How to Fix "getDelegationToken() can be called only in thrift" Errors in HiveServer2

PranayV — Fri, 15 May 2026 18:46:23 GMT

Hello,

Hiveserver2 is non-responsive and the log reveals below error.

Cluster is Kerberos enabled and there is no HA on Hive.

hive.cluster.delegation.token.store.class - org.apache.hadoop.hive.thrift.ZooKeeperTokenStore
Ambari V 2.0
HDP V 2.2.4.2 
2016-01-19 23:20:18,466 ERROR [HiveServer2-Handler-Pool: Thread-159]: metadata.Hive (Hive.java:getDelegationToken(291
0)) - java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: getDelegationToken() can be called only in thrift (non local) mode
  at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreClient.getDelegationToken(HiveMetaStoreClient.java:1664)
  at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor72.invoke(Unknown Source)
  at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
  at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.RetryingMetaStoreClient.invoke(RetryingMetaStoreClient.java:90)
  at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy12.getDelegationToken(Unknown Source)
  at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.metadata.Hive.getDelegationToken(Hive.java:2908)
  at org.apache.hive.service.cli.CLIService.getDelegationTokenFromMetaStore(CLIService.java:467)
  at org.apache.hive.service.cli.thrift.ThriftCLIService.getDelegationToken(ThriftCLIService.java:340)
  at org.apache.hive.service.cli.thrift.ThriftCLIService.getSessionHandle(ThriftCLIService.java:321)
  at org.apache.hive.service.cli.thrift.ThriftCLIService.OpenSession(ThriftCLIService.java:235)
  at org.apache.hive.service.cli.thrift.TCLIService$Processor$OpenSession.getResult(TCLIService.java:1253)
  at org.apache.hive.service.cli.thrift.TCLIService$Processor$OpenSession.getResult(TCLIService.java:1238)
  at org.apache.thrift.ProcessFunction.process(ProcessFunction.java:39)
  at org.apache.thrift.TBaseProcessor.process(TBaseProcessor.java:39)
  at org.apache.hadoop.hive.thrift.HadoopThriftAuthBridge20S$Server$TUGIAssumingProcessor.process(HadoopThriftA
uthBridge20S.java:679)
  at org.apache.thrift.server.TThreadPoolServer$WorkerProcess.run(TThreadPoolServer.java:206)
  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Appreciate your help!

Regards

Re: Hiveserver2 Delegation Token Errors

emaxwell — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 00:22:32 GMT

@pvyas

It looks like you may be running into HIVE-4625. This bug presents when Hiveserver2 is running with doAs enabled (hive.server2.enable.doAs=true). Best practices for securing the cluster call for running Hiveserver2 with doAs disabled because of the ability for a user to skirt Hive authorization policies in Ranger by going directly to HDFS to read files. Here is a link to the article: Best Practices for Hive Authorization. Setting doAs to false should also solve your issue of delegation token errors. This bug is corrected in Hive 1.2 which is included with HDP 2.3 and Hiveserver2 will not ask for delegation tokens from metastore any more.

Re: Hiveserver2 Delegation Token Errors

PranayV — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 03:37:38 GMT

Thank You very much @emaxwell. This helps

question Re: Hiveserver2 Delegation Token Errors in Support Questions

How to Fix "getDelegationToken() can be called only in thrift" Errors in HiveServer2

Re: Hiveserver2 Delegation Token Errors

Re: Hiveserver2 Delegation Token Errors