# Error in calling SparkBackend **URL:** \ **Category:** Hail Query & hailctl\ **Created:** [August 11, 2020, 7:59am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578 "2020-08-11T07:59:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dahaelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Dahaelee](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Dahaelee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 7:59am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578/1 "2020-08-11T07:59:24Z")
Hello, I’ve recently installed hail in Mac and tried to use it. But when I run : ``` import hail as hl hl.init() ``` I have an error message ``` Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling z:is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend.apply. : java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: requirement failed at scala.Predef$.require(Predef.scala:212) at is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend$.apply(SparkBackend.scala:191) at is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend.apply(SparkBackend.scala) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:567) at py4j.reflection.MethodInvoker.invoke(MethodInvoker.java:244) at py4j.reflection.ReflectionEngine.invoke(ReflectionEngine.java:357) at py4j.Gateway.invoke(Gateway.java:282) at py4j.commands.AbstractCommand.invokeMethod(AbstractCommand.java:132) at py4j.commands.CallCommand.execute(CallCommand.java:79) at py4j.GatewayConnection.run(GatewayConnection.java:238) at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:830) ``` I’ve already checked my python and java version, and I also have spark in recent version. ---
**Author:** ![tpoterba](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discuss.hail.is/tpoterba/32/61_2.png) [@tpoterba](https://discuss.hail.is/u/tpoterba)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578/2 "2020-08-11T11:29:53Z")
could you provide the Python stack trace as well, and the version you’re running? ---
**Author:** ![Dahaelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Dahaelee](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Dahaelee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 4:18am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578/3 "2020-08-12T04:18:04Z")
Dear tpoterba, This is the whole error message including traceback. ``` --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Py4JJavaError Traceback (most recent call last) in 1 import hail as hl ----> 2 hl.init(default_reference='GRCh38') in init(sc, app_name, master, local, log, quiet, append, min_block_size, branching_factor, tmp_dir, default_reference, idempotent, global_seed, spark_conf, skip_logging_configuration, local_tmpdir, _optimizer_iterations) ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/hail/typecheck/check.py in wrapper(__original_func, *args, **kwargs) 612 def wrapper(__original_func, *args, **kwargs): 613 args_, kwargs_ = check_all(__original_func, args, kwargs, checkers, is_method=is_method) --> 614 return __original_func(*args_, **kwargs_) 615 616 return wrapper ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/hail/context.py in init(sc, app_name, master, local, log, quiet, append, min_block_size, branching_factor, tmp_dir, default_reference, idempotent, global_seed, spark_conf, skip_logging_configuration, local_tmpdir, _optimizer_iterations) 229 idempotent, sc, spark_conf, app_name, master, local, log, 230 quiet, append, min_block_size, branching_factor, tmpdir, local_tmpdir, --> 231 skip_logging_configuration, optimizer_iterations) 232 233 HailContext( ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/hail/backend/spark_backend.py in __init__ (self, idempotent, sc, spark_conf, app_name, master, local, log, quiet, append, min_block_size, branching_factor, tmpdir, local_tmpdir, skip_logging_configuration, optimizer_iterations) 191 else: 192 self._jbackend = hail_package.backend.spark.SparkBackend.apply( --> 193 jsc, app_name, master, local, True, min_block_size, tmpdir, local_tmpdir) 194 self._jhc = hail_package.HailContext.apply( 195 self._jbackend, log, True, append, branching_factor, skip_logging_configuration, optimizer_iterations) ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py4j/java_gateway.py in __call__ (self, *args) 1255 answer = self.gateway_client.send_command(command) 1256 return_value = get_return_value( -> 1257 answer, self.gateway_client, self.target_id, self.name) 1258 1259 for temp_arg in temp_args: ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py4j/protocol.py in get_return_value(answer, gateway_client, target_id, name) 326 raise Py4JJavaError( 327 "An error occurred while calling {0}{1}{2}.\n". --> 328 format(target_id, ".", name), value) 329 else: 330 raise Py4JError( Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling z:is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend.apply. : java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: requirement failed at scala.Predef$.require(Predef.scala:212) at is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend$.apply(SparkBackend.scala:191) at is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend.apply(SparkBackend.scala) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:567) at py4j.reflection.MethodInvoker.invoke(MethodInvoker.java:244) at py4j.reflection.ReflectionEngine.invoke(ReflectionEngine.java:357) at py4j.Gateway.invoke(Gateway.java:282) at py4j.commands.AbstractCommand.invokeMethod(AbstractCommand.java:132) at py4j.commands.CallCommand.execute(CallCommand.java:79) at py4j.GatewayConnection.run(GatewayConnection.java:238) at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:830) ``` And this is my python version checked in terminal. ``` $ python --version Python 3.7.6 ``` ---
**Author:** ![tpoterba](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discuss.hail.is/tpoterba/32/61_2.png) [@tpoterba](https://discuss.hail.is/u/tpoterba)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578/4 "2020-08-12T20:22:55Z")
This is super weird, never seen this! Did you install Hail using `pip install hail`? ---
**Author:** ![tpoterba](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discuss.hail.is/tpoterba/32/61_2.png) [@tpoterba](https://discuss.hail.is/u/tpoterba)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578/5 "2020-08-12T20:23:05Z")
And what version are you running? (`pip show hail`) ---
**Author:** ![Dahaelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Dahaelee](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Dahaelee)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-in-calling-sparkbackend/1578/6 "2020-08-13T03:31:53Z")
Dear tpoterba, I’ve installed hail using `pip install hail`. Below is my version of hail. ``` $ pip show hail Name: hail Version: 0.2.54 Summary: Scalable library for exploring and analyzing genomic data. Home-page: https://hail.is Author: Hail Team Author-email: hail@broadinstitute.org License: UNKNOWN Location: /Users/dahaelee/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages Requires: hurry.filesize, asyncinit, bokeh, scipy, decorator, requests, pandas, tqdm, numpy, dill, humanize, parsimonious, PyJWT, aiohttp-session, python-json-logger, nest-asyncio, aiohttp, pyspark, gcsfs, tabulate, google-cloud-storage Required-by: ```