This is the documentation for Cloudera Manager 5.0.x. Documentation for other versions is available at Cloudera Documentation.

The Impala Service

You can install Cloudera Impala through the Cloudera Manager installation wizard, using either parcels or packages, and have the service created and started as part of the first run installation wizard. See Installing Impala.

If you elect not to include the Impala service using the installation wizard, you can you the Add Service wizard to perform the installation. The wizard will automatically configure and start the dependent services and the Impala service. See Adding a Service for instructions.

For further information on the Impala service, see:

Continue reading:

Configuring the Impala Service

There are several types of configuration settings you may need to apply, depending on your situation.

Running Impala with CDH 4.1

If you are running CDH 4.1, and the Bypass Hive Metastore Server option is enabled, do the following:
  1. Go to the Impala service.
  2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
  3. Select Impala Daemon Default Group > Advanced.
  4. Add the following to the Impala Advanced Configuration Snippet for hive-site.xml property, replacing <hive_metastore_server_host> with the name of your Hive Metastore Server host:
    <property>
  <name>hive.metastore.local</name>
  <value>false</value>
</property>
<property>
  <name>hive.metastore.uris</name>
  <value>thrift://<hive_metastore_server_host>:9083</value>
</property>
  5. Click Save Changes.
  6. Restart the Impala service.

Enabling Sentry Authorization for Impala

  1. Enable Sentry authorization for Hive.
  2. Go to the Impala service.
  3. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
  4. Under the Service-Wide category, go to the Sentry section.
  5. Check Enable Sentry Authorization, then click Save Changes.
  6. Restart the Impala service.

Configuring Table Statistics

Configuring table statistics is highly recommended when using Impala. It allows Impala to make optimizations that can result in significant (over 10x) performance improvement for some joins. If these are not available, Impala will still function, but at lower performance.

The Impala implementation to compute table statistics is available in CDH 5.0.0 or higher and in Impala version 1.2.2 or higher. The Impala implementation of COMPUTE STATS requires no setup steps and is preferred over the Hive implementation. See Table Statistics. If you are running an older version of Impala, follow the procedure in Hive Table Statistics.

Adding the Impala Llama ApplicationMaster Role

CDH 5 introduces the Impala Llama ApplicationMaster (Llama) role, which reserves and releases YARN-managed resources for Impala, thus reducing resource management overhead when performing Impala queries. For further information, see Managing Resources.

  Warning: In CDH 5.0.0, the Llama component is in beta. It is intended for evaluation of resource management in test environments, in combination with Impala and YARN. It is currently not recommended for production deployment.
The Llama role is not created by default when you add an Impala service. To add the Llama role:
  1. Manually enable cgroup-based resource management:
    1. In the top navigation bar, click Hosts.
    2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
    3. Expand Resource Management.
    4. Check the Enable Cgroup-based Resource Management checkbox.
    5. Click Save Changes.
  2. Optionally configure one or more dynamic resource pools for YARN. If you do not configure pools, queries use the default pool or a pool named for the users who submit the queries.
  3. Configure YARN resource management properties:
    1. Go to the YARN service.
    2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
    3. Select Service-Wide > Resource Management.
    4. Check the Use CGroups for Resource Management and Always use Linux Container Executor properties.
    5. Click Save Changes.
    6. Select ResourceManager Default Group > Resource Management.
    7. Set the Container Memory Minimum and Container Virtual CPU Cores Minimum properties to 0.
    8. Click Save Changes.
    9. Select NodeManager Default Group > Resource Management.
    10. Record the value of the Container Memory property.
  4. Configure Impala resource management properties:
    1. Go to the Impala service.
    2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
    3. Click Resource Management.
    4. Select Service-Wide > YARN Service for Resource Management.
    5. Set it to the YARN service.
    6. Select Impala Daemon Default Group > Resource Management.
    7. Set Impala Daemon Memory Limit property to be equal to the value you recorded in step 3j.
    8. Click Save Changes.
  5. Add and configure the Llama role:
    1. Click the Instances tab.
    2. Click the Add button.
    3. Select a host in the column under Impala Llama ApplicationMaster (beta), then click OK.
    4. Click Continue.
    5. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
    6. Click Impala Llama ApplicationMaster (beta) Default Group.
    7. In the Core Queues property, enter the pools you created in step 2, if any.
    8. Click Save Changes.
  6. Restart services and redeploy client configurations:
    1. Click in the top right.
    2. Click the Restart button.
    3. Click Restart Now.
    4. Click Finish.

