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Hdinsight Migration

MicrosoftOfficialPublished by Microsoft

  • Skill
  • Workflow
  • Cloud and DevOps
  • MIT
  • Low risk

From the author

Ports HDInsight Spark and Hive workloads to Fabric, converting HiveContext and SparkContext to SparkSession, WASB and ABFS paths to OneLake shortcuts, Hive DDL to Delta tables in a Lakehouse, and Oozie coordinators and actions to pipeline activities and triggers. Use when the source workload is HDInsight.
— the description by Microsoft

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

The hdinsight-migration skill provides a structured framework for transitioning legacy HDInsight Spark and Hive workloads to the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem. It outlines the necessary architectural shifts, such as replacing legacy SparkContext and HiveContext with pre-instantiated SparkSession, migrating storage paths from WASB/ABFS to OneLake shortcuts, and converting Oozie workflows into Fabric Data Pipelines. The skill emphasizes modernizing data storage to Delta Lake and utilizing notebookutils for enhanced operational capabilities, ensuring a smooth transition from cluster-based management to Fabric's serverless compute model.

What it does

  • Maps HDInsight components to their corresponding Microsoft Fabric services.
  • Provides patterns for replacing legacy Spark 1.x/2.x APIs with Spark 3.x SparkSession.
  • Guides the conversion of Hive DDL to Delta Lake tables within Lakehouses.
  • Translates Oozie workflow actions into Fabric Data Pipeline activities.
  • Replaces deprecated WASB/ABFS storage paths with OneLake shortcuts.
  • Introduces notebookutils for file system operations and secret management.

When to use it

  • When planning or executing the migration of existing HDInsight Spark or Hive workloads to Microsoft Fabric.
  • When refactoring legacy Oozie workflows into modern Fabric Data Pipelines.
  • When updating Spark code to comply with Fabric's Spark 3.x runtime and pre-instantiated session environment.
  • When restructuring data storage from HDFS or WASB to OneLake.

Advantages

  • Reduces migration friction by providing clear mapping between legacy and modern components.
  • Ensures compatibility with Fabric's serverless compute and managed infrastructure.
  • Promotes the use of Delta Lake for improved data quality and performance.
  • Standardizes operational tasks using the built-in notebookutils library.

Usage examples

“How do I replace my legacy HiveContext code in a migrated Spark notebook?”
The agent will instruct you to remove the HiveContext instantiation and use the pre-instantiated 'spark' session, which natively supports Hive-compatible SQL via Delta schemas.
“What is the Fabric equivalent for an Oozie Spark action?”
The agent will explain how to map the Oozie Spark action to a Fabric Notebook activity or a Spark Job Definition activity, including how to pass parameters.
“How should I handle WASB paths during my migration to Fabric?”
The agent will guide you to replace WASB paths with OneLake shortcuts (abfss://) to leverage Fabric's native data access and authentication models.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/microsoft/hdinsight-migration/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip hdinsight-migration.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Microsoft

Telemetry — MANDATORY. Every api.fabric.microsoft.com call must carry x-ms-fabric-skill: hdinsight-migration (az rest: --headers "x-ms-fabric-skill=hdinsight-migration"), including every LRO poll, fabric_lro and retry. Snippets omit it — add it anyway.

CRITICAL NOTES

  1. To find workspace details (including its ID) from a workspace name: list all workspaces, then use JMESPath filtering

  2. To find item details (including its ID) from workspace ID, item type, and item name: list all items of that type in that workspace, then use JMESPath filtering

  3. HDInsight has no mssparkutils or dbutils equivalent — notebookutils is net-new capability being introduced

  4. HiveContext and SQLContext are legacy Spark 1.x/2.x APIs — Fabric uses Spark 3.x SparkSession exclusively

  5. wasb:// paths are deprecated and require a Storage Account key or SAS — replace with OneLake shortcuts

  6. Fabric cannot read or shortcut hdfs:// directly. Its Pipeline HDFS connector supports Anonymous authentication only; export or bridge Kerberos sources to supported storage first.

HDInsight → Microsoft Fabric Migration

Prerequisite Knowledge

Read these companion documents before executing migration tasks:

  • COMMON-CORE.md — Fabric REST API patterns, authentication, token audiences, item discovery

  • COMMON-CLI.md — az rest, az login, token acquisition, Fabric REST via CLI

  • SPARK-AUTHORING-CORE.md — Notebook deployment, lakehouse creation, Spark job execution

For notebook and Lakehouse creation, see spark-cli. For Fabric Warehouse DDL/DML authoring, see sqldw-cli.


