Should hadoop user be in sudoers file?

Question

I am learning Hadoop (2.7.1). I am configuring it on Ubuntu (15.04) and I created a separate user for Hadoop to isolate Hadoop file system from Linux file system. But when I try to use sudo under this hadoop user I get an error:

hadoop is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

Should this user be in sudoers file? In which cases should I work under hadoop and root users?

Answer 1

No, hadoop user should not be (need not be) in sudoers file. As you have said, to isolate Hadoop related operations from your local operations, you should use the specific users for specific purposes.

You should use your normal Linux user (or root user) for, say, installing Linux packages needed for hadoop e.g. OpenSSH, Java etc.

You should use hadoop user for hadoop related operations e.g. Start cluster, Use HDFS, Run MR programs etc.

Hope this helps!