Hive create external table fails to load data

SYMPTOM

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE test(
id STRING,
dept STRING)
row format delimited
fields terminated by ','
location '/user/hdfs/testdata/';


ROOT CAUSE

The files under location provided while creating table are structured in following way

/user/hdfs/testdata/1/test1
/user/hdfs/testdata/2/test2
/user/hdfs/testdata/3/test3
/user/hdfs/testdata/4/test4


RESOLUTION

To make the subdirectories accessible set the following two properties before executing the create table statement

set mapred.input.dir.recursive=true;
set hive.mapred.supports.subdirectories=true;