hive interactive server (HSI) queries are failing with java null pointer exception[Error: Error while compiling statement: FAILED: NullPointerException null (state=42000,code=40000)]

[#1]

Found the below exception in hiveserve2interactive.log :

018-10-23T11:59:59,592 ERROR [5bde2168-8b13-4637-b788-2b66ed960e43 HiveServer2-Handler-Pool: Thread-104]: ql.Driver (SessionState.java:printError(1247)) - FAILED: NullPointerException null java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.SemanticAnalyzer.checkResultsCache(SemanticAnalyzer.java:14849) at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.SemanticAnalyzer.analyzeInternal(SemanticAnalyzer.java:12155) at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.CalcitePlanner.analyzeInternal(CalcitePlanner.java:330) at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.BaseSemanticAnalyzer.analyze(BaseSemanticAnalyzer.java:285) at org.apache.hadoop.h

2018-10-23T11:59:59,608 WARN [HiveServer2-Handler-Pool: Thread-104]: thrift.ThriftCLIService (ThriftCLIService.java:ExecuteStatement(571)) - Error executing statement: org.apache.hive.service.cli.HiveSQLException: Error while compiling statement: FAILED: NullPointerException null at org.apache.hive.service.cli.operation.Operation.toSQLException(Operation.java:335) ~[hive-service-3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634.jar:3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634] at org.apache.hive.service.cli.operation.SQLOperation.prepare(SQLOperation.java:199) ~[hive-service-3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634.jar:3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634] at org.apache.hive.service.cli.operation.SQLOperation.runInternal(SQLOperation.java:260) ~[hive-service-3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634.jar:3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634] at org.apache.hive.service.cli.operation.Operation.run(Operation.java:247) ~[hive-service-3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634.jar:3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634] at org.apache.hive.service.cli.session.HiveSe

Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.SemanticAnalyzer.checkResultsCache(SemanticAnalyzer.java:14849) ~[hive-exec-3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634.jar:3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634] at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.SemanticAnalyzer.analyzeInternal(SemanticAnalyzer.java:12155) ~[hive-exec-3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634.jar:3.1.0.3.0.0.0-1634] at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse

[#2]

Hive metric system not started due to /tmp/hive permission issue. we have given full permissions for /tmp/hive resolved the issue.

[#3]

Just to clarify, we had this same issue and resolved it by recursively setting the permissions correctly on the folders below /tmp/hive in HDFS (not the filesystem of your Hive Server) and then restarting the Hive services in Ambari.

Generally the folders below /tmp/hive/ required 700, apart from "_resultscache_" which needed 733.