Apache Atlas – Building & Installing

Let’s say we want to got working Apache Atlas instance with embedded Hbase & Solr on our machine. Notice, that you need to install JDK 8 before start.

Go to the Apache Atlas GitHub page, and download the zip file with the source code of the latest stable release from here: https://github.com/apache/atlas/tags

Important notice: DO NOT perform git clone from the master branch, as the development version is unstable and may contain a large number of bugs.

After downloading stable release, unpack it and do compile:

cd atlas-release-x.y.z-*
export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xms2g -Xmx2g"

mvn -T 4C clean -DskipTests package -Pdist,embedded-hbase-solr


After compilation:

cd distro/target
tar -xzvf apache-atlas-x.y.z-server.tar.gz
cd apache-atlas-x.y.z

Note, that there is no error in the cd apache-atlas-x.y.z command. Now continue:

export MANAGE_LOCAL_HBASE=true
export MANAGE_LOCAL_SOLR=true
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64


Replace /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64 path with your own.

It is important to run Apache Atlas from the apache-atlas-x.y.z directory, without going to the bin folder or somewhere else:

chmod +x ./bin/atlas_start.py
./bin/atlas_start.py


It takes a lot of time Atlas to start completely, even if you see the message “Apache Atlas server started“. The main progress indicator is application.log file, located under logs directory. If you see new INFO/WARN record appearing every second, everything is ok and Apache Atlas is in the progress of starting.

You can check Apache Atlas using this command:

curl -u admin:admin http://localhost:21000/api/atlas/admin/version

Important addition #1

If any errors occur when starting Apache Atlas, I strongly recommend restarting the entire operating system, otherwise a successful start may not be achieved.

Important addition #2

There is some cases when the installation from root user does not work. Therefore, in case of any problems, try to build and run the installation as a non-root user.

Important addition #3

If you receive some errors like:

• ConnectionLossException: KeeperErrorCode = ConnectionLoss for /hbase
• localhost:2181 failed for list of /hbase, code = CONNECTIONLOSS
• SessionExpiredException: KeeperErrorCode = Session expired for /config/topics
• Error 503 Service Unavailable, FileNotFoundException ... atlas.war
• WstxParsingException: Illegal to have multiple roots
• Could not retrieve cluster id
• Cluster is not ready

and etc, pay attention for:

1. Which version of Apache Atlas you trying to install? It’s really stable, not SNAPSHOT?
2. Do you remember, that you need restart entire OS after each unsuccessful Apache Atlas run?
3. Which directory you using for Apache Atlas starting? It should be EQUAL this: atlas-release-x.y.z-*/distro/target/apache-atlas-x.y.z.

Important addition #4

If there is any error during the build process, for example:

• Maven could not find artifact
• Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-antrun-plugin:1.7 or some of its dependencies could not be resolved
• Could not transfer artifact

and etc, download this artifact manually using the command:

mvn dependency:get -Dartifact=groupId:artifactId:version

If you still have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments under this article or write me at promark33@gmail.com.

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