{"id":7215,"date":"2021-03-15T17:40:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T17:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rax-stg-wp-aws.com\/blogs\/sql-polybase-setup-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T19:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:28:14","slug":"sql-polybase-setup-issues","status":"publish","type":"blogs","link":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/blogs\/sql-polybase-setup-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"SQL PolyBase setup issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my most recent blog post, Unified data platform and data virtualization through PolyBase: Part Two<\/a> I provided a demo of data virtualization through PolyBase,<\/p>\n

While setting up the SQL PolyBase demo to fetch data from external sources, I faced a couple of issues. Although I fixed the issues quickly, I thought it would be good to consolidate and present them in one place so anyone having the same problems can benefit. So, let’s get
\nstarted.<\/p>\n

First issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

ERROR: You can install PolyBase on only one SQL Server instance per machine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Polybase<\/p>\n

Figure 1 – First issue, error<\/em><\/p>\n

Cause<\/strong><\/p>\n

This error is self-explanatory. Instances can’t share PolyBase, and more than one instance on a machine can’t have it simultaneously. In my case, I already installed SQL Polybase on another instance, so the error occurred.<\/p>\n

Resolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had to remove Polybase from the instance where I previously installed it.  After that, I re-ran the SQL setup and selected to install the PolyBase feature for the new instance, and it went fine.<\/p>\n

\"Polybase<\/p>\n

Figure 2 – First issue, resolved<\/em><\/p>\n

Second issue <\/strong><\/p>\n

ERROR : Support for external data source of type HADOOP is not enabled. To enable, set ‘hadoop connectivity<\/em>‘ to desired value.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The error occurred when I created the external data source of TYPE = HADOOP.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Polybase<\/p>\n

 Figure 3 – Second issue, error<\/em><\/p>\n

Cause<\/strong><\/p>\n

The system throws this error in two cases: <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You did not set the SQL Server parameter Hadoop_connectivity<\/strong> to the desired value. <\/li>\n
  2. You set the parameter correctly, but you did not restart the SQL service after setting the parameter. This step is necessary even though the documentation doesn’t mention it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You can use the following query to set the parameter value:<\/p>\n

       EXEC sp_configure @configname = ‘hadoop connectivity’, @configvalue = 7;
    \n    Go
    \n    Reconfigure<\/em><\/p>\n

    Resolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I checked for the parameter value on my instance, and I set it up correctly, as shown in the following image:<\/p>\n

    \"polybase<\/p>\n

    Figure 4<\/em><\/p>\n

    Though the need to restart SQL services wasn’t documented, a restart fixed the issue for me. I re-ran the Create External Data Source<\/strong> query in Step 3 of the PolyBase demo post<\/a> and it went fine. <\/p>\n

    \"polybase<\/p>\n

    Figure 5 – Second issue, resolved <\/em><\/p>\n

    Third issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

    ERROR: Incorrect syntax near EXTERNAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The error occurred when I ran the following query to create the external file format:<\/p>\n

        CREATE EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT TextFileFormat WITH (
    \n    FORMAT_TYPE = DELIMITEDTEXT,
    \n    FORMAT_OPTIONS (FIELD_TERMINATOR =’,’,USE_TYPE_DEFAULT = TRUE))<\/em><\/p>\n

    Cause<\/strong><\/p>\n

    This error is misleading because it looks like a syntactical error. However, it occurs when you don’t enable the PolyBase feature properly.<\/p>\n

    Resolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I ran the following query to fix the issue:<\/p>\n

        EXEC sp_configure ‘polybase enabled’, 1;
    \n    Go
    \n    Reconfigure<\/em><\/p>\n

    \nYou must run the Reconfigure<\/em> query. When you use sp_configure<\/strong> to change a system configuration, you must run a Reconfigure<\/em> to finalize the change.<\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

    That does it for the errors I encountered in the PolyBase demo and their resolutions. Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    SQL PolyBase setup issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7217,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","nid":"26314","content_type":"blog","created_by":"10130","authored_on":"2023-11-29T18:40:35+00:00","field_article_industries":"","tag_category":"Technical","field_blog_author_text":"by Vashali Misra, SQL Server Database Administrator, Rackspace Technology","seo_description":"Find quick solutions to common SQL PolyBase demos for external data retrieval issues. Read more for easy troubleshooting.","field_featured_image":"","insights_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_technical_images\/26314-insights_image-database-technical-blog-2-insights.jpg","field_partners":"","rxt_platforms":"Microsoft SQL","product":"Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack","publisheddate":"2021-03-15T17:40:35","rxt_solutions":"Multicloud, Data, Databases","opengraph_tag":"","x_tag":"","teaser_flag":"Technical Blog","seo_titile":"Solve SQL PolyBase Setup Issues | Rackspace Technology","field_topics":"","field_slug":"sql-polybase-setup-issues","footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[204],"class_list":["post-7215","blogs","type-blogs","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-technical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/7215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blogs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/7215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9163,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/7215\/revisions\/9163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}