Airflow: Neither SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI nor SQLALCHEMY_BINDS is set

Question

I've setup airflow 2.0 on my local mac, backed with PostgresSQL for sql_alchemy_conn. My DAG's are running fine + maintaining metadata in sqla database, but any airflow users command errors with roles table/views not created.

I've tried setting and resetting airflow resetdb, but these tables are still not available in sql_alchemy_conn DB.

psycopg2.ProgrammingError: relation "ab_permission_view_role" does not exist
LINE 2: FROM ab_permission_view_role JOIN ab_permission_view ON ab_p...

[2019-01-11 11:45:58,223] {__init__.py:51} INFO - Using executor SequentialExecutor
/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py:774: UserWarning: Neither SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI nor SQLALCHEMY_BINDS is set. Defaulting SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI to "sqlite:///:memory:".
  'Neither SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI nor SQLALCHEMY_BINDS is set. '
Please make sure to build the frontend in static/ directory and restart the server
[2019-01-11 11:45:58,450] {manager.py:525} WARNING - No user yet created, use fabmanager command to do it.
[2019-01-11 11:45:59,117] {__init__.py:286} INFO - Filling up the DagBag from /Users/deepaksaroha/airflow/dags
[2019-01-11 11:46:00,114] {security.py:435} INFO - Start syncing user roles.
[2019-01-11 11:46:00,149] {security.py:185} INFO - Initializing permissions for role:Viewer in the database.
[2019-01-11 11:46:00,274] {security.py:185} INFO - Initializing permissions for role:User in the database.
[2019-01-11 11:46:00,397] {security.py:185} INFO - Initializing permissions for role:Op in the database.
[2019-01-11 11:46:00,487] {security.py:344} INFO - Fetching a set of all permission, view_menu from FAB meta-table
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1193, in _execute_context
    context)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py", line 509, in do_execute
    cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
psycopg2.ProgrammingError: relation "ab_permission_view_role" does not exist
LINE 2: FROM ab_permission_view_role JOIN ab_permission_view ON ab_p...
             ^


The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/bin/airflow", line 32, in <module>
    args.func(args)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/utils/cli.py", line 74, in wrapper
    return f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/bin/cli.py", line 1353, in users
    appbuilder = cached_appbuilder()
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/www_rbac/app.py", line 214, in cached_appbuilder
    cached_app(config, testing)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/www_rbac/app.py", line 207, in cached_app
    app, _ = create_app(config, session, testing)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/www_rbac/app.py", line 167, in create_app
    security_manager.sync_roles()
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/www_rbac/security.py", line 443, in sync_roles
    self.create_custom_dag_permission_view()
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/airflow/www_rbac/security.py", line 391, in create_custom_dag_permission_view
    all_perm_views = set([role.permission_view_id for role in all_perm_view_by_user])
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/query.py", line 2995, in __iter__
    return self._execute_and_instances(context)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/query.py", line 3018, in _execute_and_instances
    result = conn.execute(querycontext.statement, self._params)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 948, in execute
    return meth(self, multiparams, params)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/sql/elements.py", line 269, in _execute_on_connection
    return connection._execute_clauseelement(self, multiparams, params)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1060, in _execute_clauseelement
    compiled_sql, distilled_params
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1200, in _execute_context
    context)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1413, in _handle_dbapi_exception
    exc_info
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/util/compat.py", line 265, in raise_from_cause
    reraise(type(exception), exception, tb=exc_tb, cause=cause)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/util/compat.py", line 248, in reraise
    raise value.with_traceback(tb)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1193, in _execute_context
    context)
  File "/Users/deepaksaroha/Desktop/apache_2.0/nb-atom-airflow/lib/python3.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py", line 509, in do_execute
    cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
sqlalchemy.exc.ProgrammingError: (psycopg2.ProgrammingError) relation "ab_permission_view_role" does not exist
LINE 2: FROM ab_permission_view_role JOIN ab_permission_view ON ab_p...
             ^
 [SQL: 'SELECT ab_permission_view_role.id AS ab_permission_view_role_id, ab_permission_view_role.permission_view_id AS ab_permission_view_role_permission_view_id, ab_permission_view_role.role_id AS ab_permission_view_role_role_id \nFROM ab_permission_view_role JOIN ab_permission_view ON ab_permission_view.id = ab_permission_view_role.permission_view_id JOIN ab_view_menu ON ab_view_menu.id = ab_permission_view.view_menu_id \nWHERE ab_permission_view_role.role_id = %(role_id_1)s AND ab_permission_view.view_menu_id != %(view_menu_id_1)s'] [parameters: {'role_id_1': 4, 'view_menu_id_1': 51}] (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/f405)

I'm expecting that these tables should be created somewhere at the backend. I want to automate creating users through a script using airflow users command, but with existing errors, God save me :)

Answer 1

I got this solution'ed. This happened because ab_* tables were not created at airflow initdb. All these tables are for Role-based-access-control – RBAC.

To have these tables, follow the instructions:

1. edit airflow.cfg

[webserver]
rbac = True

2. run airflow initdb to create these missing tables.

This solved my issue.