Deploy the Delta-Hive Connector

This page outlines the steps to integrate Delta Lake with Hive 4.0.0. The integration involves deploying a custom Delta Lake JAR, to Hive, and using it to create and manage Delta tables.

Download Prebuilt Connector

Download the Deltalake Hive assembly connector jar v3.3.1 matching the client present in Spark 3.5.5, using the internal Nexus link (if available) instead of building it:

Deploy the JAR to Hive

1. Copy the JAR: Place the delta-hive-assembly_2.12-3.3.1.3.2.3.6-3 into the Hive lib directory. For example:

cp delta-hive-assembly_2.12-3.3.1.3.2.3.6-3.jar /usr/odp/3.2.3.6-3/hive/lib/

1. Restart Hive: Restart the Hive service (e.g., from Ambari) to apply the changes.

Create a Delta Table in Spark

Create & Insert Table in Spark

// Using Spark Shell or Scala
import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
val spark = SparkSession.builder()
.appName("Create Delta Table")
.config("spark.sql.extensions", "io.delta.sql.DeltaSparkSessionExtension")
.config("spark.sql.catalog.spark_catalog", "org.apache.spark.sql.delta.catalog.DeltaCatalog")
.getOrCreate()
// Create sample data
val data = Seq(
(1L, "uuid1", "rider1", "driver1", 10.5, "city1"),
(2L, "uuid2", "rider2", "driver2", 20.5, "city2")
)
val df = data.toDF("ts", "uuid", "rider", "driver", "fare", "city")
df.write.format("delta").save("hdfs:///warehouse/tablespace/external/hive/my_delta_table")

Register and Query the Delta Table from Hive

Register the Delta Table in Hive

Open Hive Shell:

hive
Create the External Delta Table:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE deltaTableTest(
ts BIGINT,
uuid STRING,
rider STRING,
driver STRING,
fare DOUBLE,
city STRING
)
STORED BY 'io.delta.hive.DeltaStorageHandler'
LOCATION 'hdfs:///warehouse/tablespace/external/hive/my_delta_table';

Verify Table Creation

After running the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE command, you should see a success message indicating that the table has been created.

You can also verify with:

