Migrate EMR clusters and applications from EMR 5.0–5.35 (Amazon Linux 1) to EMR 7.x (Amazon Linux 2023). Use when a customer needs to upgrade EMR clusters off AL1 as part of the AL1 deprecation, upgrade Spark application code (Python/Scala/Java) using the SageMaker Unified Studio Spark Upgrade Agent MCP server, migrate Hive 2.3→3.1 scripts, convert Presto queries to Trino, adapt MapReduce jobs for Hadoop 3, update Flink deployment mode and memory model, convert Pig scripts to PySpark, migrate Zeppelin notebooks for EMR 7.x compatibility, adapt bootstrap actions for AL2023 compatibility, resolve Java 8-to-17 issues, or troubleshoot Hadoop 2-to-3 breaking changes on EMR. Covers EC2-based EMR clusters only (not EMR on EKS or EMR Serverless).
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Migrate EMR clusters and applications from EMR 5.0–5.35 (Amazon Linux 1) to EMR 7.x (Amazon Linux 2023). Use when a customer needs to upgrade EMR clusters off AL1 as part of the AL1 deprecation, upgrade Spark application code (Python/Scala/Java) using the SageMaker Unified Studio Spark Upgrade Agent MCP server, migrate Hive 2.3→3.1 scripts, convert Presto queries to Trino, adapt MapReduce jobs for Hadoop 3, update Flink deployment mode and memory model, convert Pig scripts to PySpark, migrate Zeppelin notebooks for EMR 7.x compatibility, adapt bootstrap actions for AL2023 compatibility, resolve Java 8-to-17 issues, or troubleshoot Hadoop 2-to-3 breaking changes on EMR. Covers EC2-based EMR clusters only (not EMR on EKS or EMR Serverless).
Migrate an EMR cluster configuration and its applications from EMR 5.0–5.35 (Amazon Linux 1) to EMR 7.x (Amazon Linux 2023). This skill handles the entire process end-to-end: cluster config adaptation, application code upgrades (Spark, Hive, Presto→Trino, MapReduce, Flink, Pig→PySpark, Zeppelin notebooks), test cluster launch, validation, and iterative fix loops. The original cluster is never modified; all work happens on a new test cluster.
Important version boundaries:
EMR 5.0–5.35 → Amazon Linux 1 (AL1) — this skill's scope
EMR 5.36–5.37 → Amazon Linux 2 (AL2) — different migration path (no AL1 bootstrap issues)
EMR 6.x → Amazon Linux 2 (AL2) — different migration path
Only one parameter is required from the user. Everything else is auto-discovered or uses sensible defaults.
Required (user must provide):
Parameter
Description
CLUSTER_ID
Source EMR cluster ID (j-XXXXXXXXXXXXX)
Auto-discovered (skill determines these — no user input needed):
Parameter
How the skill infers it
REGION
Uses aws configure get region or AWS_DEFAULT_REGION. If user provides it, use that. If describe-cluster fails, ask user.
AWS_PROFILE
Uses current active credentials (aws sts get-caller-identity). If it fails, ask user.
TARGET_RELEASE
Defaults to emr-7.1.0. Override only if user specifies a different EMR 7.x release.
STAGING_BUCKET
Creates s3://emr-migration-staging-{account_id}-{region} automatically. Uses cluster's log bucket if available.
DRY_RUN
Default: false. Set to true only if user explicitly asks for config-only output.
VALIDATE_ONLY
Default: false. Set to true only if user provides an existing target cluster and asks to skip migration steps.
RETRY_AZ
Default: true. Automatically retries in a different AZ on infra failures.
Conditionally required (only ask if the workload is detected):
Parameter
When to ask
SPARK_APP_PATH
Only if user wants Spark application source code upgraded (not just cluster config). Ask: "Do you have a local Spark project to upgrade?"
PIG_SCRIPT_PATH
Only if Pig detected. Ask: "Where are your Pig script files? (local path or S3 path)"
ZEPPELIN_NOTEBOOKS_PATH
Only if Zeppelin detected. Try to export automatically via Zeppelin REST API first; ask only if API is unreachable.
