Initializing PXF

You must explicitly initialize the PXF service instance. This one-time initialization creates the PXF service web application and generates PXF configuration files and templates.

PXF provides two management commands that you can use for initialization:

• pxf cluster init - initialize all PXF service instances in the Greenplum Database cluster
• pxf init - initialize the PXF service instance on the current Greenplum Database host

PXF Configuration Properties

PXF supports both internal and user-customizable configuration properties. Initializing PXF generates PXF internal configuration files, setting default properties specific to your configuration. Initializing PXF also generates configuration file templates for user-customizable settings such as custom profiles and PXF runtime and logging settings.

PXF internal configuration files are located in $GPHOME/pxf/conf. You identify the PXF user configuration directory at initialization time via an environment variable named $PXF_CONF. If you do not set $PXF_CONF prior to initializing PXF, PXF may prompt you to accept or decline the default user configuration directory, $HOME/pxf, during the initialization process.

Note: The gpadmin user must have permission to either create, or write to, the specified $PXF_CONF directory.

During initialization, PXF creates the $PXF_CONF directory if necessary, and then populates it with subdirectories and template files. Refer to PXF User Configuration Directories for a list of these directories and their contents.

Prerequisites

Before initializing PXF in your Greenplum Database cluster, ensure that:

• Your Greenplum Database cluster is up and running.
• You have identified the PXF user configuration directory filesystem location, $PXF_CONF.

Procedure

Perform the following procedure to initialize PXF on each segment host in your Greenplum Database cluster.

1. Log in to the Greenplum Database master node:

   $ ssh gpadmin@<gpmaster>
   

2. Run the pxf cluster init command to initialize the PXF service on the master and on each segment host. For example, the following command specifies /etc/pxf/usercfg as the PXF user configuration directory for initialization.)

   gpadmin@gpmaster$ PXF_CONF=/etc/pxf/usercfg $GPHOME/pxf/bin/pxf cluster init
   

   The init command creates the PXF web application and initializes the internal PXF configuration. The init command also creates the $PXF_CONF user configuration directory if it does not exist, and populates the directory with user-customizable configuration templates.

   Note: The PXF service runs only on the segment hosts. However,pxf cluster init also sets up the PXF user configuration directories on the Greenplum Database master host.