Atlas fails to start after upgrade CDH 7.1.9 -- 7.3.2.0 GA

[#1]

Hello Cloudera Community,

We upgraded a Test cluster from Cloudera Runtime 7.1.9 to 7.3.2.0 GA (before Prod rollout) and encountered an issue where Apache Atlas fails to start after the upgrade.

Environment

• Original Runtime: 7.1.9
• Upgraded Runtime: 7.3.2.0 (GA)
• Parcel: CDH-7.3.2-1.cdh7.3.2.p0.77083870
• Cloudera Manager: 7.11.3
• OS: RHEL / Oracle Linux 8.7
• Cluster Java: OpenJDK 17 (required by 7.3.2)
• HDFS metadata upgrade: completed

After upgrade, Atlas fails with:

Unrecognized VM option 'CMSClassUnloadingEnabled' Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine

The generated JVM command line contains CMS GC flags: -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled. 

These flags are not supported on Java ≥ 9.

Atlas in 7.3.2.0 GA is compiled with Java 17, so running Atlas on Java 8 or 11 is also not possible: UnsupportedClassVersionError (class file version 61.0).

Looks like CMS GC flags are hard‑coded in the parcel . We attempted multiple supported CM‑level overrides, including:

• Atlas Server Environment Advanced Configuration Snippet (Safety Valve)
  (ATLAS_SERVER_role_env_safety_valve)
• Overriding ATLAS_SERVER_OPTS with clean, Java‑17‑compatible flags
• Cleaning process directories and restarting CM agents

Although the CM configuration appears clean, the final JVM command still includes CMSClassUnloadingEnabled, and Atlas fails with the same error.

This indicates that in 7.3.2.0 GA, parcel‑defined Atlas JVM options are merged after CM overrides, and cannot be fully replaced.

Therefore, there is currently no supported fix for this issue..

Any workaround on this issue?

[#2]

Welcome to our community! To help you get the best possible answer, I have tagged in our Atlas experts @Scharan @Sean464  who may be able to assist you further.

Please feel free to provide any additional information or details about your query, and we hope that you will find a satisfactory solution to your question.

[#3]

@VidyaSargur, tanks for a quick reply and taggng Atlas Guru = )

[#4]

Hello @LaurisG_, 

Hope you are doing fine. 
I think this one is also related to the CM version you have, as mentioned on:
https://community.cloudera.com/t5/Support-Questions/Ranger-UserSync-and-RMS-fails-after-upgrade-7-1-...

As this is unsupported it may send wrong settings to the services. 

Can you try upgrading the CM and see if the Atlas service starts properly?