Prerequisites
The user MUST have:
AWS CLI v2 configured with credentials that have the permissions listed in references/iam-permissions.md
A VPC/subnet where EMR clusters can launch
An S3 bucket for adapted scripts (or reuse the cluster's existing log bucket)
Source cluster state detection: Before beginning migration, auto-detect whether the source cluster is still running (WAITING/RUNNING) or terminated. If terminated:
Skip live cluster inspection steps
Use the cluster's saved configuration from describe-cluster
Warn the user that data validation against source is not possible
For Spark application upgrades (optional):
The SageMaker Unified Studio Spark Upgrade Agent MCP server configured (see references/spark-upgrade-agent-guide.md)
Python 3.9+ installed locally (for pyupgrade)
For Pig script conversion (optional):
Pig .pig files accessible (in S3, local path, or referenced in EMR step definitions)
For Zeppelin notebook migration (optional):
Source cluster Zeppelin accessible (port 8890) for auto-export, OR pre-exported notebook JSON files
Reference Loading Map
Load reference files ONLY when the corresponding workload is detected:
No migrated artifact is presented to the customer until it has been executed on the target cluster and validated.
Component
Validation before confirming to customer
Spark 3.0+
Spark Upgrade Agent runs it on target + DQ comparison passes
Spark 2.4
Spark Upgrade Agent runs it on target, exit 0
Spark 2.0–2.2
Submit to target cluster as EMR step, exit 0
Hive
Submit migrated HQL to target as Hive step, exit 0 + DESCRIBE + COUNT(*) on output tables
Presto→Trino
Submit migrated SQL via trino-cli on target, exit 0
Pig→PySpark
Submit converted PySpark to target, exit 0 + compare output where it naturally lands
Flink
Submit migrated JAR to target in application mode, exit 0
MapReduce
Submit migrated JAR/script to target, exit 0
Bootstrap
Target cluster reaches WAITING state
Zeppelin
Execute paragraphs on target Zeppelin via REST API, no ERROR status
Bootstrap testing note: Real bootstrap actions run as root during cluster creation. EMR steps run as hadoop. The correct validation for bootstrap scripts is that the target cluster reaches WAITING state — not submitting the script as a step.
If validation fails → enter fix loop (or Spark Upgrade Agent iteration) → re-validate → only confirm after pass.
Verify source is AL1: Check ReleaseLabel. If emr-5.36.0 or later, HALT — this cluster is already on AL2, not AL1. Inform user this skill targets EMR 5.0–5.35 only.
Extract installed applications, configurations, bootstrap actions, and step definitions.
Download all referenced bootstrap scripts and custom JARs from S3.
IMDSv2 is enforced on EMR 7.5 — any curl http://169.254.169.254/... calls (IMDSv1) will return HTTP 401. Replace with token-based IMDSv2 (see references/configuration-transforms.md section 4.6)
Scan ALL bootstrap scripts for patterns: curl.*169.254.169.254, wget.*169.254.169.254, ec2-metadata (deprecated CLI)
Security: verify Kerberos config, Lake Formation integration, security groups
Instance types: validate availability; suggest current-gen replacements if deprecated
Java 8→17, Log4j, EMRFS: Apply remaining transforms from references/configuration-transforms.md (package renames, Log4j2 format, EMRFS Consistent View removal on all 7.x, full EMRFS removal on 7.10+ only)
Upload adapted bootstrap scripts to S3 with -emr7-migrated suffix.
Stage 3 — Upgrade Applications
Backward Compatibility Note: EMR 7.5 has strong backward compatibility — registerTempTable(), unionAll(), SQLContext, implicit type casting, and basic Hive DDL still work without modification. The skill still applies all modernizations since the goal is a fully updated codebase, but distinguishes critical breaks (Pig, Presto CLI, Python 2, IMDSv1, Hive ACID ORC, Zeppelin %pig/%sh) from future-proofing (deprecated aliases that still work).
Create a working copy: Copy SPARK_APP_PATH to -emr7-migrated suffix. Original is never modified.
Fix Python 2 syntax-breaking patterns first — print "x" → print("x"), except Exception, e: → except Exception as e:. Then run pyupgrade --py3-plus on all .py files. Finally, apply Spark API changes referencing the Spark SQL Migration Guide.
The Spark Upgrade Agent MCP handles all Spark code and dependency upgrades for Spark 2.4+. See references/spark-upgrade-agent-guide.md for the complete invocation guide (prompt template, version format requirements, post-upgrade result retrieval, two-hop model).
