https://community.cloudera.com/t5/Support-Questions/permission-denied-while-using-distcp/m-p/79731#M34443 The following pattern is the often seen when running DR-like HDFS DistCp<BR />jobs on secure clusters:<BR /><BR />1. Define a HDFS admin group in your user identity backend (lets call it<BR />'hdfsadmin')<BR />2. Add qualified (strictly administrative users) users to the new<BR />'hdfsadmin' group, and ensure all hosts in the cluster show up the new user<BR />group when running an 'id username' command<BR />3. On both clusters, alter dfs.permissions.supergroup via HDFS -<BR />Configuration - "Superuser Group" field in CM to use "hdfsadmin", which<BR />allows members of this group to act as HDFS superuser (equivalent to 'hdfs'<BR />user when it comes to filesystem access activities)<BR />4. Run DistCp as any user who has been allowed membership of 'hdfsadmin'<BR />group<BR /> Wed, 12 Sep 2018 22:46:46 GMT Harsh J 2018-09-12T22:46:46Z