PXF export to Parquet fails with error: "Type 1270983324 for column [column_name] is not supported"

Products

• VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence
• VMware Tanzu Greenplum
• VMware Tanzu Greenplum / Gemfire

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to insert data into a writable external table using the pxf:parquet profile, the operation fails with a PXF server error. This typically occurs when the source table contains a timestamp9 (nanosecond precision) data type which the PXF Parquet writer cannot currently process.

Symptoms: The following error is observed in the GPDB console or PXF logs: 

ERROR: PXF server error : Type 1270983324 for column [column_name] is not supported for writing Parquet. (seg90 10.x.x.145:16728 pid=737391)

Cause

The PXF Parquet serialization logic does not currently have a mapping or support for the internal type ID 1270983324 (representing timestamp9).

Because the Parquet format requires specific schema definitions for each column type, PXF terminates the write operation when it encounters a type it cannot map to a valid Parquet logical type.

Resolution

This is a known product limitation. A feature request has been submitted to the engineering team to include support for this data type in a future release.

Workaround: If immediate export is required, consider one of the following:

• Cast the timestamp9 column to a standard timestamp (microsecond precision) or text within the INSERT statement.
• Use a different PXF profile or file format (such as pxf:text or pxf:csv) that supports the high-precision timestamp.