Key points:
Use EMR release versions (e.g., 5.33.0, 7.1.0), NOT Spark versions
Let it iterate to completion (up to 40 tool calls) — do NOT pause or interrupt
For Spark 2.4: exit-code validation only (no data quality comparison)
For Spark 3.0+: full data quality comparison is automatic
When the Spark Upgrade Agent MCP server is NOT connected, copy the SPARK_APP_PATH to a new directory with -emr7-migrated suffix, then apply fixes directly using references/failures/spark.md:
Fix Python 2 syntax-breaking patterns first, then run pyupgrade --py3-plus
For clusters with Hive workloads, adapt HQL scripts and queries for Hive 3.1:
Inventory Hive assets: List all .hql files in S3 step definitions, scheduled queries, and DDL scripts.
Apply Hive 2.3→3.1 fixes (run-fail-fix loop per script, max 5 iterations):
Convert managed tables to EXTERNAL: ALTER TABLE t SET TBLPROPERTIES('EXTERNAL'='TRUE', 'external.table.purge'='true');
Quote reserved keywords with backticks: date, time, timestamp, interval, user, role
Add explicit CAST() for implicit conversions Hive 3 rejects
Remove SET hive.execution.engine=mr; and invalid properties (hive.create.as.acid, hive.create.as.insert.only, hive.strict.managed.tables)
Metastore: Glue Catalog → no action. External HMS → schematool -upgradeSchema
On failure: classify against references/failures/hive.md
ACID Table Data Migration (Critical) — Hive 2.x ACID delta files are incompatible with Hive 3.x. Load references/failures/hive.md category HIVE2_ACID_DELTA_FORMAT_INCOMPATIBLE for the full fix procedure. Key points:
Major compaction is NOT sufficient (validated in E2E testing)
Export to non-ACID EXTERNAL table is the ONLY reliable fix
If source cluster is terminated, launch a temporary EMR 5.x cluster for export
Non-ACID tables work fine without any action
Upload adapted scripts to S3 with -hive3-migrated suffix.
Validate each script on test cluster. Submit as EMR steps per the Validation Rule above.
On failure: fetch logs, classify against references/failures/hive.md, apply fix, resubmit.
Stage 3C — Presto → Trino Migration
EMR 7.x replaces Presto with Trino (complete rebrand). Use sqlglot.transpile(sql, read="presto", write="trino") for SQL changes. For non-SQL changes apply these renames:
Presto
Trino
presto-cli
trino-cli
com.facebook.presto.jdbc.PrestoDriver
io.trino.jdbc.TrinoDriver
jdbc:presto://host:port/catalog
jdbc:trino://host:port/catalog
presto-connector-* classification
trino-connector-* classification
presto-config classification
trino-config classification
connector.name=hive-hadoop2
connector.name=hive
SQL semantics: current_timestamp now returns timestamp with time zone; json_extract returns JSON type (use json_extract_scalar to get unwrapped string values). Remove presto. prefix from session properties.
Upload with -trino-migrated suffix. Validate on test cluster. On failure: classify against references/failures/infrastructure.md (PRESTO_TO_TRINO_RENAME, TRINO_SQL_CHANGES).
Stage 3D — MapReduce Application Migration
Apply Hadoop 2→3 fixes from references/failures/hadoop-mr.md. Key: recompile JARs for Hadoop 3.3, s3n://→s3://, /usr/lib/hadoop/lib/→/usr/lib/hadoop/share/hadoop/common/lib/, Python 3 shebangs for streaming jobs. Upload with -hadoop3-migrated suffix. Validate by submitting as EMR step. On failure: classify against references/failures/hadoop-mr.md.
Recommended path: Convert MR jobs to Spark for long-term supportability. MR works on EMR 7.x but receives no performance improvements.
Stage 3E — Flink Application Migration
Apply Flink fixes from references/failures/flink.md. Key: -m yarn-cluster → flink run-application -t yarn-application, taskmanager.heap.mb → taskmanager.memory.process.size, state.backend → state.backend.type. Update connector JARs to match Flink 1.18. Add --add-opens JVM flags if needed. Upload with -flink18-migrated suffix. Validate by submitting as EMR step. On failure: classify against references/failures/flink.md.