0: jdbc:hive2://oraupg03.acceldata.ce:2181,or> DESCRIBE FORMATTED deltaTableTest;
INFO : Compiling command(queryId=hive_20260202023428_624c2a02-26c0-4a19-9e5b-5ea846a5c6c2): DESCRIBE FORMATTED deltaTableTest
INFO : Semantic Analysis Completed (retrial = false)
INFO : Created Hive schema: Schema(fieldSchemas:[FieldSchema(name:col_name, type:string, comment:from deserializer), FieldSchema(name:data_type, type:string, comment:from deserializer), FieldSchema(name:comment, type:string, comment:from deserializer)], properties:null)
INFO : Completed compiling command(queryId=hive_20260202023428_624c2a02-26c0-4a19-9e5b-5ea846a5c6c2); Time taken: 0.164 seconds
INFO : Operation DESCTABLE obtained 0 locks
INFO : Executing command(queryId=hive_20260202023428_624c2a02-26c0-4a19-9e5b-5ea846a5c6c2): DESCRIBE FORMATTED deltaTableTest
INFO : Starting task [Stage-0:DDL] in serial mode
INFO : Completed executing command(queryId=hive_20260202023428_624c2a02-26c0-4a19-9e5b-5ea846a5c6c2); Time taken: 0.156 seconds
+-------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+
| col_name | data_type | comment |
+-------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+
| ts | bigint | |
| uuid | string | |
| rider | string | |
| driver | string | |
| fare | double | |
| city | string | |
| | NULL | NULL |
| # Detailed Table Information | NULL | NULL |
| Database: | default | NULL |
| OwnerType: | USER | NULL |
| Owner: | hive | NULL |
| CreateTime: | Mon Feb 02 02:34:16 IST 2026 | NULL |
| LastAccessTime: | UNKNOWN | NULL |
| Retention: | 0 | NULL |
| Location: | hdfs://nameservice1/warehouse/tablespace/external/hive/my_delta_table | NULL |
| Table Type: | EXTERNAL_TABLE | NULL |
| Table Parameters: | NULL | NULL |
| | EXTERNAL | TRUE |
| | bucketing_version | 2 |
| | numFiles | 2 |
| | spark.sql.sources.provider | DELTA |
| | storage_handler | io.delta.hive.DeltaStorageHandler |
| | totalSize | 3662 |
| | transient_lastDdlTime | 1769979856 |
| | NULL | NULL |
| # Storage Information | NULL | NULL |
| SerDe Library: | org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.parquet.serde.ParquetHiveSerDe | NULL |
| InputFormat: | null | NULL |
| OutputFormat: | null | NULL |
| Compressed: | No | NULL |
| Num Buckets: | -1 | NULL |
| Bucket Columns: | [] | NULL |
| Sort Columns: | [] | NULL |
| Storage Desc Params: | NULL | NULL |
| | path | hdfs://nameservice1/warehouse/tablespace/external/hive/my_delta_table |
| | serialization.format | 1 |
+-------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+
36 rows selected (0.421 seconds)
--To Read data from Hive set tez.input.format
0: jdbc:hive2://oraupg03.acceldata.ce:2181,or> SET hive.tez.input.format=io.delta.hive.HiveInputFormat;
No rows affected (0.012 seconds)
0: jdbc:hive2://oraupg03.acceldata.ce:2181,or> SELECT * FROM deltaTableTest LIMIT 10;
INFO : Compiling command(queryId=hive_20260202023459_d89b9135-9e0e-4e1d-941b-bf2f4a0fdac1): SELECT * FROM deltaTableTest LIMIT 10
INFO : No Stats for default@deltatabletest, Columns: fare, driver, city, uuid, rider, ts
INFO : Semantic Analysis Completed (retrial = false)
INFO : Created Hive schema: Schema(fieldSchemas:[FieldSchema(name:deltatabletest.ts, type:bigint, comment:null), FieldSchema(name:deltatabletest.uuid, type:string, comment:null), FieldSchema(name:deltatabletest.rider, type:string, comment:null), FieldSchema(name:deltatabletest.driver, type:string, comment:null), FieldSchema(name:deltatabletest.fare, type:double, comment:null), FieldSchema(name:deltatabletest.city, type:string, comment:null)], properties:null)
INFO : Completed compiling command(queryId=hive_20260202023459_d89b9135-9e0e-4e1d-941b-bf2f4a0fdac1); Time taken: 0.159 seconds
INFO : Operation QUERY obtained 0 locks
INFO : Executing command(queryId=hive_20260202023459_d89b9135-9e0e-4e1d-941b-bf2f4a0fdac1): SELECT * FROM deltaTableTest LIMIT 10
INFO : Completed executing command(queryId=hive_20260202023459_d89b9135-9e0e-4e1d-941b-bf2f4a0fdac1); Time taken: 0.004 seconds
+--------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| deltatabletest.ts | deltatabletest.uuid | deltatabletest.rider | deltatabletest.driver | deltatabletest.fare | deltatabletest.city |
+--------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 2 | uuid2 | rider2 | driver2 | 20.5 | city2 |
| 1 | uuid1 | rider1 | driver1 | 10.5 | city1 |
+--------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
SELECT * FROM deltaTableTest LIMIT 10;

Data Insertion Behavior

Write Data from Hive (Unsupported Test)

INSERT INTO deltaTableTest VALUES
(1693400000000, 'uuid1', 'rider1', 'driver1', 15.5, 'city1'),
(1693400001000, 'uuid2', 'rider2', 'driver2', 20.0, 'city2');

Error Message:

ERROR : FAILED: Execution Error, return code 1 from org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.tez.TezTask. Writing to a Delta table in Hive is not supported. Please use Spark to write.
INFO : Completed executing command(queryId=hive_20260202023700_6d89c9ea-ea02-463b-be16-e7d8164a9328); Time taken: 0.152 seconds
Error: Error while compiling statement: FAILED: Execution Error, return code 1 from org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.tez.TezTask. Writing to a Delta table in Hive is not supported. Please use Spark to write. (state=08S01,code=1)

Limitations and Support Matrix

As part of the Delta Lake integration (ODP-1697), we do support querying Delta tables via Hive using the internal Delta–Hive connector JAR, specifically built for Hive 4 compatibility in ODP 3.3.6.x. However, note the following key limitations:

• Read-only support: Only SELECT and CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE operations are supported from Hive.
• No write support: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE, or any DML operations on Delta tables from Hive are not supported, by design. This is enforced by the DeltaOutputFormat class in the connector, which throws UnsupportedOperationException for any write attempt.
• Only EXTERNAL tables are supported: The Delta table must be pre-created using Spark with proper transaction logs (_delta_log), and then referenced in Hive using:

STORED BY 'io.delta.hive.DeltaStorageHandler'

• The Delta Lake connector from the open-source Delta GitHub repo does not yet support Hive 4, hence we use our internally built version.

Support Matrix from Hive on Delta Table