hive managed & external path Question!

[#1]

I created a managed table called "questiuon".

However, a path called "/warehouse/tablespace/external/hive/question.db" was created on the hdfs path.

Conversely, creating an external table also creates a path called "/warehouse/tablespace/managed/hive/question.db".

What is the reason?

[#2]

@novice_tester Could you please make it a bit clearer for us? What are the DDLs(create table command) you used to create the managed table, and the external table? 

Creating a managed table in any location outside of 'hive.metastore.warehouse.dir' path should prompt the following error:

A managed table's location should be located within managed warehouse root directory or within its database's managedLocationUri.

/warehouse/tablespace/managed/hive/ seems like the warehouse directory for the external tables. So, I doubt creating the managed table picked this location on its own.

Could you also share the outputs of the following commands from beeline:

beeline> set hive.metastore.warehouse.dir;
beeline> hive.metastore.warehouse.external.dir;

An external table can be created with the LOCATION clause, and we can set any path w/ it.

Refer to this Cloudera Doc.

[#3]

DDL Statement:
CREATE DATABASE QUESTION;

There are no special set options or settings that have been touched.
Totally default!

[#4 · Accepted solution]

@novice_tester when you create a database, it takes the external warehouse directory path from hive.metastore.warehouse.external.dir, and sets that as the database LOCATION for external tables only(when created without setting location clause). Please note, there is another MANAGEDLOCATION field that is blank.  

e.g.

describe database extended question;

+-----------+----------+----------------------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
|  db_name  | comment  |                      location                      | managedlocation  | owner_name  | owner_type  | parameters  |
+-----------+----------+----------------------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
| question  |          | hdfs://node2.cloudera.com:8020/warehouse/tablespace/external/hive/question.db |                  | hive        | USER        |             |
+-----------+----------+----------------------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+

 A Managedlocation can be set on a database if you want to use a different location for managed tables other than hive.metastore.warehouse.dir. Otherwise it is kept blank. I hope this helps.

To summarize, you do not need to worry about the LOCATION of a database. It can host both managed and external tables. When you create a managed table under the same DB, it will pick the path set in hive.metastore.warehouse.dir, irrespective of the database Location, and when you create an external table without the location clause, it gets stored in the DB LOCATION path.

[#5]

@novice_tester Has the reply helped resolve your issue? If so, please mark the appropriate reply as the solution, as it will make it easier for others to find the answer in the future. Thanks.