How to solve error "sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError: (sqlite3.OperationalError) no such table: session" when running Airflow

Question

I've installed Apache Airflow version 2.2.4 on my system Ubuntu 20.0.4 LTS and I'm using these steps

• export AIRFLOW_HOME=~/airflow
• pip3 install apache-airflow
• airflow db init
• airflow users create --username admin --firstname XXXX --lastname XXX --role Admin --email XXX@gmail.com

When I'm running my server using this command

• airflow webserver -p 8080

I've got an error saying

sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError: (sqlite3.OperationalError) no such table: session

How can I solve this error?

Answer 1

I had the same error message. I made the mistake and naively installed airflow through pip.

I fixed the issue by deleting the directory AIRFLOW_HOME points to and reinstalling airflow through pip with a constraint. Then I initiated the automated airflow setup with the airflow standalone command.

Answer 2

For me the issue was that I have set the AIRFLOW_HOME on one tab of my terminal, but on the other tab (from where I was running the webserver) I forgot to set it. So the solution is to do the following in ALL TERMINAL TABS that you're using for Airflow:

1. Activate the virtual environment where your Airflow is installed

   source your_airflow_venv/bin/activate
   

2. Navigate to the directory where your Airflow project is

   cd /path_to_your_airflow_dir
   

3. Update your AIRFLOW_HOME environment variable

   export AIRFLOW_HOME=$(pwd)
   

4. Initialize the Airflow database

   airflow db init
   

5. Start the Airflow Web Server or the Airflow Scheduler (depending on which terminal tab you currently are)

   airflow scheduler
   airflow webserver
   

Answer 3

Before running webserver using command airflow webserver, make sure to set AIRFLOW_HOME using below command:

 export AIRFLOW_HOME="your_airflow_directory"