Get and set Apache Spark configuration properties in a notebook

In most cases, you set the Spark configuration at the cluster level. However, there may be instances when you need to check (or set) the values of specific Spark configuration properties in a notebook.

This article shows you how to display the current value of a Spark configuration property in a notebook. It also shows you how to set a new value for a Spark configuration property in a notebook.

Get Spark configuration properties

To get the current value of a Spark configuration property, evaluate the property without including a value.

Python

spark.conf.get("spark.<name-of-property>")

R

library(SparkR)
sparkR.conf("spark.<name-of-property>")

Scala

spark.conf.get("spark.<name-of-property>")

SQL

GET spark.<name-of-property>;

Set Spark configuration properties

To set the value of a Spark configuration property, evaluate the property and assign a value.

Note

You can only set Spark configuration properties that start with the spark.sql prefix.

Python

spark.conf.set("spark.sql.<name-of-property>", <value>)

R

library(SparkR)
sparkR.session()
sparkR.session(sparkConfig = list(spark.sql.<name-of-property> = "<value>"))

Scala

spark.conf.set("spark.sql.<name-of-property>", <value>)

SQL

SET spark.sql.<name-of-property> = <value>;

Examples

Get the current value of spark.rpc.message.maxSize.

SET spark.rpc.message.maxSize;

Set the value of spark.sql.autoBroadcastJoinThreshold to -1.

spark.conf.set("spark.sql.autoBroadcastJoinThreshold", -1)