create trigger to hue;
  9. As the hue user, configure Hue to load the existing data and create the necessary database tables. You will need to run both the syncdb and migrate commands. When running these commands, Hue will try to access a logs directory, located at /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs, which might be missing. If that is the case, first create the logs directory and give the hue user and group ownership of the directory. 
    $ sudo mkdir /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs
$ sudo chown hue:hue /opt/cloudera/parcels/CDH/lib/hue/logs
$ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue syncdb --noinput
$ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue migrate
  10. Ensure that you are still connected to Oracle as the hue user and delete all data from the Oracle tables: 
    SELECT 'DELETE FROM ' || '.' || table_name || ';' FROM user_tables;
  11. Run the statements generated in the preceding step.
  12. Load the data. 
    $ sudo -u hue <HUE_HOME>/build/env/bin/hue loaddata <some-temporary-file>.json