Impala Web Servers

Enabling and Disabling Access to Impala Web Servers

By default access to the Impala Daemon and StateStore web servers is enabled.
  • Impala StateStore
    1. Go to the Impala service.
    2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
    3. Select Impala StateStore Default Group.
    4. Check or uncheck Enable StateStore Web Server.
    5. Click Save Changes.
    6. Restart the Impala service.
  • Impala Daemon
    1. Go to the Impala service.
    2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
    3. Select Impala Daemon Default Group > Ports and Addresses.
    4. Check or uncheck Enable Impala Daemon Web Server.
    5. Click Save Changes.
    6. Restart the Impala service.

Opening Impala Web Server UIs

  • Impala StateStore
    1. Go to the Impala service.
    2. Select Web UI > Impala StateStore Web UI.
  • Impala Daemon
    1. Go the to Impala service.
    2. Click the Instances tab.
    3. Click an impalad instance.
    4. Click Impala Daemon Web UI.
  • Impala Catalog Server
    1. Go to the Impala service.
    2. Select Web UI > Impala Catalog Web UI.
  • Impala Llama ApplicationMaster (beta)
    1. Go to the Impala service.
    2. Click the Instances tab.
    3. Click a llama instance.
    4. Click Llama Web UI.

Configuring Secure Access for Impala Web Servers

Cloudera Manager supports two methods of authentication for secure access to the Impala Catalog Server, Daemon, and StateStore web servers: password-based authentication and SSL certificate authentication. Both of these can be configured through properties of the Impala Catalog Server, Daemon, and StateStore. Authentication for the three types of daemons can be configured independently.

Configuring Password Authentication

  1. Go to the Impala service.
  2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
  3. Search for "password" using the Search box within the Configuration page. This should display the password-related properties (Username and Password properties) for the Impala Catalog Server, Daemon, and StateStore. If there are multiple role groups configured for Impala Daemon instances, the search should display all of them.
  4. Enter a username and password into these fields.
  5. Click Save Changes.
  6. Restart the Impala service.

Now when you access the Web UI for the Impala Catalog Server, Daemon, and StateStore, you are asked to log in before access is granted.

Configuring SSL Certificate Authentication

  1. Create or obtain an SSL certificate.
  2. Place the certificate, in .pem format, on the hosts where the Impala Catalog Server and StateStore are running, and on each host where an Impala Daemon is running. It can be placed in any location (path) you choose. If all the Impala Daemons are members of the same role group, then the .pem file must have the same path on every host.
  3. Go to the Impala service page.
  4. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
  5. Search for "certificate" using the Search box within the Configuration page. This should display the certificate file location properties for the Impala Catalog Server, Daemon, and StateStore. If there are multiple role groups configured for Impala Daemon instances, the search should display all of them.
  6. In the property fields, enter the full path name to the certificate file.
  7. Click Save Changes.
  8. Restart the Impala service.

When you access the Web UI for the Impala Catalog Server, Daemon, and StateStore, https will be used.

Deploying Impala with Hue

For CDH 4.3 and earlier, in order to use Cloudera Impala with Hue, do the following.
  1. Go to the Hue service page.
  2. Select Configuration > View and Edit.
  3. Select Hue Server Default Group > Advanced.
  4. Add the following to Hue Server Configuration Advanced Configuration Snippet for hue_safety_valve_server.ini: 
    [impala]
server_host=<impalad_hostname>
server_port=21000
    Substitute your actual hostname for <impalad_hostname>. You can chose any one of your Impala Daemon hosts, assuming you have more than one.
  5. Click Save Changes.
  6. Restart the Hue service.
Page generated September 3, 2015.