Table of Contents

TopicReference
Migration Workload Map§ Migration Workload Map
SparkSession & Context API Changes§ SparkSession API Changes
WASB / ABFS → OneLake Path Migrationpath-migration.md
Hive DDL → Delta Lake / Lakehouse Schemashive-to-delta.md
Oozie → Fabric Pipelines§ Oozie → Fabric Pipelines
Introducing notebookutils§ Introducing notebookutils
Before/After Code Patternscode-patterns.md
Spark Configuration Differences§ Spark Configuration Differences
Must / Prefer / Avoid§ Must / Prefer / Avoid
Authentication & Token AcquisitionCOMMON-CORE.md § Authentication
Lakehouse ManagementSPARK-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Lakehouse Management

Migration Workload Map

HDInsight ComponentFabric TargetNotes
Spark cluster (notebooks, scripts)Fabric Spark (Lakehouse / Notebooks / SJD)No persistent cluster — Starter Pool or Custom Pool provides on-demand Spark
Hive / HiveServer2Lakehouse SQL Endpoint + Lakehouse schemasDelta Lake replaces Hive metastore; schemas provide namespace equivalent
HBaseFabric Warehouse or Azure Cosmos DB (separate from Fabric)HBase has no direct Fabric equivalent — assess workload access patterns
Oozie workflowsFabric Data PipelinesMap Oozie actions to Fabric activities; see § Oozie → Fabric Pipelines
YARN Resource ManagerFabric Spark monitoring (Spark UI, Monitoring Hub)No YARN — Fabric manages compute automatically
AmbariFabric Monitoring Hub + Admin PortalCluster health, capacity, and job monitoring
WASB / ABFS storageOneLake Shortcuts → abfss://[email protected]/See path-migration.md
Ranger policiesFabric workspace roles + OneLake data access rolesMap Ranger row/column filters to Lakehouse row-level security
Livy REST serverFabric Livy APICompatible endpoint — see SPARK-AUTHORING-CORE.md

SparkSession & Context API Changes

HDInsight Spark clusters often use legacy Spark 1.x / 2.x API styles. Replace all of these with the unified SparkSession:

Legacy HDInsight PatternFabric Spark 3.x Replacement
from pyspark import SparkContext; sc = SparkContext()Not needed — sc = spark.sparkContext (pre-instantiated)
from pyspark.sql import HiveContext; hc = HiveContext(sc)Not needed — spark session has Hive-compatible SQL support via Delta schemas
from pyspark.sql import SQLContext; sqlc = SQLContext(sc)Not needed — use spark.sql(...) directly
SparkSession.builder.enableHiveSupport().getOrCreate()Not needed in Fabric — spark is pre-built and available
sc.textFile("wasb://[email protected]/path")spark.read.text("abfss://[email protected]/lh.Lakehouse/Files/path")
sqlContext.sql("CREATE TABLE ... STORED AS ORC")See hive-to-delta.md for Delta DDL equivalent

In Fabric notebooks, spark (SparkSession) and sc (SparkContext) are pre-instantiated — do not call SparkContext() or SparkSession.builder...getOrCreate() at the top of migrated notebooks.


Oozie → Fabric Pipelines

Map Oozie workflow actions to Fabric Data Pipeline activities:

Oozie Action TypeFabric Pipeline ActivityNotes
<spark> actionNotebook activity or Spark Job Definition activityPass parameters via notebook cell parameters or SJD arguments
<hive> actionScript activity (SQL) against Lakehouse SQL EndpointConvert HiveQL to Spark SQL or Delta SQL
<shell> actionAzure Function activity or Web activityShell scripts must be refactored; no direct shell execution in Fabric Pipelines
<java> actionAzure Batch activity (external) or refactor to PySparkJava MapReduce jobs must be rewritten
<sqoop> actionCopy Data activity (Fabric Data Factory connector)Sqoop import/export maps to Fabric Copy Data with JDBC source/sink
<coordinator> (time-based schedule)Pipeline schedule triggerSet recurrence in pipeline trigger; supports cron-like expressions
<coordinator> (data-triggered)Storage Event triggerTrigger on OneLake file arrival

Delegate to spark-cli for notebook and SJD creation after mapping pipeline activities.


Introducing notebookutils

HDInsight Spark had no built-in utility framework equivalent to mssparkutils or dbutils. When migrating to Fabric, introduce notebookutils for common operations:

OperationOld HDInsight Approachnotebookutils Equivalent
List filesdbutils (N/A) / HDFS CLInotebookutils.fs.ls("abfss://...")
Copy fileHDFS API / shutilnotebookutils.fs.cp(src, dest)
Read secretAzure Key Vault REST callnotebookutils.credentials.getSecret(keyVaultUrl, secretName)
Get notebook contextNot availablenotebookutils.runtime.context — returns workspace ID, notebook ID, etc.
Run child notebookNot availablenotebookutils.notebook.run("notebook_name", timeout, {"param": "value"})
Exit notebook with valuesys.exit()notebookutils.notebook.exit("value")
Mount storageWASB config in spark-defaults.confOneLake Shortcut (no runtime mount needed)

