Install Apache Hive on Ubuntu

What Hive is

Apache Hive is a data warehouse tool built on Hadoop. It lets you query and manage large data sets in HDFS with a SQL-like language called HiveQL.

Requirements

• Java 8 or newer with JAVA_HOME set.
• A working Hadoop installation with the environment variables set (see our Hadoop guide). Hive 4.x needs Java 8 and Hadoop 3.x.
• Ubuntu. This guide used Ubuntu 24.04, but other versions work.
• At least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB is better for real work).
• 20 GB of free disk space.

Step 1: Download and extract Hive

Check Hadoop first:

hadoop version

Download Hive from the Apache download page.

Or with wget (check the current version number on the Apache site):

wget https://downloads.apache.org/hive/hive-4.0.1/apache-hive-4.0.1-bin.tar.gz

Extract it:

tar xzf apache-hive-4.0.1-bin.tar.gz

Step 2: Set the environment variables

Open ~/.bashrc:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add these lines at the end (change the path to where you extracted Hive):

export HIVE_HOME="/home/hdoop/apache-hive-4.0.1-bin"
export PATH=$PATH:$HIVE_HOME/bin

Apply the changes:

source ~/.bashrc

Check them:

echo $HIVE_HOME

echo $PATH | grep hive

Step 3: Configure Hadoop for Hive

Edit core-site.xml:

sudo nano $HADOOP_HOME/etc/hadoop/core-site.xml

Add the proxy user settings inside <configuration> (replace db_user and server with the users that run Hive):

<property>
    <name>hadoop.proxyuser.db_user.groups</name>
    <value>*</value>
</property>
<property>
    <name>hadoop.proxyuser.db_user.hosts</name>
    <value>*</value>
</property>
<property>
    <name>hadoop.proxyuser.server.hosts</name>
    <value>*</value>
</property>
<property>
    <name>hadoop.proxyuser.server.groups</name>
    <value>*</value>
</property>

These settings let the Hive user act on behalf of other users. The * values are open and fine for a test. Narrow them in production.

Step 4: Create the HDFS folders

hadoop fs -mkdir /tmp

hadoop fs -chmod g+w /tmp

hadoop fs -ls /

Also create the warehouse folder:

hadoop fs -mkdir -p /user/hive/warehouse
hadoop fs -chmod g+w /user/hive/warehouse

Step 5: Configure Hive (optional but good)

cd apache-hive-4.0.1-bin/conf

ls -l

Copy the template:

cp hive-default.xml.template hive-site.xml

Edit it:

nano hive-site.xml

Set, for example, the warehouse folder:

<property>
    <name>hive.metastore.warehouse.dir</name>
    <value>/user/hive/warehouse</value>
</property>

Custom settings help you tune performance for your hardware, fit your environment and meet production rules.

Step 6: Initialize the metastore

cd apache-hive-4.0.1-bin

bin/schematool -dbType derby -initSchema

The metastore stores the databases, table definitions, column data types, partitions and security information. Derby is fine for testing. Use MySQL or PostgreSQL for production.

Step 7: Start Hive and test it

bin/hiveserver2

In another terminal, connect with bin/beeline -u jdbc:hive2://localhost:10000 and create a table:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS student_details(
name STRING,
marks FLOAT)
ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',';

Quick recap

• Install Hadoop first, then download and extract Hive.
• Set HIVE_HOME, create the HDFS folders and run schematool -initSchema.
• Start HiveServer2 and create a table to test.