This is the documentation for Cloudera Manager 5.1.x. Documentation for other versions is available at Cloudera Documentation.

Step 14: Create the HDFS Superuser Principal

In order to be able to create home directories for users you will need access to the HDFS superuser account. (CDH automatically created the HDFS superuser account on each cluster host during CDH installation.) When you enabled Kerberos for the HDFS service, you lost access to the HDFS superuser account via sudo -u hdfs commands. To enable your access to the HDFS superuser account now that Kerberos is enabled, you must create a Kerberos principal or an AD user whose first component is hdfs:

If you are using Active Directory

Add a new user account to Active Directory, hdfs@YOUR-REALM.COM.

If you are using MIT KDC

  1. In the kadmin.local or kadmin shell, type the following command to create a Kerberos principal called hdfs: 
    kadmin:  addprinc hdfs@YOUR-LOCAL-REALM.COM
      Note: This command prompts you to create a password for the hdfs principal. You should use a strong password because having access to this principal provides superuser access to all of the files in HDFS.
  2. To run commands as the HDFS superuser, you must obtain Kerberos credentials for the hdfs principal. To do so, run the following command and provide the appropriate password when prompted. 
    $ kinit hdfs@YOUR-LOCAL-REALM.COM
Page generated September 3, 2015.