HPD 2.4 auto. install(using Ambari) - does a 'non-root' way exists ?

[#1]

Earlier, on the test machines, I had installed HDP 2.2 using Ambari. I had the root credentials as well as the Internet access. The cluster and the services functioned properly.

Now on the prod. machines(4 datanodes + 2 master(HA) + 1 management = 7 machines) I wish to :

1. Install Ambari 2.2 on a management node. The Ambari agents will be installed auto.(password-less SSH)
2. Log-in the Ambari mgt. console and install the HDP stack

The first challenge is now I don't have the root credentials of any of the machines, I can log-in using my Linux account(connected to an ldap) and install it. As for now, the Internet access is unclear.

I read several threads like this and this but I am unsure as to whether I can proceed without root access ? I suspect that non-root user installation will run into issues later, either at the Ambari or the HDP level(or both!). I don't have the liberty of trying out approaches 😞 , hence, I need to be correct till the cluster is installed.

How shall I start ?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@Kaliyug Antagonist

There is a way to install Ambari and the HDP stack as a non-root user, but you will have to have someone with root privileges help you set up the access on the systems to do this. Certain sudo privileges need to be assigned to the user you're going to run the ambari agent as. You will need a root user to add these sudo configurations for you. The Ambari Security guide has a section about how to setup a non-root Ambari installation. One of the commands that will be given to the ambari user is the ability to install packages (via yum, zypper, etc.). Once these rules are in place, you can use these privileges to install the ambari-server and ambari-agent packages on all of your nodes and proceed with the installation.

[#3]

I think that doc. addresses only Ambari installation. Will the HDP installation be hampered in case of a non-root user ? Can the services like HDFS, YARN, Hive execute smoothly if the installation was done via Ambari running as non-root ?

[#4]

@Kaliyug Antagonist

The permissions that are given to the ambari agent user include those required to create service accounts, install packages, and start/stop all services, run commands as the service accounts, etc. Once the sudo rules are in place, you can install, start, stop, etc., all of the various services in the HDP stack.