Pig 0.17.0 is still installable on EMR 7.x but is functionally broken for non-trivial scripts due to a Java 17 serialization incompatibility. Converting Pig workloads to PySpark is required. The agent handles this conversion directly using references/pig-to-spark-mapping.md as guidance.
CRITICAL: Pig 0.17.0 on EMR 7.x crashes with java.io.IOException: Deserialization error: Cannot invoke "org.apache.pig.impl.plan.OperatorKey.hashCode()" on any operation requiring data exchange between Tez vertices. There is no fix — the only migration path is converting to PySpark.
Conversion process (agent applies using references/pig-to-spark-mapping.md):
Inventory Pig assets: List all .pig files referenced in EMR steps or Airflow DAGs.
Convert each Pig script to PySpark using references/pig-to-spark-mapping.md as the complete operator mapping reference. Key conversions: LOAD→spark.read, FILTER→.filter(), GROUP BY→.groupBy().agg(), JOIN→.join(), ORDER BY→.orderBy(), STORE→.write().
Validate each converted PySpark job. Submit as EMR steps per the Validation Rule above.
On failure: classify against references/failures/pig.md (PIG_UDF_UNMAPPED, PIG_SCHEMA_MISMATCH, PIG_COGROUP_COMPLEX, PIG_NESTED_FOREACH), apply fix, resubmit.
Key limitations:
Custom Pig UDFs written in Java require manual PySpark UDF re-implementation
Pig scripts using STREAM operator need manual conversion
Nested FOREACH with complex bag operations may require manual review
Stage 3G — Zeppelin Notebook Migration
Zeppelin notebooks on EMR 5.x may use deprecated interpreters, Spark 2.x APIs, Python 2 syntax, and Pig/Hive interpreters that behave differently on EMR 7.x.
Inventory Zeppelin notebooks: Export all notebooks from the source cluster's Zeppelin instance (port 8890) or retrieve from S3 notebook storage.
Classify each notebook paragraph by interpreter:
%spark / %pyspark → Spark interpreter (needs API upgrades)
%pig → removed in EMR 7.x — must convert to %pyspark
%sh → fully removed in EMR 7.x — must convert to %python with subprocess
%md / %angular → no changes needed
Apply interpreter-specific migrations using references/zeppelin-interpreter-migration.md:
%pyspark: Spark 2.x→3.5 API upgrades + Python 2→3
%pig → %pyspark: Full Pig-to-PySpark conversion (Stage 3F rules)
%hive: Hive 3.1 syntax fixes (Stage 3B rules)
%sh → %python: Convert to subprocess calls
Update Zeppelin configuration in notebook metadata: remove Pig interpreter binding, set PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3.
Upload adapted notebooks to target Zeppelin (REST API or S3 storage path).
Validate by executing key paragraphs on the test cluster's Zeppelin instance.
On failure: classify against references/zeppelin-interpreter-migration.md (Failure Categories section), apply fix, re-upload.
Stage 4 — Launch Test Cluster (skip if DRY_RUN or VALIDATE_ONLY)
VALIDATE_ONLY mode: If VALIDATE_ONLY=true and an existing target cluster ID is provided, skip this stage entirely and proceed to Stage 5 with the provided cluster.
Use minimum viable size: 1 primary (m5.xlarge) + 1 core (m5.xlarge). The skill terminates the cluster in Stage 7 after validation completes.
Poll until WAITING or terminal state. On bootstrap failure or provisioning timeout: fetch logs, classify against references/failures/infrastructure.md (APP_PROVISIONING_TIMEOUT, NO_PROXY_REGIONAL_S3_MISMATCH, PRIVATE_SUBNET_CONNECTIVITY, EMR7_RPM_REPO_MISSING, SPARK_CLASSPATH_POISON). Apply fix and relaunch.
Auto-retry in different AZ (when RETRY_AZ=true, default):
If the cluster fails with infrastructure-related errors, select a subnet in a different AZ and relaunch. If the second attempt also fails: halt and report. If the failure is EMR7_RPM_REPO_MISSING: try a newer EMR release label instead.
Stage 5 — Validate Workloads
Submit as EMR steps per the Validation Rule above. For each detected application type, submit the migrated artifact and verify success:
The original S3 objects and local files remain untouched. If a migration is re-run, the -migrated artifacts are overwritten (idempotent), but originals are never affected.
