# Error: is.hail.backend.spark.SparkBackend

**URL:** https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966
**Category:** Hail Query & hailctl
**Created:** [October 13, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966 "2024-10-13T14:20:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Seayy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Seayy](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Seayy)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966/1 "2024-10-13T14:20:59Z")

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Hello, I am a new learner of Hail. Recently I was using Hail in the jupyterlab\_spark\_cluster to perform genotype QC of VCF files. However, it always showed failing in the hl.init() command.The error message is as follows. I would appreciate it if you could kindly give me some assistance.

 ![3c942fc3e4f14568bd7fb8e2968d683](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/hail/original/2X/f/ffe6acfe80a235afe03d51a3fab6616d9951be1f.jpeg)

Every step is followed the official notebook. I really don’t know how to solve it

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### Author: ![Trisha\_Karani](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discuss.hail.is/trisha_karani/32/1188_2.png) [@Trisha\_Karani](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Trisha_Karani)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2024, 3:13am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966/2 "2024-10-17T03:13:21Z")

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> [@Seayy](#):
>
> in the hl.init() comman

Hey, I was having a similar issue, which I think originated from my installation not being completely set up correctly. Did you follow the instructions [here](https://hail.is/docs/0.2/install/macosx.html)? You will need to install JDK 11 and ensure the path for that is set up on your machine.  
You don’t need to import or set up Spark separately in your Python notebook. It is configured as the backend for Hail.

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### Author: ![Seayy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Seayy](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Seayy)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2024, 3:47am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966/3 "2024-10-17T03:47:03Z")

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Thank you! I will try it again!

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### Author: ![Trisha\_Karani](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discuss.hail.is/trisha_karani/32/1188_2.png) [@Trisha\_Karani](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Trisha_Karani)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2024, 4:05am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966/4 "2024-10-17T04:05:06Z")

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For the path, I had to add this path  
`export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-11.jdk/Contents/Home/"`  
to my .zprofile file, but it could be a different path for you.

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### Author: ![Seayy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Seayy](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Seayy)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2024, 8:34am UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/error-is-hail-backend-spark-sparkbackend/3966/5 "2024-10-17T08:34:56Z")

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Great kindly! I use pwd and find the proper path. Now I can run my code successfully!