[IMPALA-2810] Error message when moving a partitioned table from one database to another

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: Impala 2.3.2
• Fix Version/s: Impala 2.11.0
• Component/s: Catalog
• Labels: catalog-server newbie
• Target Version: Product Backlog
• Assignee: Tianyi Wang
• Reporter: Mariano Dominguez
• Created: 05/Jan/16 16:23
• Updated: 07/Sep/17 04:43
• Resolved: 06/Sep/17 20:25

Description

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS db1;
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS db2;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS db1.tb1;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS db2.tb1;
CREATE TABLE db1.tb1 ( c1 int ) PARTITIONED BY ( c2 string );

[localhost.localdomain:21000] > ALTER TABLE db1.tb1 RENAME TO db2.tb1;
Query: alter TABLE db1.tb1 RENAME TO db2.tb1
ERROR: 
ImpalaRuntimeException: Error making 'alter_table' RPC to Hive Metastore: 
CAUSED BY: MetaException: Column c2 doesn't exist in table tb1 in database db2

Despite the error message, the metastore gets updated...
INVALIDATE METADATA db1.tb1;
INVALIDATE METADATA db2.tb1;

[localhost.localdomain:21000] > SHOW TABLES IN db1 LIKE 'tb1';
Query: show TABLES IN db1 LIKE 'tb1'

Fetched 0 row(s) in 0.01s
[localhost.localdomain:21000] > SHOW TABLES IN db2 LIKE 'tb1';
Query: show TABLES IN db2 LIKE 'tb1'
+------+
| name |
+------+
| tb1  |
+------+

The underlying error comes from the Metastore, but this is not a Metastore bug. It appears as though Impala passes an incorrect parameter to the Metastore. See CatalogOpExecutor.alterTableOrViewRename():

...
// Perform the table rename in any case.
msClient.getHiveClient().alter_table(tableName.getDb(), tableName.getTbl(), msTbl);
...