Creating and Using a Parcel Repository for Cloudera Manager

This topic describes how to create a repository and then how to direct hosts in your environment to use that repository. To create a repository, you simply put the parcel files you want to host in one directory. Then publish the resulting repository on a website. There are two options for publishing the directory:

Install a Web Server

The repository is typically hosted using HTTP on a host inside your network. If you already have a web server in your organization, you can move the repository directory, which will include both the RPMs and the repodata/ subdirectory, to a location hosted by the web server. An easy web server to install is the Apache HTTPD. If you are able to use an existing web server, then note the URL and skip to Download Parcel and Publish Files.

Installing Apache HTTPD

You may need to respond to some prompts to confirm you want to complete the installation.
OS Command
RHEL 
[root@localhost yum.repos.d]$ yum install httpd
SLES 
[root@localhost zypp]$ zypper install httpd
Ubuntu or Debian 
[root@localhost apt]$ apt-get install httpd

Starting Apache HTTPD

OS Command
RHEL 
[root@localhost tmp]$  service httpd start
Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
SLES 
[root@localhost tmp]$ service apache2 start
Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
Ubuntu or Debian 
[root@localhost tmp]$ service apache2 start
Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]

Download Parcel and Publish Files

  1. Download the parcel and manifest.json files for your OS distribution from
    • CDH 5 - Impala, Spark, and Search are included in the CDH parcel.
      • CDH - https://username:password@archive.cloudera.com/p/cdh5/parcels/
      • GPL Extras - https://archive.cloudera.com/p/gplextras5/parcels/
    • Other services
      • Accumulo - https://username:password@archive.cloudera.com/p/accumulo/parcels/
      • Sqoop connectors - https://username:password@archive.cloudera.com/p/sqoop-connectors/parcels/
  2. Move the .parcel and manifest.json files to the web server directory, and modify file permissions. For example, you might use the following commands: 
    [root@localhost tmp]$ mkdir /var/www/html/cdh4.6
[root@localhost tmp]$ mv CDH-4.6.0-1.cdh4.6.0.p0.26-lucid.parcel /var/www/html/cdh4.6
[root@localhost tmp]$ mv manifest.json /var/www/html/cdh4.6
[root@localhost tmp]$ chmod -R ugo+rX /var/www/html/cdh4.6
    After moving the files and changing permissions, visit http://hostname:80/cdh4.6/ to verify that you can access the parcel. Apache may have been configured to not show indexes, which is also acceptable.

Create a Temporary Local Repository

Alternatively you can quickly create a temporary local repository to deploy a parcel once. It is convenient to perform this on the same host that runs Cloudera Manager, or a gateway role. In this example,python SimpleHTTPServer is used from a directory of your choosing.

  1. Download the patched .parcel and manifest.json files as provided in a secure link from Cloudera Support.
  2. Copy the .parcel and manifest.json files to a location of your choosing on your server. This is the directory from which the python SimpleHTTPServer will serve the files. For example: 
    $ mkdir /tmp/parcel
$ cp /home/user/Downloads/patchparcel/CDH-4.5.0.p234.parcel /tmp/parcel/
$ cp /home/user/Downloads/patchparcel/manifest.json /tmp/parcel/
  3. Determine a port that your system is not listening on (for example, port 8900).
  4. Change to the directory containing the .parcel and manifest.json files. 
    $ cd /tmp/parcel
  5. Start a python SimpleHTTPServer to host these two files: 
    $ python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8900
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8900 ...
  6. Confirm you can get to this hosted parcel directory by going to http://server:8900 in your browser. You should see links for the hosted files.

Configure the Cloudera Manager Server to Use the Parcel URL

  1. Use one of the following methods to open the parcel settings page:
    • Navigation bar
      1. Click in the top navigation bar
      2. Click the Edit Settings button.
    • Menu
      1. Select Administration > Settings.
      2. Click the Parcels category.
    • Tab
      1. Click the Hosts tab.
      2. Click the Configuration tab.
      3. Click the Parcels category.
      4. Click the Edit Settings button.
  2. In the Remote Parcel Repository URLs list, click to open an additional row.
  3. Enter the path to the parcel. For example, http://hostname:port/cdh4.6/.
  4. Click Save Changes to commit the changes.