Spark Configuration Differences

HDInsight ConceptFabric Spark EquivalentMigration Action
spark-defaults.conf (cluster-wide)Fabric Spark Workspace Settings + Environment itemMove config properties to Environment or use %%configure in notebooks
%%configure magic%%configure magic — identicalNo change needed
YARN queue / resource allocationFabric Spark pool node size and autoscale settingsMap queue SLAs to Custom Pool configuration
Ambari service configs (HDFS, YARN tuning)Not applicable — Fabric manages infrastructureRemove; focus on application-level Spark configs
HDI Spark version (e.g., Spark 2.4)Fabric Runtime 1.3 = Spark 3.5 (latest)Test for deprecated API removals (e.g., HiveContext, RDD-style ML)
Conda environment / bootstrap.shFabric Environment item with custom librariesRecreate conda/pip dependencies in a Fabric Environment
hive-site.xml (metastore connection)Not needed — Delta Lake IS the metastore in FabricRemove metastore config; use Lakehouse schemas for namespace organization

Must / Prefer / Avoid

MUST DO
  • Replace all wasb:// / wasbs:// paths with OneLake abfss:// paths or OneLake Shortcuts — wasb:// requires storage account keys which are not the Fabric-preferred auth model

  • Replace HiveContext, SQLContext, and standalone SparkContext() — use the pre-instantiated spark session in Fabric notebooks

  • Migrate Hive DDL (STORED AS ORC, LOCATION, TBLPROPERTIES) to Delta Lake DDL — see hive-to-delta.md

  • Introduce notebookutils for file system operations, secret retrieval, and child notebook orchestration where HDInsight used custom scripts or direct API calls

  • Replace Oozie XML workflows with Fabric Data Pipelines — see § Oozie → Fabric Pipelines

  • Align library management to Fabric Environments — remove bootstrap.sh, conda envs, and runtime %pip install patterns for production workloads

  • Treat hdfs:// as source-cluster-only — export or ingest into ADLS Gen2 or OneLake; do not claim that a gateway adds Kerberos support to Fabric's Anonymous-only HDFS connector

PREFER
  • OneLake Shortcuts over copying data — mount existing ADLS Gen2 containers as shortcuts to avoid re-ingestion during migration

  • Delta Lake for all tables migrated from Hive ORC/Parquet — ACID guarantees, time travel, and schema enforcement improve data quality

  • Fabric Starter Pool for initial migration validation — no pool configuration overhead, fast session startup

  • Lakehouse schemas (database namespaces) for organizing migrated Hive databases — one schema per Hive database within a single Lakehouse

  • Medallion architecture for restructuring migrated data layers during migration — align Bronze/Silver/Gold with raw Hive → validated Delta → serving Gold patterns

AVOID
  • Do not use SparkContext() or HiveContext() constructors in Fabric notebooks — they conflict with the pre-instantiated spark session and will raise errors

  • Do not use hive-site.xml or external Hive metastore configuration — Fabric's Delta Lake-backed Lakehouse IS the metastore

  • Do not assume YARN queue mappings translate to Fabric pools — re-design resource allocation based on Fabric Spark pool SLAs

  • Do not attempt to run Oozie shell actions or Java MapReduce jobs directly in Fabric — these must be refactored (see § Oozie → Fabric Pipelines)

  • Do not use %sh magic for file system operations in production notebooks — use notebookutils.fs.* for portability and OneLake token-based auth


Examples

See code-patterns.md for full before/after examples. Key quick references:

Legacy context → Fabric pre-instantiated session

# HDInsight (remove entirely)
from pyspark.sql import HiveContext
hc = HiveContext(sc)

# Fabric — use pre-instantiated spark directly
df = spark.sql("SELECT * FROM sales.fact_orders")

WASB path → OneLake path (after shortcut creation)

# HDInsight
df = spark.read.parquet("wasb://[email protected]/orders/")

# Fabric
df = spark.read.parquet("Files/raw/orders/")

Hive DDL → Delta DDL

-- HDInsight
CREATE TABLE sales_db.fact_orders (...) STORED AS ORC LOCATION 'wasb://...';

-- Fabric
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS sales_db;
CREATE TABLE sales_db.fact_orders (...) USING DELTA;

Files

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs Python, Needs Node.js

Security

What our scanner noticed· Low risk

  • Instructions that use the network

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

Attribution and licence

Published by
Microsoft
Publisher
Microsoft (Official)
Source
microsoft/skills-for-fabric · skills/hdinsight-migration · commit f8fac11
Licence
MIT License (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced
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microsoft/skills-for-fabric

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